Labyrinth of Happiness
By Dr Arvind Kumar
Leo Tolstoy, in his great work Anna Karenina says, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” The notion of happiness, which once adorned the works of the novelists and philosophers, is now hecticly sought after by the politicians, economists and psychologists who think it can be distilled into a “science” and translated into pro-happiness policies. It has become a buzzword with almost all govrnments of the day who swear by it to allure the voters without making them ‘happy.’ The World Happiness Report, released recently, reflects a new worldwide demand for more attention to happiness and absence of misery as criteria for government policy. It reviews the state of happiness in the world today and shows how the new science of happiness explains personal and national variations in happiness.
According to the report, the happiest countries in the world are all in Northern Europe (Denmark, Norway, Finland, Netherlands), and the least happy countries are all poor countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Togo, Benin, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone). The findings of the report indicate that it is not just wealth that makes people happy: Political freedom, strong social networks and an absence of corruption are together more important than income in explaining well-being differences between the top and bottom countries. At the individual level, good mental and physical health, someone to count on, job security and stable families are crucial. However, governments can often mitigate sources of unhappiness (starvation, unemployment, disease), but happiness is more than the absence of misery. If we could manufacture happiness, we could repeal the ‘human condition.’ Creating universal happiness is an impossible goal and fraught with contradictions abound. The pursuit of happiness may be a ‘right,’ but the achievement of happiness is not an entitlement.
