Gross National Happiness
baraka
Posts: 1,268
I ran across this and found it very interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_national_happiness
Snip from Wikipedia: "Gross National Happiness (GNH) is an attempt to define quality of life in more holistic and psychological terms than Gross National Product.
The term was coined by Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972. It signalled his commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. Like many worthy moral goals it is somewhat easier to state than to achieve, nonetheless, it serves as a unifying vision for the Five Year planning process and all the derived planning documents that guide the economic and development plans to the country.
While conventional development models stress economic growth as the ultimate objective, the concept of GNH is based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance."
Some questions came to mind:
What do you consider to be the necessary and sufficient conditions for happiness (either individual or national)?
Is the definition and measurement of happiness (either individual or national) a feasible objective?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_national_happiness
Snip from Wikipedia: "Gross National Happiness (GNH) is an attempt to define quality of life in more holistic and psychological terms than Gross National Product.
The term was coined by Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972. It signalled his commitment to building an economy that would serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. Like many worthy moral goals it is somewhat easier to state than to achieve, nonetheless, it serves as a unifying vision for the Five Year planning process and all the derived planning documents that guide the economic and development plans to the country.
While conventional development models stress economic growth as the ultimate objective, the concept of GNH is based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance."
Some questions came to mind:
What do you consider to be the necessary and sufficient conditions for happiness (either individual or national)?
Is the definition and measurement of happiness (either individual or national) a feasible objective?
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance,
but the illusion of knowledge.
~Daniel Boorstin
Only a life lived for others is worth living.
~Albert Einstein
but the illusion of knowledge.
~Daniel Boorstin
Only a life lived for others is worth living.
~Albert Einstein
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—Dorothy Parker
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/6902/conspiracytheoriesxt6qt8.jpg
As to whether its attainable, well, its good to have goals.
www.myspace.com/jensvad
but the illusion of knowledge.
~Daniel Boorstin
Only a life lived for others is worth living.
~Albert Einstein
Money = happiness, end of story.
money and happiness don't actually correlate. it's been studied and studied...and no, i have no links/quotes to back it up, just memory here....but overall it's been researched that rich or poor, feelings of contentment/happiness....not related to monetary values alone. so the old 'money can't buy you happiness' seems entirely true. does it make life easier, less worrisome? perhaps.....but that alone does not equate happiness.
the best part imho:
"the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance."
and...i think happiness is such a personal issue, although i agree...peace of mind is a biggie, and feeling a *part* of something, your family, community, society at large...different things to different people, but simply, feeling valued to some degree....*you matter*.....
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
Answer to Question #1: Obama
Answer to Question #2: Yes
The opportunity to thrive and excel.
Neither the definition nor measurement of happiness (either individually or nationally) is possible to agree on, therefor likely impossible to acheive.
As highlighted by this board, things that might make me happy, make others gag. Things that might make others happy would frustrate me. Since most couldn't agree on an individual basis, nationally doesn't seem even remotely possible.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2171679.ece
To scientists, he is the world's happiest man. His level of mind control is astonishing and the upbeat impulses in his brain are off the scale.
Now Matthieu Ricard, 60, a French academic-turned-Buddhist monk, is to share his secrets to make the world a happier place. The trick, he reckons, is to put some effort into it. In essence, happiness is a "skill" to be learned.
His advice could not be more timely as tomorrow Britain will reach what, according to a scientific formula, is the most miserable day of the year. Tattered new year resolutions, the faded buzz of Christmas, debt, a lack of motivation and the winter weather conspire to create a peak of misery and gloom.
But studies have shown that the mind can rise above it all to increase almost everyone's happiness. Mr Ricard, who is the French interpreter for Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, took part in trials to show that brain training in the form of meditation can cause an overwhelming change in levels of happiness.
MRI scans showed that he and other long-term meditators - who had completed more than 10,000 hours each - experienced a huge level of "positive emotions" in the left pre-frontal cortex of the brain, which is associated with happiness. The right-hand side, which handles negative thoughts, is suppressed.
Further studies have shown that even novices who have done only a little meditation have increased levels of happiness. But Mr Ricard's abilities were head and shoulders above the others involved in the trials.
"The mind is malleable," Mr Ricard told The Independent on Sunday yesterday. "Our life can be greatly transformed by even a minimal change in how we manage our thoughts and perceive and interpret the world. Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time."
Mr Ricard was brought up among Paris's intellectual elite in the 1960s, but after working for a PhD in biochemsitry he abandoned his distinguished academic career to study Tibetan Buddhism in the Himalayas.
A book of philosophical conversations he conducted with his father Jean-François Revel, The Monk and the Philosopher, became an unlikely publishing phenomenon when it came out in France in the late 1990s.
Mr Ricard is to publish his book Happiness for the first time in the UK next month.
but the illusion of knowledge.
~Daniel Boorstin
Only a life lived for others is worth living.
~Albert Einstein
I agree with the above article that it is a skill of sorts. Or rather, it is an addiction. All of what happens in the brain is malleable to some degree. All emotions and behaviors and so on are addictions of sorts. The neurotransmitters behave in the same fashion as drugs. It is too easy in today's world to get hooked on hatred, shame, self-pity and disgust. Happiness is rare because the negative stimuli of modern culture are overwhelming.
However, studies reveal that a man who becomes disabled can be happier than a man who wins a million bucks... ten years down the road. The brain creates happiness, not money or fame or nice cars, not even love. All those things do is stimulate the 5 senses which trigger temporary happiness in the brain, something the brain can do without the 5 senses. But to attain a constant state of happiness is again something different. Physically stimulated happiness invokes a need for greater and greater stimulation. A Mazda 3 isn't going to make a person happy if they own a Porsche Carrera. A constant state of happiness may be difficult, but it would definitely be achieved through practice.
I don't agree with this at all. The western world is extremely rich in term of GDP... but yet there is an epidemic of depression. People are less happy now than they've ever been, and we're richer than we've ever been at the same time. This isn't my opinion, this is generally regarded as fact among psychological community.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that money equals depression. I don't think that they are necessarily even correlated.
But I do think that a CONSUMER CULTURE can lead to unhappiness and depression. People are only worried about what they have, what they want, how much of a monthly payment they can afford, how much debt they can take on for that new 62" Plasma TV. ---- This leads to an empty and unfulfilled life. But these are the things that drive our economy and the more consumerism that takes place, the higher the GDP... So I think that GDH, in its most basic premise, is an excellent idea. However it does have lots of questions to be answered. Most importantly -- who defines what happiness is?
Thanks for that, Baraka.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
-Oscar Wilde