Hello Fellow Hedonists,
Check out this interview from The Wall Street Journal with Jigmi Thinley, Bhutan's first elected prime minister. He talks a bit about Gross National Happiness:
Mr. Thinley will continue to implement the government policy of GNH. Happiness is not hedonistic, "it is not the kind of fleeting pleasures that we seek." It has to do with "being able to balance material needs of the body and the spiritual needs of the mind."
He says the conditions for the pursuit of happiness have four pillars: Equitable and sustainable socioeconomic growth; conservation of the fragile Himalayan economy and environment; cultural preservation and promotion -- and good governance.
Interesting read, but I wonder if the four pillars make people happy, or if Mr. Thinley has decided the four pillars are good and should make Bhutan happy. I suspect, for instance, that sustainable growth has a negligible effect on the current happiness of the Bhutanese because of the availability heuristic: almost nobody is drastically, directly or immediately effected by the consequences of unsustainable development. I also suspect that conservation has a negligible effect on the subjective well-being of the Bhutanese because of adaptation effects: people tend to adapt to bad conditions (such as smog) if they increase gradually, over a long period of time. I doubt the four pillars are the result of rigorous empirical testing, but I imagine you could link them all to subjective well-being in a roundabout way.
Excelsior!
C.L.Sosis
Comments