Neglecting Social Issues whilst in Pursuit of Happiness.
By Eric Dodd, Convener CTN Social Issues. 4 April 2008.
A jealous person is doubly unhappy-over what he has, which is judged inferior, and over what he has not, which is judged superior. Such a person is doubly removed from knowing the true blessing of creation.
Desmond Tutu. An African Prayer Book.
The achievement of happiness seems to have been a topic of discussion that has occupied the media lately and a number of articles have recently appeared in our newspapers. The acquisition of wealth has been a particular topic of debate in respect of achieving this personal happy state of existence. This phenomena of happiness seems to grip the Western World and in the middle of last year, in Sydney, 3500 industry leaders, psychologists, company managers, consultants and personal development experts attended a four-day conference on happiness and its causes. Recently in the journal of Social Science and Medicine it was also reported that it has taken 35 years worth of data and two million people from 80 nations before the researches from Dartmouth College and the University of Warwick reached the conclusion that our level of happiness declines during mid-life. This apparently can translate to deepening levels of depression at around the age of 40 for women and 50 for men. It happens to everyone, the researches claim, not only those who have had to deal with loss or trauma. This being the case, one is tempted to speculate that the $NZ 4 billion per year market for antidepressant drug consumption worldwide (albeit that their efficacy is now being questioned) is to some extent brought about by this tendency to a high level of unhappiness in middle age.
The good news however, said one of the authors of this recent study, is that we do get over it and by the time that we reach 70, if we are still physically fit, then on average we are as happy as a 20-year old. The researches have claimed that during this mid life crisis situation, people have not learned to count their blessings as they might otherwise do when they get older or more likely they have not figured out that while they’ve been looking for happiness through career recognition, money, status and pleasure seeking activities, this is not where true happiness lies.
Currently in this country, such people when striving for these false levels of achievement, at the exclusion of everything else, may also be forced to forgo any possibility of happiness and adopt the mantle of doom and gloom when confronted with such things as the latest National Bank predictions about the state of the economy. In the news this past week, business confidence has apparently taken a nose dive and 30% of firms expect their own activity to fall over the coming year while only 24% expect it to increase. The conclusion drawn is that the net 6% pessimism is the worst since the recession year of 1991. When combined with the credit crunch, given our reliance on overseas funding, the resultant housing market slowdown, and the severe drought conditions in Waikato and Central Hawkes Bay, the impression might be gained that the country is being conditioned to accept a bad bout of depression and hence a very unhappy outlook.
Those who reach out for happiness are forever unsatisfied; the more they strive, the less they find. Jealousy of others and their achievements is often a precursor for their deep dissatisfaction with life and their level of unhappiness. Despite therefore the apparent inevitability of enduring a mid-life crisis, self-awareness would seem to be the key to avoiding this pitfall. Happiness is a by-product, it is not something you find, but something that finds you. During World War 2 and particularly during the early years of the war, ordinary people living in Britain faced a formidable foe, food shortages and other severe restrictions, yet were able to go about their daily wartime activities with a smile and a courageous display of outward appearance that was synonymous with a measure of happiness. This could only be put down to be a byproduct of having a real common purpose to their lives. Mrs Mopp (Dorothy Summers), a tough, vital, indomitable cockney char lady character in the Tommy Handley comedy show Itma (It’s That Man Again), a wartime phenomena on the wireless (or radio as it later became known), typified the symbol of the enduring spirit of Britain at the time of London’s great trial by speaking those inimitable words in her dreary monotonous acting voice, “It’s being so cheerful as keeps me going.” Incidentally the script writer for this immensely popular broadcast; (listened to by some 12 million people every week in Britain and even enjoyed by Dutch families in occupied Holland, who whilst not necessarily being able to speak English, just wanted to hear people laugh), was a New Zealander, Ted Kavanagh.
One ancient secret of happiness that is particularly important to modern happiness research was revealed by Aristotle some 2,500 years ago. He argued that happiness lay in maximizing one’s personal excellence or ‘virtue’, and in using that virtue in the service of one’s community. In a paper published last month in the Journal of Research in Personality, colleagues from the laboratory for the Study of Meaning and Quality of Life, University of Louisville, Kentucky, also concluded that the more virtue-building activities people engaged in, the happier they said they were, both on the day in question and on the following day. Perhaps surprisingly, there was no relationship between pleasure seeking and happiness.
Happiness is usually grounded in love. It is grounded in our relationships with other people. It is grounded in self respect. A healthy, well-adjusted child, or adult, needs to have experienced unconditional love. A healthy, well, adjusted theistic spirituality needs to understand God as unconditional love. Being loved and spirituality can both provide a framework of meaning, a sense of purpose, friendship and help in developing compassion. Through interviews it has been discovered that people who are happy are those that focused also on the things they loved rather than an outside definition of success or something greater than momentary pleasure. Yet we are hung up on the rather superficial ‘outward vestures’. We are a society addicted to self care and displays of successful wealthy or popular people, often typified in the magazines and periodicals by fit looking 30 year olds. We are ensnared by the alluring advertising which seeks to convince us that we are not able to really enjoy life unless we buy some new commodity. We are led astray by the portrayal of the affluent ‘good life’ that TV programmes and commercials would have us believe is an achievable formula for success and happiness.
Dr. Howard Cutler, who co-wrote The Art of Happiness with the Dalai Lama in 1998, believes that money has little to do with happiness once basic needs are met. And he believes people can work on being happy by changing the way they think and react to the world. Furthermore he believes that there is a strong link between personal happiness and showing kindness and compassion to other people.
If we really are serious about the pursuit of happiness therefore, the focus needs to shift to caring for others, being kind and allowing grace. One of the truths of Christianity is never underestimate the power of grace. Wealth is no guarantee of happiness. Yet neither is poverty. We need a certain level of income in order to participate in society and the economic and social structures of society are important for happiness. Happiness is directly related to connection with people and God. Some of the happiest people are those who have been hurt but have had those hurts healed by the power of Christ’s transforming love. Having been healed themselves they go out to heal others, happy in the thought that they are doing something worthwhile and with the comfort of God, they find it to be positively exhilarating and enriching.
It is interesting to note that in NZ, volunteers for the distribution of the ‘Meals on Wheels’ service, are becoming few and far between and also they are currently represented by people who are mainly in the over 70 age bracket, (those who we might add comprise the happiest of people) some of whom are considerably older than the people they provide meals for. Similarly volunteer drivers for transporting people with disabilities etc., are in short supply. One rather suspects that the situation with such organisations is that this is typical of an emerging situation where unpaid volunteers carrying out charitable work are becoming hard to find and it would appear that only mainly in our churches these days, is there a limited reservoir of people who are available for such jobs. The conclusion that one may derive from this is that we are becoming a nation of unhappy dissatisfied people by pursuing, often exclusively, the wrong goals.
Furthermore in the big scheme of things, are we guilty of neglecting our families and society by striving to achieve these elusive goals? The latest crime statistics for 2007 have just been published. Whilst they show that in 2007 there were 45 murders in NZ, which was some 10% less than the previous year, is this improvement something that we should be congratulating ourselves about? A further large increase in assaults, street disorder, intimidation and other drug and alcohol-fuelled offences have also occurred. Additionally there were 6000 more acts of violence during 2007, which it is alleged is due to a greater awareness of family violence (32% increase in reporting domestic violence cases due to such high profile national anti-violence campaigns as, ‘It’s not OK.’) Nevertheless even after considering the increase in reporting, The National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges chief executive Heather Henare, has stated that even considering the increase in reporting, the figures are deeply alarming and represent an epidemic level which will require significant investment before they are able to be turned around.
Whilst therefore we can commend those that participate in achieving such levels of improvement, we need to ask ourselves, do these statistics represent a happy society overall? Indeed it has been reported that although real incomes for large sectors of the community have surged dramatically ahead in recent decades, happiness levels have remained largely flat within developed countries across time. Our society in NZ, like others in the Western World might be richer but we are certainly no happier. Global warming and our insatiable desire for progress and the problems that are arising with our unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, also poses a dire threat to our future success and happiness and unless we embark on sustainable practices, the future of mankind is at stake. Without proof that current levels of Western consumption have a positive effect on individual happiness and well-being, the question arises: what are the real risks to planetary survival when stewardship and environmental responsibilities are ignored? Lastly it is important to recognize that the word ‘happy’ (Greek Makarios) carries a far richer tone than we commonly attach to the word. It suggests a deep, abiding happiness, not just a temporary emotional lift.
A jealous person is doubly unhappy-over what he has, which is judged inferior, and over what he has not, which is judged superior. Such a person is doubly removed from knowing the true blessing of creation.
Desmond Tutu. An African Prayer Book.
Facebook comments: