Opinion   The Ministry of Happiness   |28 July 2022

The subject was inspired by George Orwell’s novel 1984, a work which becomes more prescient with each passing day. Published in 1949, Orwell contrived four ministries which controlled the fictitious state of Oceania. The Ministry of Peace concerned itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions were deliberate exercises in ‘doublethink’, which can be described as a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as being both true, often at odds with their own understanding of the world.

The other inspiration is the nation of Bhutan, where Gross National Happiness (GNH) – sometimes called Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH) – is a philosophy that guides government policy. It includes an index which is used to measure the collective happiness and well-being of a population. The Gross National Happiness Index is the measuring stick of population satisfaction in Bhutan.

GNH is radically different from the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) index which most nations use to measure progress. GNH identifies the collective happiness of the Bhutan people as the principal goal of governance, achieved through harmony with nature and traditional values and expressed in the 9 domains of happiness;

•           psychological well-being
•           health
•           effective time use
•           education
•           cultural diversity and resilience
•           good governance
•           community vitality
•           ecological diversity and resilience
•           high living standards.

Each domain is composed of subjective (survey-based) and objective indicators. The domains weigh equally but the indicators within each domain differ by weight

Bhutan also recognises 4 pillars of GNH, which are;

•           sustainable and equitable socio-economic development
•           environmental conservation
•           preservation and promotion of culture
•           good governance.

Envious? We should be!

So, if we consider the actions of the Bhutan authorities (‘live’ since 1972) to be laudable, could the formation of a Ministry of Happiness contribute towards the betterment of Seychelles which offers measurable benefits to a (happier) population?

Perhaps we first have to define the condition of human happiness, which, when stripped of its romantic connotations is, first and foremost, a chemical event which takes place in the brain. Contexts exist within which these events take place, and the chemistry transmutes to recognisable aspects of human satisfaction; pleasure & gratification, embodiment of strengths & virtues, and validation of meaning & purpose. Aristotle described the goal of all human action as ‘flourishing’ (εὐδαιμονία). In Hinduism the ultimate goal of life is happiness, achieved through the transcendence of the duality between Atman and Brahman, and the recognition of the true self. In Judaism happiness is part of one’s service to God, and Buddhists promote the attainment of happiness through kindness and compassion.

These are in many cases long journeys, sometimes taking a lifetime before, within the Christian context, a person can achieve ‘felicity’ or ‘blessed happiness’. So unsurprisingly some people prefer to take a short cut, and at this point we return to chemistry. The widespread use of anti-depressants continues, particularly across the developed world. Illegal drugs provide the prospect of an instant path to a faux state of pleasure. Alcohol takes the consumer ‘up’ prior to dumping him or her in a mire of mild depression.

If we turn away from such artificial stimulation and ask ourselves to define personal happiness this might well be best accomplished through the recounting of past and pleasurable experiences. Thirty years ago an English artist established a Museum of Happiness and encouraged all of his friends and contacts to contribute a brief description of a specific event which they recalled as being particularly happy. Many of the subsequent ‘exhibits’ told of small, ephemeral experiences – a bus journey through a forest dappled in late afternoon sunlight, floating in the embrace of a warm ocean – rather than the more significant occurences which we have been culturally programmed to identify as happiness provocateurs – weddings, birthday parties and lottery winnings for example.

As for romantic love one Council member expressed the opinion (to general agreement) that two things that cause unhappiness are love and money. One has to be financially independent with a little more coming in than leaving your pocket every week. If this formula is vastly exceeded the situation can become counter-productive. The more money one accumulates the more one has to worry about perhaps. Personal relationships can be viewed through the filter of suspicion, and when all is said and done, just how much wealth does a person require to achieve happiness?

If happiness is when a person is at a point where he or she is blissfully and completely in the moment, then the question arising is ‘can this condition be accessed through learning? In other words, can we be taught how to be happy? The immediate answer might be in the negative, because each person’s happiness differs in character, origin and manifestation from the next person’s. Schools can teach content which is universal – facts, formulae, equations etc – but personalising material in the classroom is difficult. This is why differentiation in schools is such an elusive, albeit desirable thing.

Self-awareness is something that is already being taught internationally in schools, and this is on the increase as educationalists begin to prioritise the development of the whole student alongside the traditional, limited objective of passing examinations. But if we democratise happiness we have to live with the consequences. Defining personal happiness lets a particularly interesting genie out of the bottle. For example, there are some people who are happy in their misery and this is a reality.  Some people are just happy being miserable. If something is not wrong, they are not happy. This seems like emotional masochism, yet happiness, declared and subscribed to in earnest, cannot be dismantled by logic or argument. In short, it is as impossible to argue against a person’s happiness as it is to try to dismantle their strongly held religious beliefs.

If we determine that the establishment of a Ministry of Happiness in Seychelles would be a good thing we have to then define how that ministry would function. In order to do this we would need to identify the key components and driving concepts of the ministry. These could be:

-           Security

-           Resilience

-           Fairness

-           Love

-           Education

-           Prosperity

-           Compassion

To list some main contenders.

As has been said, happiness depends on the specific characteristics of the human being. And because not all human beings are contributors to social good, we have to also charge the Ministry of Happiness with responding to those few who bring unhappiness to bear upon others through their actions. At the extreme point we find murderers, abusers and swindlers. A sex criminal may very well claim that his (it is invariably a ‘his’) actions make him feel happy but this cannot be justified when one considers the pain and horror suffered by his victim/s. Therefore the Ministry would have to work with the powers of justice in order to isolate such perpetrators from a benign society. Incarceration has become the standard way of achieving this. This preserves and enhances a state of public security – essential for individual happiness, for if you feel insecure you are less likely to be able to experience happiness.

Back to the bus journey. We should be encouraged to see events in our lives from a different perspective, to have the training which facilitates the appreciation of the smaller things in life. Can we develop, without ‘tuition’, the attentiveness necessary to see all of the happiness around us?  Sometimes we can be distracted to virtual blindness by the internet, exposure to movies and social media platforms and so on.  These things are addictive and extremely difficult to by-pass in order to reveal and enjoy small fragments of everyday positivism. Paying attention to the minutiae of everyday life is an ability which we all have as children, as for them, everything is a wonder. But we then lose this facility and, in some cases, spend the rest of our time on Earth trying to regain it.

What are the threats to happiness in and beyond Seychelles?  One of the hazards is that we live in an increasingly complex and competitive world, an environment where we can experience strong feelings of alienation and confusion – hardly the best circumstances in which to nurture a sense of personal wellbeing.  We have tricked ourselves and other people into believing that, in material terms, more is better. This is of course the self-sustaining credo of capitalism. As consumers we have to be able to regulate our inflows; all things in moderation. We have to de-structure increasingly sophisticated marketing material and determine our own, sovereign courses of action.

This impacts upon the detail of our human interactions, specifically the way people react to each other. If you walk into a shop and say good morning. If people are smiling you will automatically smile back. In Japan, people enjoy and expect a mutuality of pleasantness. Politeness is embedded in the national DNA. This is of course currently not the case in Seychelles, however the metaphorical tale of the hundredth monkey* might encourage us to persevere as individual citizens and lead by example.  One small incident of kindness might have a domino effect, affecting and impacting a larger number of people. But if we adopt the contrary scenario we can see that if people feel that they have not been treated properly then when they meet other people they will bring this unhappiness to the next person they meet.

As is so often the case the work of our proposed Ministry of Happiness would have to balance social improvement, mainly achieved over the medium to long term through educational developments, with a punitive wing which would protect those working towards collective and personal happiness.

Contributed by the Mahé Council Think Tank

 * The hundredth monkey effect is a hypothetical phenomenon in which a new behaviour, skill or idea is spread rapidly by unexplained means from one group to all related groups once a critical number of members of one group exhibit the new behaviour, utilise the new skill, or acknowledge the new idea.