Religion, Poverty and the Indices of Happiness

Happiness indices may yet have values as a measure when one probes under their surfaces, and perhaps being unhappy isn't such a bad thing...

Tanzeel Merchant
Updated: Feb 2, 2014 07:20:01 PM UTC

Politicians across the globe have been toying for a few years now with the idea of using 'happiness indices' to better gauge the well being of their citizens. Bhutan's Gross National Happiness Index leads the pack, having surveyed its citizens in 2010. China, perturbed by the increasing alienation its billion+ residents have begun to act out, is contemplating a similar index. The upstart Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index tries to provide some statistical credibility to this emerging measure of our discontent.

happiness

What is the meaning of "happy" then? Is it measure of mind-numbing ignorance? Does religion really make us better human beings, or does it give us a supernatural cop-out to make mediocrity, inequity and injustice acceptable?

Andrew Gelman of Columbia University, noticeably "unhappy" with Brooks' scholarship in the New York Times, responds with his own analysis titled No, Arthur Brooks: Conservative women are not ‘particularly blissful’ in the Washington Post. In it he carefully unpacks the very same source data Brooks used, to prove him wrong. Conservative women are not really happier than liberal ones after all.

Happiness indices may yet have values as a measure when one probes under their surfaces. 70 per cent of Bhutanese women surveyed for the Gross National Happiness Index believed their husbands had the right to beat them if they accidentally burned dinner. This finding caused an uproar on the state of women in that country and caused the government to start tackling the problem.

Perhaps being "happy" lulls us into a false sense of societal complacency that does us more harm than good... and perhaps being unhappy isn't such a bad thing if it keeps us searching for answers, seeking equity and justice, and asking more questions of ourselves.

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.

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