The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being by Derek Bok - Recommended by David Brooks in one of his columns:
"If you want to find a good place to live, just ask people if they trust their neighbors. Levels of social trust vary enormously, but countries with high social trust have happier people, better health, more efficient government, more economic growth, and less fear of crime (regardless of whether actual crime rates are increasing or decreasing).
"If you want to find a good place to live, just ask people if they trust their neighbors. Levels of social trust vary enormously, but countries with high social trust have happier people, better health, more efficient government, more economic growth, and less fear of crime (regardless of whether actual crime rates are increasing or decreasing).
The overall impression from this research is that economic and professional success exists on the surface of life, and that they emerge out of interpersonal relationships, which are much deeper and more important.
The second impression is that most of us pay attention to the wrong things. Most people vastly overestimate the extent to which more money would improve our lives. Most schools and colleges spend too much time preparing students for careers and not enough preparing them to make social decisions. Most governments release a ton of data on economic trends but not enough on trust and other social conditions. In short, modern societies have developed vast institutions oriented around the things that are easy to count, not around the things that matter most. They have an affinity for material concerns and a primordial fear of moral and social ones.
This may be changing. There is a rash of compelling books — including “The Hidden Wealth of Nations” by David Halpern and “The Politics of Happiness” by Derek Bok — that argue that public institutions should pay attention to well-being and not just material growth narrowly conceived."
Given the nascency of happiness research, it's immensely difficult to get excited about these studies leave alone writing a book about it. But Derek Bok pull's it off splendidly. Given the precarious, contentious and myopic nature of democratic politics, it's very difficult to focus on a long term vision. Each chapter is enlightening but it's naive to except the government (and citizens) to heed to these calls. Although, there is one recommendation which could reap immediate results suited for the myopic politics - government can do something to alleviate the chronic pain, sleep disorder and depression. All three are ubiquitous and their effects are abysmally underestimated.
The effects of media (read "cable news") on people's health and dismal levels of trust in the politicians is another important factor for deteriorating happiness.
Derek looks at the symbiosis of happiness and education at a different and important perspective - schools and colleges should teach kids on how to live a meaningful life. This is one factor not only ignites the intellectual spark at a very young age but also kicks of that most important metacognition cycle.
"The question of how to spend one's life of what to care about and why, the question of which commitments, relations, projects, and pleasures are capable of giving a life purpose and value..., this question was taken more seriously by most of our colleges and universities in the middle years of the twentieth century than it is today. Increasingly few teachers of the humanities believe that they have either the competence or duty to offer their students an education in the meaning of life."
-Anthony Kronman, Yale Law Professor (very similar to Allan Bloom's anguish in the Closing of the American Mind)
A excellent piece on how innovative designs can help increase that GNH:
"Although the Gross National Happiness (GNH) index proposed by the government of Bhutan in the 70s has not gained international acceptance, a recent debate initiated by French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz to revise metrics to include fundamental elements of the human condition is likely to have wider resonance. Such a move is unlikely to happen without the contribution of designers, who, even more so than philosophers, reflect the human condition. And if economists and econometrists begin to adopt design as a tool, we can be sure politicians will follow."
"Although the Gross National Happiness (GNH) index proposed by the government of Bhutan in the 70s has not gained international acceptance, a recent debate initiated by French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz to revise metrics to include fundamental elements of the human condition is likely to have wider resonance. Such a move is unlikely to happen without the contribution of designers, who, even more so than philosophers, reflect the human condition. And if economists and econometrists begin to adopt design as a tool, we can be sure politicians will follow."
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