happy talk

Action for Happiness has been launched in London. Action for Happiness is based on the principle that kindness breeds happiness. It encourages people to perform small acts of generosity — from hugging to holding open a door, saying sorry or giving up a seat on the bus, encouraging meditation and random acts of kindness.

The nonprofit group's founders include a former Downing Street policy chief, Tony Blair's biographer and an eminent economist. They say happiness — long regarded as the preserve of poets, philosophers and spiritual leaders — is a deeply serious issue.



Co-founder Richard Layard, emeritus professor of economics at the London School of Economics, says "Our happiness levels have been stuck for the last 60 years. Income does not make a lot of difference. The quality of human relationships at home and in the workplace — there are a lot of ways in which those have been neglected in favor of higher income."

Increasing numbers of politicians are taking up that mantra. Prime Minister David Cameron has said "it's time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB — general well-being."

SOYMB have good reason to be suspicious about measuring people’s well-being in circumstances that are far from improving their actual well-being. We may recall the line of crucified men in Monty Python’s Life of Brian happily singing ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!’

The capitalist system is marketed on its promises of equality and freedoms through purchasing power. Capitalism makes anything possible – if one has money. It was probably a rich person who devised the saying, "Money can't buy happiness". But there is more truth in the cynical retort that at least it allows you to be miserable in comfort. Money buys illusions. You don't just buy a car, a washing machine, a pair of trainers; you buy self-expression, individuality, contentment, a way of life. Created by marketing gurus and peddled through the media, lifestyles come conveniently packaged at the local department store. Happiness is carried home in a plastic bag. You consume illusions. Retail is therapy.

Studies of job satisfaction have found that up to 80 percent of workers say they are very or fairly satisfied with their job. But their ‘satisfaction’ is often based on a belief that their chances of finding something better are small or nil, so it’s a good idea to make the best of the job they’ve got. The majority of people work unsatisfying and unchallenging jobs in the service industry and this is not necessary. It is socially demeaning and it is servitude, plain and simple. Throughout the 20th century there have been movements that have promised happiness to us. They fail to meet the hype because in part they are confined to merely individual happiness "I'm OK." They argue that if you sort your head out you can be happy. But it ignores the nature of the society in which we live. We have endless Happy Hours but no happiness. Unless this necessary condition for being a human being—miserable or flourishing—is taken into account, any hope for change is doomed to failure. If one hundred percent of children, and adults, reported being one hundred percent ‘minus happy’ with capitalism, it would not change anything.

In socialism well-being would emphasise making things better for people, not making people feel better about things. In socialism we will still have some of the problems that make you feel miserable, scared, depressed or demented. Socialism is not a solution to all mental health problems, it is a solution only to those created by capitalist conditions of life, or to class conditions of life. We don't think that there's a better way to live. We don't think you have the power to change things. Yet the house of cards is built on our complicity. We have a world of pleasures to win, and nothing to lose but boredom. We sleep. We don't dream.