The Measure of the Heart's Felicity

In the mountainous land of Bhutan, the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon, they do not place the ruler of economical growth alongside the effects of government policy to measure its success. Instead, they judge it by employing another indicator: Gross National Happiness. This scale of subjective well-being was first suggested in the 1970s by Bhutan's former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck and has since been studied and taken up by some western academics. It remains, however, ill-used in comparison to Gross National Product.

But a sea-change is on the horizon. The British Government is looking to follow French and Canadian examples and measure GNH alongside traditional GNP data. Although the Guardian indicates that Downing Street is understandably somewhat hesitant to calculate the subjective national mood in a time of deep and biting budget cuts and incipient strikes and riots, I think David Cameron might be onto something here. By measuring happiness alongside economic growth, and perhaps even other factors, a much-clearer picture will emerge of the actual effects of government policy and the state of the nation.

Moreover, unlike what some economists would have us believe man is not a Homo Economicus. He is not, in the words of John Stuart Mills, "a being who desires to possess wealth, and who is capable of judging the comparative efficacy of means for obtaining that end." ('On the Definition of Political Economy, and on the Method of Investigation Proper to It', V.38) Nor are economics the sole motor of progress - or in the marxist fashion, history. A man's heart is a complicated thing and cannot simply be reduced to a statistic based on the normative monetary value of the body wherein it beats. Some men strive for ever-greater riches, to surpass in wealth even King Croesus of Lydia. Others are content with simpler things: to breath on waking the misty morning air upon the downs; or the sweet taste of that first pint in the village pub after a hard day's work; or just the kiss and embrace of the one they love. Why should all these things be made subservient to the chilling ebb and flow of economics?

It would be good in this respect to remember something else about Croesus. As told by Herodotus, when the sage Solon visited his palace and had seen the limitless stores of riches amassed there, the King asked him: who is the happiest man in all the world? But Croesus, for all his wealth, was not wise enough to know that the happiest men are those who sacrifice themselves freely - and with no promise of reward - for the sake of others: Tellus, the Athenian, who laid down his life for his country; and Cleobis and Biton who yoked themselves like lowly oxen to a wagon so that their mother could pray at Hera's temple in Argos. (Histories, 1.30.1-1.32.1)

I'll leave you with the words of the German mystic and poet Angelus Silesius (1624-1677):

Love is the measure of the heart's felicity
The more 'tis filled with love, the happier thou wilt be.
(The Cherubinic Wanderer, V, 295)