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Here in the United States we are entering the July 4th holiday weekend, in which we celebrate our country’s independence from Britain in 1776. We are really celebrating our country’s declaration of independence, set out in a remarkable document drafted largely by Thomas Jefferson and signed by the members of the Continental Congress. When the Declaration of Independence was signed, we had already been at war for more than a year and would continue to fight for another seven years until the British left New York City, their last stronghold.
What started mainly as a dispute over taxes became something more. As Jefferson wrote “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” [click to continue…]
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July 4
America’s Declaration of Independence is an astonishing document, not least for introducing the concept of the pursuit of happiness into the public discourse on how we should organize our political and social affairs. The phrase “pursuit of happiness” sounds as if it were invented in the 1970s – a time of social and personal transformation and self-discovery that Tom Wolfe dubbed “The Me Decade” – not the 1770s.
The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which has just transformed itself from an absolute into a constitutional monarchy, is famous for the concept of “Gross National Happiness,” invented by the former king – an avid basketball player – who recently abdicated in favor of his son. GNH, if we may call it that, posits an alternative to Gross National Product as an indicator of a country’s well-being, based on measures of psychological health, ecology, education, culture, living standards, community activity, use of time, and good governance. Researchers in the Gross National Happiness Commission have devised a set of statistical formulas that should, eventually, allow all countries to be ranked according to GNH. In spite of the obvious flaws in the methodology – the numbers are based on 72 indicators captured by a detailed nationwide questionnaire administered every two years, and it’s possible that respondents in, say, North Korea would be more circumspect in their answers than the average American – it’s an intriguing idea. [click to continue…]
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