Happiness
Happiness
The differences in newspaper reports that appear in different countries always amaze me. Do newspaper articles reflect public interests, or do newspaper articles shape public interests and opinion?
I am presently in London attending the biannual meeting of the United World Colleges International Board. I find the English newspapers remarkable for their intense focus on celebrity divorces, childhood obesity, under-age sex, drug use by celebrities, workers compensation claims and cute animals. Apart from the cute animals, their tone seems overwhelmingly and oppressively pessimistic.
For example, one article that caught my eye this week was headed “Drinking is new religion for many teenagers, expert warns”. I cannot imagine such an article appearing in the Chinese culture where I live.
The article wrote, in part: “Drinking is the new religion and young people are binge-drinking to replace traditional rituals, an anthropologist has warned. The erosion of traditional religious rituals and communal rites of passage causes young people to seek the intense group-bonding experiences offered by binge-drinking, anthropologist Anne Fox told a seminar in Dublin yesterday”.
Perhaps this makes sense. Binge drinking is largely a European phenomenon, and the trend to abandon communal religious belief has been strongest in Western Europe. Binge drinking is a symptom of affluence, and Western Europe is one of the world’s most affluent regions. It all seems to fit rationally.
Many young people in Western Europe (and elsewhere) see religion as an old fashioned constraint on their individual freedom (and therefore ‘bad’), whereas alcohol is just the opposite - an escape into an adult world of individual pleasure without any responsibility.
It is commonly assumed that happiness and pleasure matter more than discomfort, even though paradoxically, we are much more likely to mature as fully-rounded human beings through hardship than comfort.
Last year, the economist Ross Gittens made some interesting observations about this in a newspaper article (that never appeared in an English newspaper!). He wrote:
“The research does nothing to suggest that the self-absorbed are particularly happy. The evidence is clear that our greatly improved material standard of living hasn’t made us any happier. And it’s not just that our heightened materialism has failed to work. There’s evidence that those who strive most for wealth tend to live with lower well-being.
“It’s just as clear that our preoccupation with earning has tended to crowd out relationships. We need good friends and family, and we may need to sacrifice to some extent to ensure we have intimate, loving relationships - people who care about us and about whom we care deeply.
“Resolve to nurture your closest relationships: do not take those closest to you for granted, display to them the sort of kindness that you display to others, affirm them, play together and share together.
“Second, work on making other people happy, not yourself. That’s the trick. As with some other things in life, happiness is best pursued indirectly. If you’re forever asking yourself “Am I happy? Am I happy?”, the answer will be no. The watched pot never boils.
“Acting directly to make yourself feel happy leads to hedonistic self-indulgence, which may bring pleasure, but only fleetingly. If you focus on the well-being of others, however, every so often you wake up and realise that, though you hadn’t noticed, you are happy.
“Third, seek benefits that are intrinsic, not instrumental. Do things for their own sake, not because of the income or status that you hope you hope they will bring you. This is particularly true of work. Humans were built to work and work well done is capable of bringing us great satisfaction”.
Still in London and writing this blog, I searched today’s newspapers for an article that looked seriously at the issue of happiness in the way that Ross Gittens attempted. I found nothing - every article was either pessimistic, escapist or simply boring. The nearest thing I found to a comment on what brings happiness in today’s paper was a quote from Dame Helen Mirren: “I don’t think people have grasped how much I love horse manure... for all the things it can do, the happiness it can bring, and the smell of it”.
And in a similar vein, today’s paper also carried an article which began “Detectives are hunting a vandal who smeared human excrement inside rail carriages and caused £60,000 worth of damage to trains...” I can’t imagine this article appearing in the local news section of my Hong Kong newspaper!
I worked in England for a year, but that was almost 20 years ago. Even though many people complained about Margaret Thatcher and her impact on people and society at that time, I do not remember the level of grey pessimism then being anything like it is now. Even when the newspapers in Britain talk about change, it is reactive - correcting social ills and injustices rather than proactively planning for a better future, which is what I am used to now that I live in Hong Kong.
I accept that I was over-tired when I arrived in London. However, if I can believe the picture of Britain that emerges from the newspapers I have been reading for the past few days, I don’t think this would be a good environment for a person suffering from chronic depression! Sadly, I can even begin to understand why a young person who had never thought about the issues Ross Gittens raises might start to explore binge drinking as an option in the pursuit for happiness.
Does the English media simply reflect society in an attempt to maximise circulation figures? Or does the English media actually shape society according to the priorities of the newspaper proprietors and reporters? Either way, a bleak picture emerges.
Sunday, 22 October 2006