Bhutan – Gross National Happiness

Bhutan is a small country tucked away in a remote part of the Himalayas.  It is a constitutional monarchy with a population of less than one million persons.  The country is mainly Buddhist with a minority of Hindus.  As an official policy they have what is called Gross National Happiness, established as official policy in 1972 by the then King Jigme Singye Wangchuck.  In 2008 Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck became the current King after his father’s abdication.  Gross National Happiness remains the national policy. 

Gross National Happiness is an attempt to measure the progress of the country and its overall health as a society.  It is a holistic attempt to come up with a measure of happiness, because the Gross Domestic Product measurement doesn’t adequately measure happiness, but only economic status of the nation (society) as a whole.  It is inadequate as the upper classes become wealthier at the expense of the lower, and while the GDP may be high overall, happiness of the lower class population suffers.

GNH is in accord with the basic principles of Buddhism, where the best societal progress comes from both economic (material) and spiritual development operating side by side. The holistic nature of the notion that the greatest good is not achieved by economic development alone leads to a more generous approach to all of society.  Buddhism reverences all forms of life so the preservation of environment, both human and physical, is seen as promoting a general happiness which cannot be achieved by exploitation of the material resources leaving the spiritual to decay.  The neglect of the spiritual leads only to greater unhappiness, which cannot be substituted for economic betterment. In some sense it is a conservative view and in others it is the ultimate liberal notion of the whole person versus mere material growth.  The holistic approach contributes to some sense of leaving things as they are, but simultaneously liberating the spirit from the demonic confines of consumerism and materialism.

As an eudemian form of Ethics and Politics, GNH leaves development to the whole rather than the basic.  While many of our well-off individuals in Western Societies seek happiness from the eastern practices of Tai Chi and Yoga, GNH has built into it a form of happiness where one seeks not some meaning other than the material, but seeks the whole well being of the individual and all of the environment. Ecology becomes important here, because without an environment wherein the spirit can find health, there is no wealth.  Wealth does not come from the exploitation of the natural, but instead from the natural development of the environment where spiritual development occurs. Who among us can say they did not get a spiritual uplift from a visit to a national park, or beautiful garden we have ourselves cultivated?  In an important sense GNH makes a garden of nature itself.

If there is any lesson to be learned from the recent collapse of the world economies and the resultant protests because the burden of recovery lies in cuts to lower class persons, the economic measure does not result in a greater happiness.  The greatest good for the greatest number cannot mean greatest wealth for the greatest number, since happiness is lost in the din of monetary gain.  The greatest happiness for the greatest number must also include not only legal persons, but all - the entire environment.  Nature, if allowed, may be able to heal herself, but if we exploit nature for the benefit of a few, we prevent her healing to occur. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXJwNSkdTH0