You can't fault the intention. Who wouldn't want everyone to be happier? So why does the idea of Action for Happiness make me feel worse? (Other than the fact I'm a miserable bastard.)
Doing a good deed, having a chat with your neighbour, going for a run and meditation all have their benefits. Sometimes. Though so do slobbing out and eating junk food. Sometimes.
No, it's the suggestion that happiness can be quantified. Richard Layard and Anthony Seldon make a persuasive argument that our pursuit of materialism has made us increasingly unhappy, yet they treat happiness as something to be attained by ticking the right boxes. They confidently predict that if Brits had the same happiness levels as the Danes, we would have 5 million more who were very happy. Can someone explain the difference between being happy and very happy?
It's an unfortunate echo of the coalition's plan to measure the country's wellbeing. I don't suppose there will be a survey question asking: "Would you be: a) very happy, b) happy c) indifferent, d) unhappy or e) very unhappy if you never had to hear the names Cameron, Clegg and Osborne again?"
When you quantify happiness, you make it prescriptive. There is a right way and a wrong way of being happy. Which rather takes the joy out of it.
The idea of happiness as a process of self-realisation also grates. As if being unhappy somehow puts you further down the karmic food chain and that if you're not happy it's because you're a less worthwhile person. Misery is not always optional and the last thing the miserable need is to be guilt-tripped by the emotionally cleansed.
In a time of spending cuts, I can see the attraction of focusing on the areas of one's life over which one can exercise some control. But this pursuit of individual happiness is a distraction from the real causes of unhappiness.
I'd be willing to bet that the reason the Danes are so happy is because they have less poverty, less inequality and more social mobility, not because more of them are meditating. And poverty, inequality and social mobility can be quantified. Those who set their store by happiness indices, go out and get measuring.
