eudaimonia - A state of well-being or happiness. From the Greek "eu" ("good") and "daimon" ("indweling spirit"). It is also translated as "human flourishing."
I came across this word recently in "The World Happiness Report" - a surpisingly interesting read sponsored in part by the United Nations. Arguing that "happiness" should be taken seriously, the writers compare the word "eudaimonia" with "hedonism" - which, in contrast, is more concerned with pleasure. I was taken by the idea of fluorishing as something more long term than pleasure, and more mutual. After all, how can we flourish for the long term on our own?
Here are some highlights, if you don't have time to look at the whole thing. But it is a very nice Sunday afternoon read.
"The world’s economic superpower, the United States, has achieved striking economic and technological progress over the past half century without gains in the self-reported happiness of the citizenry. Instead, uncertainties and anxieties are high, social and economic inequalities have widened considerably, social trust is in decline, and confidence in government is at an all-time low. Perhaps for these reasons, life satisfaction has remained nearly constant during decades of rising Gross National Product (GNP) per capita" (4).
" . . . if we act wisely, we can protect the Earth while raising quality of life broadly around the world. We can do this by adopting lifestyles and technologies that improve happiness (or life satisfaction) while reducing human damage to the environment. “Sustainable Development” is the term given to the combination of human well-being, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability. We can say that the quest for happiness is intimately linked to the quest for sustainable development" (4).
“A huge problem is the persistent creation of new material “wants” through the incessant advertising of products using powerful imagery and other means of persuasion. Since the imagery is ubiquitous on all of our digital devices, the stream of advertising is more relentless than ever before. Advertising is now a business of around $500 billion per year. Its goal is to overcome satiety by creating wants and longings where none previously existed. Advertisers and marketers do this in part by preying on psychological weaknesses and unconscious urges. Cigarettes, caffeine, sugar, and trans-fats all cause cravings if not outright addictions... Fashions are sold through increasingly explicit sexual imagery. Product lines are generally sold by associating the products with high social status rather than with real needs” (5,6).
“The western economist’s logic of ever higher GNP is built on a vision of humanity completely at variance with the wisdom of the sages, the research of psychologists, and the practices of advertisers. The economist assumes that individuals are rational decision-makers who know what they want and how to get it, or to get as close to it as possible given their budget. Individuals care largely about themselves and derive pleasure mainly through their consumption. The individual’s preferences as consumers are a given or change in ways actually anticipated in advance by the individuals themselves...” (6).
“We increasingly understand that we need a very different model of humanity, one in which we are a complicated interplay of emotions and rational thought, unconscious and conscious decision-making, “fast” and “slow” thinking. Many of our decisions are led by emotions and instincts, and only later rationalized by conscious thought. Our decisions are easily “primed” by associations, imagery, social context, and advertising. We are inconsistent or “irrational” in sequential choices, failing to meet basic standards of rational consistency. And we are largely unaware of our own mental apparatus, so we easily fall into traps and mistakes. Addicts do not anticipate their future pain; we spend now and suffer the consequences of bankruptcy later; we break our diets now because we aren’t thinking clearly about the consequences” (6).
The happy Bhutanese children above are good representatives of their government which decided in 1972 to eschew the GNP - "Gross National Product" as an indicator of their success in favor of a "Gross Happiness Product." This system of evaluation takes into account thirty-three indicators of happiness including ecological diversity and resilience, psychological well-being, community vitality, and good governance.
By the way, a recent Gallup poll found our own Gainesville to be among the top ten happiest cities in the U.S.
{top photo: from Global Voice Online; bottom photo: some local eudaimonia}
