The Hopefulness of Change

Is there a pundit, paid or unemployed, a political blogger, credible or ludicrous, or any American or America-watcher that hasn’t weighed in on what Obama will do once in office, i.e., what are the changes he will put into effect? I don’t think so. I think we can safely assume that just about anyone able to read a newspaper, gape at a TV, or stare dully into space while a radio personality bloviates, has an opinion on this matter, pro, con or off the wall.

So, attempting to side-step this skyscraper-size pile of pundit droppings, this exercise in speculative commentary will instead ruminate on a change I’d like to see, which could be seen as philosophical though I view it as quite pragmatic. The focus of this change is attitudinal more so than political, economic, environmental, foreign policy oriented, educational or health care-wise, though it encompasses all of these. The change I would like to see is a focus on and a redefining of – happiness. Yes, that’s right, happiness.

Let me say first off, I’m not talking about some kind of feel good, warm and fuzzy, mirth and laughter definition of happiness that’s sold on greeting cards and mind-numbing TV commercials. Secondly, I’m not talking about fulfilling some personal desire, attaining some object, living out some experience, enjoying some good fortune, attracting some sought after other, or even having some wish come true. This is not the happiness I’m talking about.

Happiness, as I am talking about it, is more akin to that adopted by the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which has developed a governmental policy they term Gross National Happiness or GNH. Happiness or GNH, like the U.S.’s GDP, is a collective measurement, albeit not in the goods and services produced. It is a quotient in “human well-being,” measured in terms of four key areas: “sustainable economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the environment and good governance.”* Happiness in these terms is a very serious look at how to create the conditions for diverse human societies to live rich, satisfactory and moral lives. The focus here is not on individual economic well being, but more in terms of “human development” or “pluralistic growth.”

There is one important area or condition that is missing from these key ingredients in the happiness quotient, though it might be implied by “good governance,” and what needs to be added is a reaffirmation and a retrieval of human rights that have been so easily dismantled and discarded by the Bush Administration. Without returning to a national acclamation of individual human rights, so elegantly defined and expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights written into the United Nations Charter after WWII, then the society as a whole, any society, cannot fulfill the essential standards necessary for establishing the conditions for happiness; individually or collectively.

Among the articles in the Universal Declaration are:
• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
• Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
• No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

It’s not possible to reproduce here all of the articles, but it would serve the reader well to look them up. It is a human rights constitution based on moral, ethical and lawful principles that should apply to every nation on earth.

The Bush/Cheney Administration has violated bedrock principles of human rights to a degree not seen before, and if an Obama Administration hopes to change what has been despoiled, then it will have to start here. As important as addressing the economy, Iraq and Afghanistan, health care and global warming, is assuring the safeguards that protect individual well-being.

Inextricably tied into the guarantees of human rights are the precepts of sustainability. Social commentator Steve Bhaerman, AKA Swami Beyondananda, writes: “We are burdened by a “natural debt”… We have deforested the rain forests, spoiled key habitats, scarred the landscape with strip mines, ruined our soil with chemical farming, and now peek oil seems to be peeking over the horizon. In addition to a financial system that no longer works, and a system that rewards creating money more than creating value [emphasis added], we face the additional problem of creating not just prosperity, but sustainability.”

I think it bears repeating – “creating money more than creating value.” Is this not at the core of our current economic system? Unbridled capitalism driven by greed, not need, is the infection that invaded our economy and laid it low. In a speech long ago at Riverside Church in New York, Martin Luther King said, “We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.” Call to mind what recently happened at a Wal-Mart store sale when people in their blind rush to acquire, to consume, trampled to death a store employee who got in their way. These are not the actions of a person-oriented society.

As far as weighing in on Obama’s selection for his administration and cabinet, all I can say is that from this progressive’s view they’re very disappointing, cause for a lot of concern, and, while change from the current regime, are nothing more than a throwback to the Clinton neo-liberal years. Perhaps a President Obama can really set a new course and bring about the significant changes so desperately needed to the nation’s economic, health care, foreign policy, and alternative green energy systems. If the choices so far of “his team,” for the most part, are any indication, future directions look very questionable.

Do I think it’s likely there will be a shift in focus as to what comprises a happy or satisfactory existence both individually and collectively with the advent of a new political administration? I do not, but there is at least a possibility of a change in thinking and direction along these lines through an emphasis on sustainable economics and energy sources, conservation and protection of the environment, and a redefining of the importance of human rights and the value of individual service to the community at large. Anyway that’s my hope for the years ahead.

*The San Francisco Chronicle: “Economists Appraise Bhutan’s Happiness Model” by Don Duncan, 12/04/08





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