From Parkinson's to Bhutan to Happiness

When my father succumbed to Parkinson’s at the age of 61, it forever sensitized my brain to all things Parkinson’s. My spirits have been buoyed over the years to learn about advances in science that show great promise for, if not curing the disease, at least improving the quality of life for those suffering from it.

So when a celebrity like Michael J. Fox talks about his experiences living with Parkinson’s, I listen. He was interviewed recently on ABC’s Good Morning America show, highlighting his new book Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist. What especially struck me about the interview was what he learned when visiting the Himalayan country of Bhutan.

That country measures its economic health using an index called Gross National Happiness. Seriously! It sounded trite to me at first but it spurred me on to do some research. As it turns out, Bhutan isn’t the only place taking GNH seriously - entire organizations have been formed dedicated to the, well, pursuit of happiness. You can read more about this yourself in a Wikipedia article on Gross National Happiness.

The more I read, the more I became envious for our country. GNH takes the emphasis away from economics being the central indicator of a country’s success by re-prioritizing happiness as the central indicator and by demoting economics to one of many factors that support it. What an optimistic way to run a country! We all know that money doesn’t make us happier, “can’t buy me love” or even make us more optimistic. I wonder what the U.S. would look like if it made such a radical shift in its economic priorities.

Bhutan even has a position in its government called “Detector of Gross National Happiness.” The person in that position functions similarly to one of our President’s cabinet secretaries. Many people in our government the past several decades have tried to establish a new cabinet position called the Secretary of Peace - without success. So, it’s unlikely that we’ll see a Secretary of Happiness any time soon. Still, I remain optimistic.

For example, more and more psychologists these days are focusing their research away from mental disease and dysfunction to what makes people happy. The approach is now generally referred to as “Positive Psychology.” If an entire field of study, and an entire nation, and many international organizations have all managed to shift their priorities this way, then surely Americans can do this as well. In today’s world economic misery, perhaps we’ll see more GNH experts come into prominence over traditional economists. I see it as a strategy for balancing out so much greed there is driving the forces that are hurting so many people and the environment in general. Maybe it’ll even lead to a cure for Parkinson’s and other diseases. (God bless Michael J. Fox!)