A very striking characteristic of today’s world is that, while aggressive policies are being carried out that seriously deteriorate the well-being of broad sections of the population, at the same time, our rulers show themselves to be increasingly interested in our happiness. Thus, numerous studies are carried out on the happiness of populations and the right to happiness is even being included in the Statutes of the Autonomous Communities
Precisely the studies on happiness, as shown by the so-called “Easterlin Paradox”, the Californian demographer who has most investigated the subject, point out that from obtaining basic well-being: food, housing, access to education, right to physical and mental health care, etc. From here on, human happiness is correlated above all with the possibility of being able to develop one’s own personal project
Well-being is therefore the basis, the lowest common denominator of happiness. Well-being allows citizens to have the freedom to take control of their lives
The rise of the topic of happiness is also closely related to the appearance of certain versions of positive psychology, highly ideological from the dominant model, which seem to seek to convince ourselves that we live in the best of all worlds, regardless of reality. that we have before And if you are not happy with your luck, it is your fault for not seeing the good side of your situation: You can already be unemployed, have been evicted from your home, be sick without the right to health care… you always have to smile and feel fully happy. Life is wonderful. Repeat it until you are convinced. As Barbara Ehrenreich points out “smile or die”
The concern and control of happiness seems more typical of dictatorial models of power that interfere in the privacy of citizens’ lives, than of democratic models of power in which the state enables citizens to live with dignity and freedom. .
Another thing is the debate on human happiness, which logically is there, has always been, since the dawn of philosophy, and in which there are numerous anthropological and cultural questions, pending elucidation. There is, for example, pending interpretation, the so-called “French paradox” that asks us why our French neighbors have a considerably lower happiness index than their neighboring countries.
That our rulers should not worry so much about what we do with our lives, that we are already adults, and that it is not anyone’s business, and that they worry above all that we have the basic conditions that allow us to live with dignity and freedom. Now this is the world upside down.
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