Measuring Happiness

French President Nicolas Sarcozy’s decision to measure “happiness” is drawing reaction and some ridicule. A Globe and Mail editorial this morning finds the desire laudable but ponders whether happiness is “unmeasurable and beyond the reach of government?” Our modern society spends a lot of time trying to sort through notions that can’t be added and subtracted. A few years ago someone even wrote a book about “emotional intelligence” in an effort to legitimize the intuitive side of human nature.

As a graduate student of history I was required to do a course in historiography – the study of the philosophy of history. We spent endless hours debating the nature of ‘facts’ and trying to define what was real or tangible from perception and distortion.

I saw “Creation” at a TIFF screening last week – the new film on the life of Charles Darwin starring John Bettany and Jennifer Connolly. The screenplay focuses on the period of Darwin’s life when he struggled to reconcile scientific ‘fact’ with his wife’s religious beliefs. It brought me face to face with my own heritage. Of course it is hard for audiences today to really comprehend that the notion of ‘God’ was as real and factual to most people in the 19th century as dinosaur bones and microscopic amoeba. I grew up in a Mennonite home and often avoided truth in order to protect my mother from the ‘facts’ of my life. Some of my friends thought this was hypocritical. It was hard to explain that some of my actions were not just an affront to my mother’s religious sympathies. She had a profound sense that I possess(ed) an immortal soul that could be endangered by my actions. And her fear for me and my immortal soul was very vivid and completely real.

I was the first child in my extended family to even attend university. As a gifted young girl, my Mennonite heritage recognized teaching or nursing as acceptable professions. So even to pursue a degree was something of an accomplishment. But as an emerging feminist I often berated myself for not having done something ‘professional’ like law – the practical application of facts and truth. But as I matured I came to see that my liberal arts education was a wonderful preparation for everything that I wanted to do. The study of history gave me an excellent sense of perspective that allows me to put all kinds of events under the microscope. For a public relations professional, it has been particularly useful. Of course, people who work in public relations wrestle with this notion of ‘facts’ day-in-day out. Most of us who take pride in our work take ‘truth’ as a given. But whose truth? Most of us have had clients who have been unfairly maligned by a journalist’s use of the facts. And we work carefully to hone ‘key messages’ to ensure that the facts of our case are presented in a positive light.

Working in a world where everyone wants metrics or ‘facts’ – tangible evidence by which to measure results – can be challenging for those of us in ‘soft ‘professions. There was a moment as we entered the ‘Knowledge Economy’ that I naively believed we might have moved past this – that finally people would be ready to evaluate the nuance of opinion against numerical fact. But it seems I jumped the gun. No one seems to want the complexity of thoughtful analysis. Just the facts, please. Whatever they are.

I for one, am just delighted that finally we have a politician who just might want to know how his electorate ‘feels’ about things. For those of you who saw Bill Maher’s hysterical diatribe to America on the wonders of France. Here is one more to add to the list.