Rashid A Mughal
HAPPINESS, humanity and morality are the basic elements of our society and culture. Mutual respect, inter-action between individuals, groups, civilized people, nations and counties are based on these core principles.
The basic difference between people living in stone age and living presently would be much clear if we study the history and ponder over the quality of life of those stone age people were living and notice the transformation.
It is often debated as to who were happier ? The people of earlier centuries or we, living in this era of countless gadgets at our disposal- aero planes, cars, smart phones, refrigerators, air conditioners, microwaves so on and so on. The list is endless. The change, how barbarism has been replaced by regard and respect between people of various countries, generally, is profound.
The values have changed, morality and self-respect is the nucleus around which revolves the inter and intra-action between communities and countries. But there are exceptions too. We see wars being waged for self-aggrandizement. People being killed in the name of peace and religion, in the name of color of the skin and hatred is being promoted rather than discouraged by so called champions of peace. Double standards abound and lies being camafloughed as truth and reality. Coming to happiness, we certainly are perhaps less happier than our fore fathers. The desire and feeling of togetherness seems to have disappeared. We have started laughing less and worrying more. So where has happiness gone and where has humanity and morality disappeared ?
Happiness can be conceptualized as a positive affective state or as a goal whose pursuit ironically pulls the pursuer away from achieving it. But how do people think about time during this latter, never-ending pursuit of happiness? Four studies demonstrated that trait-level happiness seeking as well as direct manipulation of happiness seeking studies consistently reveal the same pattern: reduced feelings of time availability while pursuing happiness. This negative effect on time availability is mitigated when happiness seems like it has been achieved or seems quick to achieve.
In addition, pursuing happiness can ultimately decrease happiness, in part, by reducing perceptions of time availability. Unlike other goals, pursuing happiness rarely leads to attaining happiness Instead, seeking happiness more often ironically, decreases happiness, in turn causing a previous act of seeking happiness to prompt continued behavior devoted towards the same objective (ie, acts of seeking happiness. The unique process of pursuing happiness as a goal keeps people engaged in a resource-limited state while seeking happiness. People generally like to feel happy, try to feel happy and want to be happier even if they are already fairly happy.
A large set of international data showed that about 70% of people rated happiness as important and only 1% reported that they had never thought about happiness and many people report that they want to be happier than they already are. Happiness is positive and, as a result, can be seen as a goal insofar as people actively work toward the continued experience of such positivity.
However, pursuing happiness comes with significant costs including loneliness and the aforementioned paradoxical reduction in happiness itself. This is because trying to be happier often leads people to monitor not only happy thoughts but also unhappy thoughts at the same time, and the ironic salience of this negativity makes them feel unhappier.
The pursuit of happiness proposes yet another item to this list of the downsides of happiness: feelings of time scarcity. For millennia, philosophers have debated what happiness (or “well-being”) truly is. Not surprisingly, they have yet to reach a consensus. Instead, philosophers today have “agreed to disagree” on a single definition of happiness, settling the matter with four central types of happiness, labelled hedonic happiness, life satisfaction, desire fulfillment and eudemonia(living virtuously according to Aristotle ,wellbeing, happiness).
Humanity is the human race, which includes everyone on Earth. The word humanity is from the Latin “humanitas” for “human nature, kindness.” Humanity includes all the humans, but it can also refer to the kind feelings humans often have for each other. Humanity means caring for and helping others whenever and wherever possible, it means helping others at times when they need that help the most, it means forgetting our selfish interests at times when others need our help and it means extending unconditional love to each and every living being on Earth.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is at once symbol, advocate and embodiment of this ethic of humanity and so is constantly working emotionally, judicially and practically to increase humanity as a dominant form of human behaviour in extreme situations.
Coming to morality, today’s children live in a world that is very different from the one in which we all grew up. On the one hand, there is accelerated pace of development in the field of science and technology, on the Other hand, there is moral decline and the felt need to revive moral and ethical values. The values may not, yet be ‘vanishing’ but de?nitely are diminishing .So the question arises: Why this sort of value crisis is happening? What are its manifestations? How is it re?ected in schools and educational institutions? What should be the response of school education?
Increasing materialism is making people greedy. Consumerism is threatening the school environment. Education has commercialized . Social responsibility is getting eroded leading to unethical practices.
Students are more interested in performance rather than wholesome learning. This is also due to schools more interested in highlighting performance rather than genuine talents. Adolescents are uncertain about a number of things like the process of growing up, developing an identity, managing their emotions. As a result, there is an increase in substance abuse, violent and unsafe behaviour.
Today, there is an alarming increase in the level of alienation leading to frustration. Joint families have almost disappeared and nuclear families cannot provide the emotional support and moral values to children. Morality is gone.
At the global level, though globalization is leading to more interdependence, yet the world seems more fragmented between the rich and underprivileged; the powerful and the powerless. Economically, politically and technologically, the world has never seemed more free, yet there is more injustice and repression than ever before. The divide between the “Haves” and “Have Not’s”, advanced and the marginalized and between rural and urban has widened than decreased.
Though we have advanced-scientifically and technologically, made our lives easier but we seem to be moving to a world which will be devoid of all the three basic “essentials” of life-happiness, humanity and morality which have remained the cherished goals of our forefathers and our generation.
— The writer is former DG (Emigration) and consultant ILO, IOM.
