The Maleficence of Happiness

The whole of the maritime industry is talking of mental health. Suddenly this seems to be more of a threat that the pirates at sea, or the towering crescendos of wind which has torn many a sail and damaged more bows.

So, what’s new in this mental health? Has the maritime industry changed so drastically over the years that people are losing control over their minds? A seminar I attended a few days ago delved deep into this issue. Many speakers commented on the increasing level of stress which a seafarer has to go through these days. The Isolation and Solitude, the absence of 24x7 internet on board and many more such reasons. I wondered sitting in the second last row in the auditorium if these issues were new to our industry.

Our ancestors had to till the land. To grew crops. The season’s overhaul depended hugely on the weather. Incessant rain or drought would have adverse effect on the outflow of crops and affect the market prices thereby promoting disbalance. The function of a perfect economy has always depended on the happiness quotient of the masses. Just as a safe voyage of the ship depends hugely on the weather.

What makes us unhappy? Economic crisis. Job losses. Wars. Yet, while we can quantify things such as gross domestic product or home foreclosures, it’s harder to measure their impact on our collective happiness.

One way to gauge that effect is through what has become known as the “economics of happiness” — a set of new techniques and data to measure well-being and contentment. Hundreds of thousands of people are surveyed and asked how happy or satisfied they are with their lives, with possible answers on a scale between very unhappy and very happy.

How much happiness does money really buy? How do you weigh the relative loss in happiness resulting from a pink slip, a divorce or a diagnosis of illness? Such questions have gone from the fringes to the center of the dismal science, with economics journals now boasting thousands of articles from “Does Happiness Pay?” to “Do Cigarette Taxes Make Smokers Happier? Or “If you were to give all the amenities of a shore based life to a sailor on a ship, would that guarantee his/her happiness?

So, what would make a seafarer happier? Or let’s put it slightly in a better parlance, what are the things which make seafarers less sad? I’m trying to turn the statement as I feel it may be easier to measure sadness against happiness? Ask anyone what makes him happy and he will tell you a couple of things. Ask the same person what makes him really sad and he will come out with hundreds of reasons.

A seafarer’s life was always lived in solitude. Some people found self-company within this solitude. Some drifted away into their own self-exiled pit of darkness. People who love themselves are never lonely. Even in Solitude they have themselves to turn to. I was reading about the women working in the underground coal mines in the Jharia Coalfield in Jharkhand, India. Apart from the severe claustrophobia which the miners face, there remains the risk of fire, flood, collapse, toxic atmospheric contaminants, and dust or gas explosion. Their mental health issues are not up for discussion in seminars and there aren’t many speakers for them. Their ruthless career which they have chosen takes them to the core of the earth and some cannot find their way out. They become a part of the fossil fuel they extract.

There was also a psychologist from the Indian Navy at the mental health seminar who spoke of the exasperating journey of the sailors in the navy and the lives they lived on board the navy ships and submarines. They hardly have space to move around and often have to share cabins – because ease and comfort are not a priority in those arenas. So, when I compared the lives of a sailor with that of so many people around us, from so many other industries, I was not sure that we have really been able to understand the real reasons for mental health issues on board merchant ships. Perhaps we need to prepare ourselves a bit better….perhaps we have overrated the word ‘happiness’ and made it appear more of a cause (lack of it) rather than an effect?

A beautiful poem comes into my mind. Its titled as:

“Invictus”

(William Ernest Henley - 1849-1903)

Out of the night that covers me,  

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,  

I thank whatever gods may be  

For my unconquerable soul.  

In the fell clutch of circumstance 

I have not winced nor cried aloud.  

Under the bludgeonings of chance  

My head is bloody, but unbowed.  

Beyond this place of wrath and tears  

Looms but the Horror of the shade, 

And yet the menace of the years  

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.  

It matters not how strait the gate,  

How charged with punishments the scroll,  

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Capt. Shoukat Mukherjee is an award winning Leadership and Team Building expert and Author of the book 'Mind Over Water', He connects with global audiences through lectures and workshops and various unique interventions. To connect with Shoukat you may pleased drop a mail at '[email protected]'