Philosophy of being: Wellbeing as a national goal.

Forward

This paper is a result of observation, meditation and desktop research, highly influenced by philosophy, thought and practice which is not intended as an exhaustive treatise on the much-written upon subject of the discourse of wellbeing. It is suggestive rather than explanatory, its object being to stimulate the majority to the discovery and perception of what might lead to a better living state in governance.

Abstract

This is a reflective paper that seeks to explore, specifically, describing the notion behind the discourse of wellbeing briefly at the individual level and its importance for population-level policy. I will briefly state the limitations we are facing as a country, possible causes, our lack of action especially in the governance arena whilst looking at the current global population-level approaches to personal wellbeing that recognise the importance of including social as well as economic indicators of a nation’s wealth. My hope in writing this paper is to influence the reader positively, at least to try and change attitudes for the greater good and in turn influence the national goal and prosperity as a state.

Introduction

It was in Hamlet that Shakespeare stipulated the famous line, ''There's nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.'' The more I think about this simple sentence, the more I realise that persuasion differs from manipulation. Majority of people seem very uncomfortable with the psychology of persuasion because they believe using that knowledge gives them an unfair advantage over others.

Putting that aside, let's look at wellbeing as a whole; wellbeing has long been a discussion point for national policy when considering the impact of social and economic policy. However depending on one's outlook, perspective on different realities, we may have very solid connotations as to what wellbeing reflects and means. Accordingly, many variations to wellbeing improvement and interventions can be considered.

Traditional outlook mainly centred on wealth accumulation and economic growth, whereas more recent definitions centre around measurable social indicators, e.g. accesses to education, affordability of housing, equality and health care provision, which Maslow tentatively used as a measure of the quality of life. Similarly, questions of wellbeing relate closely to the burden of disease, also looking into psychiatric illness and chronic ailments.

Nonetheless, scientist's primarily behavioural scientists equate questions of wellbeing to having similar contrasts to experiential and existential dimensions which we magnify profoundly from individual experiences.

We can allude that wellness connects to both objective and subjective dimensions of psychological functioning and feeling, frequently described in phrases of the degree of cognitive function, affect, motivation and even notions of spirituality.

For example, the UK is effectively readdressing its approach to measuring wellbeing amongst its people. Here the government is evaluating its citizens by learning from them as to what they deem imperative to offer meaning and satisfaction in their lives.

Thesis

Wellbeing is the basis and essence of human life according to the Socrates and most early & medieval philosophers. The main idea is to hasten and facilitate policies that enhance population happiness. An impediment to such action is the failure of most policymakers to understand that subjective wellbeing can be measured and understood within a given framework. Additionally, policymakers fail tremendously to realise that enhancing the personal wellbeing of populations enhances not only the functioning of individuals but that of the community as a whole.

As a country, Kenya, unfortunately, we haven't set the precedence quite well in being able to facilitate the wellbeing of the citizens. In turn that has translated into unfathomable conundrums converting to big problems, or yet to become massive chronic problems, take, for example, a whole country is struggling with locust invasion, looming food crisis, blood cartels, bouts of insecurity, rising food prices, rising unemployment, extrajudicial killings, normalised violations of human rights but somehow the leadership only has time for BBI. It’s absolutely disgusting and embarrassing. Also, to add salt to the wound, are we being led to think of this coronavirus as less of a raging bull? When it might be an aggressive animal? I mean, are we waiting for it to strike so that we see the seriousness of the situation? Whatever the case we hold the government responsible to keep us in safe grounds, after all, isn’t that their job. Every day we fight for the bare minimum, it breaks me. Probably the biggest problem is inertia in the political financial and private sector communities in facing up to these problems.

The driver to all these concerns that I'm alluding to is demographics. Statistics show that the best projection forward indicates that while we passed 6 billion people globally in the year 2000 and now closing in on 7 billion people today. The numbers portray that we'll be 9 to 9 and a half billion by mid-century. What these means, is and it's a seriously misunderstood issue, population growth is now under control, why is that so, because the average number of children per woman across the planet is now at that magical figure of 2.1 which gives rise to a stable society. The growth we're experiencing is merely inbuilt from past behaviour; technically we have to plan for a planet with close to 9 billion people, but there's something perhaps at least as big which is underlying, this is the trend in the growth of the middle class globally.

Definition of the middle class here is from Hans Rosling. He propounds the middle class to be the people, who expect to find a washing machine at home, or people who plan to travel by air to a holiday destination which is a little up higher but Hans puts the point across without a doubt. If we take the washing machine definition, we'll see it's roughly 1 billion people with this lifestyle at the turn of the century, and now close on to 2 billion right now, and we can expect 4.8 billion by 2030. The world has never seen a growth of this kind in the consuming classes of the population. If we are over-consuming the resources of the planet today, what is it going to be like in 2030?

Here's the problem with inertia, the response to this issue is one that is so urgently needed because of the rate of change in the growth of the middle class, it's so urgent that we need to have a re-examination of our entire behaviour, the way our economic system worked in the twentieth century is no longer fit for purpose in the 21 century, the aspiration that everyone should become ultimate consumers, morphing a society where one's status is determined by ones consuming power. We need to invert this process, not that we shouldn't admire people with the absolute consuming power, but we shouldn't buy into the idea of consumerism.

Changing behaviour must be at the core of our priorities in matching up to this as a country. We've got a series of challenges that seem natural to figure out and remedy out rightly, therein we also have massive opportunities for innovation and wealth creation for the greater good moving forward. We have to learn how to change behaviour quite radically if we are going to manage these problems.

Looking at conflict and terrorism, one of the scenarios into the future that we are developing in the current works is that the future can't predict itself we have to be dependent on the political, economic, social behaviour and one awful line which is the shortage of resources. Meaning that each country with a government elected by the people will try to do what they can to protect their people. So how do you manage your people without the resources that they need to survive? We need to ask this question with all the seriousness it deserves. You might have to go off and start ''colonising'' another state. Perhaps china's position in Africa is not very different from the British position in Africa. I believe if we go through that route, future historians are going to look back in this century and see the Iraq war as the first of the great 21C conflict driven by a shortage of resources. Why is that so, the USA passed its peak in oil production back in 1970 and solemnly depended on the so-called friendly nations who will keep it supplied with oil. So what happens to a country like Kenya whose resources are not being used for the greater good yet there’s a shortage?

Looking at food production as a thematic area, we see that food needs water and land, so we are converting the land into food production. If we do that recklessly there's a real risk that we'll remove all the remaining forest and in turn acidify the oceans by putting excess carbon dioxide into the atmosphere some of which ends up forming carbonic acid, at least 40-50% hence the pH of the sea becomes lower in the process. Bottom line is we are not doing too well. Our growth in wellbeing in the 20thC took place without a real considerable concern of the environment; ideally, we must've thought of the environment to be some infinite resource.

Conclusion

Perhaps more appropriate is a social determinants approach and an examination of the role public policy can make in shaping lives by providing the economic and social foundations upon which citizens live their lives and promote their wellbeing. Such policies could relate to current policy areas such as the provision of safe and healthy workplaces free from harassment, bullying and discrimination; an aged?care provision that is driven by the needs of individual consumers; and affordable and accessible health care that prioritises the prevention of chronic disease and mental ill-health. The most annoying thing is we already have a truckload of adequate policies that can boost individual happiness, inertia is the problem, and our lack of action is killing us silently. It is prudent to allude that, we were created to flourish; Plato knew that future national success and prosperity is ultimately linked to people being empowered to execute their potential. Thus wellbeing honestly and indeed is generally more than just happiness and also feeling satisfied and happy but holistically focuses on being fulfilled. The act of contributing to the society & community at large is something we need to engrave in our livelihoods; we need change for the greater good as fast as we can achieve it. We need to be serious.

References & further reading

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Burns Richard, Anstey Kaarin and Windsor Tim (2009). Subjective well-being mediates the effects of resilience and mastery on depression and anxiety in a large community sample of young and middle-aged adults. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 45(3): 240–248.

Burns Richard, Butterworth Peter, Browning Colette, Byles Julie, Luszcz Mary, Mitchell Paul, Shaw Jonathan and Anstey Kaarin (2015a) Examination of the association between mental health, morbidity and mortality in late life: Findings from longitudinal community surveys. International Psychogeriatrics, 27(5): 739–746.

Burns Richard, Byles Julie, Magliano Dianna, Mitchell Paul and Anstey Kaarin (2015b) The utility of estimating population-level trajectories of terminal wellbeing decline within a growth mixture modelling framework. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 50(3): 479–487.

Burns Richard, Byles Julie, Mitchell Paul and Anstey Kaarin (2012).

Positive components of mental health provide significant protection against the likelihood of falling in older females over a 13-year period. International Psychogeriatrics, 24(9): 1419–1428.

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Burns Richard, Mitchell Paul, Shaw Jonathan and Anstey Kaarin (2014a). Trajectories of terminal decline in the well-being of older women: The DYNOPTA project. Psychology and Aging, 29(1): 44–56.

Burns Richard, Sargent-Cox Kerry, Mitchell Paul and Anstey Kaarin (2014b) An examination of the effects of intra and inter-individual changes in wellbeing and mental health on self-rated health in a population study of middle and older-aged adults, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 49(11): 1849–1858.

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