We are far more powerful than our ancestors, but are we much happier? Historians seldom stop to ponder this question, yet ultimately, isn't it what history is all about? Our understanding and our judgment of, say, the worldwide spread of monotheistic religion surely depends on whether we conclude that it raised or lowered global happiness levels. And if the spread of monotheism had no noticeable impact on global happiness, what difference did it make?
With the rise of individualism and the decline of collectivist ideologies, happiness is arguably becoming our supreme value. With the stupendous growth in human production, happiness is also acquiring unprecedented economic importance. Consumerist economies are increasingly geared to supply happiness rather than subsistence or even affluence, and a chorus of voices is now calling for a replacement of GDP measurements with happiness statistics as the basic economic yardstick. Politics seems to be following suit. The traditional right to "the pursuit of happiness" is imperceptibly morphing into a right to happiness, which means that it is becoming the duty of government to ensure the happiness of its citizens. In 2007 the European commission launched "Beyond GDP" to consider the feasibility of using a wellbeing index to replace or complement GDP. Similar initiatives have recently been developed in numerous other countries from Thailand to Canada, from Israel to Brazil.
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