A recent study conducted by The Happiness Project of University College, London, under the leadership of Honorary Associate Professor Rob Routledge, “showed that happiness depended not on how well [people] were doing, but whether they were doing better than expected.” The study concluded – in essence – that managing expectations is the easiest path to happiness. In all honesty, this is something that many fables, myths, old wives’ tales and even modern, contemporary stories have tried to teach us. So why do we find it so difficult to do?
A few weeks ago I had a heated conversation with one of my students about access to knowledge. This came about from a short story in the CBSE class 12 syllabus entitled “Lost Spring” by Anees Jung. For those who are not aware, this story (an extract from her book with the same title) recounts the writer’s encounters with two young boys – one of whom is a homeless refugee from Bangladesh and the other is trapped in the business of bangle-making in Firozabad. Jung describes their dreams and aspirations while giving her own take on the cruel society that has forsaken them.
My student, who is in the twilight zone between teenage and adulthood, lives in a serene locality of Garia which, despite its remoteness from the centre of the city and somewhat inefficient infrastructure, does very well to shield its moderately affluent inhabitants from most socially disquieting issues. Other than the occasional bout of water-logging and drops in power supply – both of which have recently decreased in frequency – there is not much that troubles the good people of this neighbourhood. The 16-year-old we’re concerned with has his own laptop, android phone and a personal room equipped with an air conditioner and Wi-Fi router. While discussing the story I was trying to tell him how difficult it was for many children his age and younger to pursue their dreams because of restricted access to education in general never mind during a global pandemic and with schools closed. He seemed to accept it at first but then began to argue along the lines of “but if someone really tried surely they can manage it.”
This tipped me over the edge. It became clear to me that this boy, who barely ever goes out of his house even when he was allowed to, had little or no idea about the ways of the world. He kept on trying to say that surely it was up to the individual to keep putting in the effort until they get the success they want. He seemed to be completely unaware of the fact that his privilege meant that he was starting miles ahead of many of these individuals he was talking about.
At the heart of his argument was the concept of hard work – the idea that if you put in enough effort you will be able to achieve all your dreams. This is the biggest lie we have been told. Not because it isn’t true, but because it doesn’t apply to every individual. Every individual human has their own strengths and weaknesses. But, before you think this is turning into some sort of philosophical motivational speech about how everyone is different and that you shouldn’t judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, turns out, you can. There are some species of fish like the mangrove killifish or the climbing gourami that actually can climb trees.
I’m certain you’ll be Googling that. So take a bit of time and read up about these fish. You will find that these fish did not start climbing trees because they dreamt of enjoying the view from the canopy one day. It wasn’t an aspirational thing where one plucky individual puffed out its gills and went for it. These fish adapted to their circumstances. They did what was necessary. It was a part of their survival process. It is something that happened over decades of adaptation if not centuries. Nothing in nature suggests that as long as you aspire to something you can get it. It is completely a human construct.
This brings us back to expectations. The capitalist world we live in functions on the promise of something better. Everything is run on credit. Even the cash that you spend has no value of its own and is dependent on how well the federal reserve banks across the world are able to predict the future – which the pandemic has shown to be an impossible feat. Hence, we are constantly living in a state of aspiration. It is nearly impossible for most of us average people to look anywhere but forward and upward. We tend to forget the impact of our own power and privilege.
We also forget that luck is a factor. I do not mean destiny. This is not a plea to follow some sort of charlatanism that will promise you good fortune if you tie a pebble to your arm. But it is impossible to ignore the influence luck has on any individual’s success. If it didn’t, everyone would be successful. But they’re not. The odds of any common person becoming a millionaire are slim to none. I’m sure right now a lot of you will feel a bubbling inside you waiting to burst forth with “But we can make our own luck!” On that, I call BS. Luck, by its very definition, is something that is not in our control. You can’t make luck. If you make it, it’s no longer luck.
So why are we still so obsessed with working hard? Why do we believe in what is demonstrably a myth, a lie? The answer is simple. It is because the rich and powerful use this concept to sleep at night. They say “Look at me. I worked hard, and now I’m here. You can be here too.” Quite simply, that is at the heart of this widespread myth; because of course you cannot be where they are. They are trying their best to ensure that you can’t. Remember, when most of these so-called ‘captains of industry’ are asking you to work hard, you are inevitably working hard for their benefit. Either you are working for their corporations or you are spending your hard-earned money on their products and services.
Arguably, it is not wrong for those who have succeeded to be enjoying the fruits of their labour. It is when they do so unfairly that the problem arises. I mentioned earlier that the rich and powerful are doing their best to remain where they are and prevent others from getting there. This they are doing by not paying taxes. The not-for-profit investigative journalism organisation ProPublica managed to get their hands on multiple Internal Revenue Service documents that showed that most billionaires and multi-millionaires pay little to no tax whenever possible in the USA alone. In India, no such data is as yet available although according to an Oxfam report “Mukesh Ambani earned Rs. 90 cr. an hour during [the] pandemic when around 24% of people in India were earning under Rs. 3,000 a month.”
This means that the rest of society has access to poorer infrastructure. Under-developed schools, under-equipped hospitals and under-valued wages mean that the rest of society cannot legitimately dream of becoming millionaires even if they are geniuses. In so-called developing nations such as India, multiple children with sharp minds are dulled by the grindstone of parental aspiration, financial constraints or societal constraints. The system is set up to aid those already at the top. For instance, best-case scenario, you study, you work hard, you learn stuff and you build your own company – again, very few achieve even such a feat. What happens then? Someone incredibly rich comes along and buys it off you. You go along with it because you need the financial backing. But you lose your freedom and you lose your original dream. You are allowed to get just high enough to keep alive your aspirations and of those looking up at you.
As a result, it is most definitely not an even playing field. Not everyone, even if they work hard, will ever achieve their dreams. Indeed, for most of us, no matter how hard we work, we won’t even come close. However, there’s nothing wrong with dreaming. It is part of the human condition. That is why we keep telling ourselves that if we work hard enough we will be rich. What we shouldn’t do is let our dreams and ‘hard work’ to reach them get in the way of our happiness and of those around us. We should also accept our privilege and be grateful for it. We should not become so blinded by our upturned heads that we forget what is below us, around us. I am, however, not advocating laziness nor am I suggesting that hard work is bad. What I am saying is that it should be relative. We should maintain our respective perspectives and not lose sight of what's important and meaningful.
Happiness is an individual state. Individuals should have the right to define it. Not the rich; not society; but we, as individuals, should define what and how much makes us happy. Indeed, we should make our own choice between happiness and fulfilment. By disengaging from the established paradigms we will be able to make greed both pointless and abhorrent – not a quality of 'successful' people. We will begin to care less about the digits in our bank balance and more about how meaningful our lives are. This will allow us to correctly (and ruthlessly) apply higher income taxes, wealth and property taxes and other similar financial restrictions that will allow greater funds to be available for nationalisation of essential services such as education and health. While this is largely a utopian view of things, we have to start somewhere.
P.S. This is probably one of the most rambling articles I've ever written. But I hope I have made my point. Do write in with suggestions if there are any.
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