Happiness and Consumerism

It is commonly asserted that people aren’t as happy as they used to be years ago due to the consumerist culture we live in. Usually very little evidence is produced to support this assertion. In this posting I will attempt to remedy this situation by providing an argument to support the above assertion. I will argue that our culture limits our ideas about what makes us happy and that this limitation limits the amount of happiness we experience. Previously I have argued that the way in which we are happy changes as we age and mature and I will use this argument as a starting point to support the current argument. My argument rests on two important premises both of which I will support by argument. Firstly, I will argue that our actual level of happiness depends on, at least to some degree, our ideas about what will make us happy. Secondly, I will argue that our culture helps define those ideas. I will conclude that we should try to broaden the focus of our culture particularly with regard to the way we work and the way we are educated.

Before proceeding with my argument I want to introduce two differing ideas, concepts, of happiness. Firstly, there are hedonistic concepts of happiness such as that outlined by Fred Feldman. Feldman believes someone is happy now “if when we consider all the propositions with which she is currently intrinsically attitudinally (dis)pleased with and we then consider the degree to which she is (dis)pleased with these propositions and find the sum to be positive” (1). This is a definition of momentary happiness but in this posting my concern will be with happy persons rather than momentary happiness. Feldman believes a happy person is simply one who over time is pleased to a greater degree than she is displeased. A different concept is that of Daniel Haybron. According to Haybron,

“To be happy then, is for one’s emotional condition to be broadly positive – involving stances of attunement, engagement and endorsement – with negative central affective states and mood propensities only to a minor extent.” (2)

 There is some overlap between these concepts but Haybron argues that happiness,

“has two components: a person’s central affective states and second, her mood propensity …. What brings these states together, I would suggest is their dispositionality.” (3)

I have previously argued that a disposition to be happy is an essential element of being a happy person and will briefly repeat my argument here, see Feldman, Haybron and happy-dispositions . There is a difference between a happy person and a person who is happy. It seems to me that Feldman and hedonists are interested in people who are happy rather than happy persons. A person who is happy is simply a person who is currently happy. The fact that a person is currently happy by itself gives me little reason to assume she will be happy tomorrow. I may of course believe she will be happy tomorrow because I know that tomorrow will be her birthday, but the fact she is happy currently, by itself, gives me little reason to predict her future happiness. However, if I believe someone to possess a happy disposition then I normally expect her to be happy tomorrow. For this reason, I believe Haybron better defines what it is to be a happy person and will use his definition unless stated otherwise.

If we accept Haybron’s definition, then it seems to me that the relative importance of the various elements within his definition change as we age, see does our concept of happiness change as we age . I will briefly outline my argument. Let us recall that that someone is happy if her emotional condition is broadly positive and that this involves her in general being attuned to, engaged with and endorsing her emotional condition. Haybron ranks the importance of attunement, engagement and endorsement in that order in relation to happiness. Haybron connects endorsement to feelings of joy or sadness (4). I suggested endorsement involves being satisfied with rather than any large scale feelings of joy or sadness. I did however suggest being satisfied with does involve some minimal positive emotion, slight joy? If the above is accepted, then being satisfied is an essential element of being happy. A further argument can be advanced as to why being satisfied is an essential element of happiness. Martin Seligman believes achievement is an essential element of happiness (5). It seems to me that achievement usually linked to being satisfied. If we accept that Seligman is correct and achievement is an important element of being happy then it follows so is being satisfied. Lastly I argued if we accept that satisfaction is an essential element of being happy then the way we are happy changes as we age because younger people give greater weight to hedonistic pleasures whilst older people give greater because to being satisfied. It would appear the way in which we are happy changes as we age.

Let us accept that the way in which we are happy changes as we age. I now want to argue that our ideas about what will make us happy affects the level of happiness we actually experience. Some might question if an idea about what will make us happy is needed if we are to be happy. They might suggest people are just happy or unhappy and don’t need any ideas about what will make them happy. To support this suggestion, they might point out animals and infants can be happy without any idea of what will make them happy. They might proceed to argue that apart from philosophers most people are simply happy or unhappy. However unlike animals or infants we aren’t simply happy, we actively pursue happiness. A pursuit is impossible without some goal. The pursuit of happiness implies that we must have some ideas about what will make us happy. Let us accept that people must have some ideas about the things which will make them happy however vague. However even if we accept the above it doesn’t automatically mean our ideas about the things will make us happy are related to the level of happiness we experience. We might be mistaken about what will make us happy. It might be suggested that such mistakes are of little importance because we naturally pursue the things that make us happy. I would reject such a suggestion. Let us accept that there can be a mismatch between the things we think will make us happy and the things that actually make us happy. Having mistaken ideas of what will make us happy can damage our actual happiness. We can pursue things that don’t really make us happy at the expense of not pursuing thigs that actually make us happy. Examples are easy to find. For instance, someone who desires meaning in his life but pursues hedonistic lifestyle because he believes living such a life will make him happy. Or perhaps someone who pursues a stoic way of life and rejects the demands of love. It follows that our ideas of what will make us happy can affect the actual level of happiness we experience.

I now want to argue that the culture someone lives in affects her idea of what will make her happy. Clearly someone’s culture affects the things that make her happy. For instance, some cultures value wealth whilst others value honour more than wealth. It might be argued that this difference is only a difference in what makes us happy but not in the way we are actually happy. For instance, someone might be a gourmet and value good food whilst someone else might be a libertine who values having sexual intercourse as often as possible. Two different sort of things make these people happy but both of these people have the same underlying idea about the way they will be happy. It might be concluded that our basic idea about the way we will be happy doesn’t change even if its focus does. I now want to argue such a conclusion would be mistaken because in certain cases the things we value helps determine the way we enjoy them. Let us consider someone who values honour. Haybron hints that if someone is happy there is a link between her happiness and the self. (7) I believe Haybron is correct and that there is indeed a connection between some forms of happiness and the self. Clearly this is not the case with hedonistic happiness. To enjoy a good meal or sexual intercourse no one needs a sense of self. This is not true of someone who values honour ‘cares about’ or loves her honour. Valuing honour is connected to her identity, her sense of self, see some of my previous postings. I would suggest such a person will be happy when she acts honourably and that her happiness depends on her satisfaction with acting as she believed she should. I would further suggest her satisfaction is linked to her sense of self by her cognition. The way she is happy is very different to the way someone is happy when enjoying a good meal or having sexual intercourse. Let us accept that people can be happy in different ways and that the pursuit of different ways of being happy requires different ideas about happiness. Let us also accept what we value determines the way we enjoy it, the way in which we are happy. Different cultures value different things. Some of the things we value are determined by the culture we live in. It follows culture helps to determine the way in which we are happy.

No culture is completely homogenous and our culture certainly isn’t. However, I now want to argue that a certain dominant idea within our current culture fosters ideas about what will make us happy which damage our actual happiness. In the western world our culture is dominated by the idea of the consumer. Advertising suggests we will be happier if we have the latest car, have a large modern house, have shinier hair, have brighter teeth, etc. Advertising suggests we will we happier if we have certain things, if we are consumers. Western culture sees us as consumers just as much as it sees us as citizens. The idea of a consumerism is widespread even extending into education. In school pupils are encouraged to learn in order to get good jobs rather than enjoy learning. In education more generally courses are becoming increasingly designed with employment in mind rather broadening students’ horizons. Education is in Yeats words becoming a matter of filling pails rather than lighting fires. I argued above culture helps determine the way we are happy. A culture with a dominant consumerist ethos supports a hedonistic ideas of happiness such as that of Feldman. I further argued that an account such as that of Feldman offers an incomplete concept of happiness because it offers an inadequate account of what it means to be a happy person. Lastly I argued that our ideas about what will make us happy affect the actual happiness we experience. It follows that someone holding an incomplete idea of what will make her happy might experience less actual happiness than if she had a more complete idea.

I now want to discuss four ways in which our overly consumerist culture damages our happiness by fostering an incomplete idea of happiness. First, I have argued above our consumerist culture fosters a hedonistic ideas of happiness. I argued above that such an account of happiness is an incomplete account. Let us recall that that according to Haybron someone is happy if his emotional state is positive and he is attuned, engaged and endorses that state to some degree. I have suggested endorsement is linked to satisfaction. Someone might be satisfied if she is eating a chocolate cake, with some state of affairs or past achievements. Being satisfied with eating a chocolate cake does not involve any cognitive abilities. However, if someone is satisfied with some state of affairs or past achievements she engages some of her cognitive abilities. A hedonistic account of happiness does not directly involve our cognitive abilities. It follows if culture fosters a hedonistic idea of happiness that this fostering might limit some peoples’ ideas about happiness by diminishing their desire to pursue some of the things which might add to their happiness, by limiting their desire to pursue things that satisfy them. Secondly I have argued that as people age the weights attached to the various elements which contribute to their happiness change. A culture which fosters a mostly hedonistic idea of happiness damages that change and as a result damages the happiness they experience. I have outlined this argument above and will not repeat it here. Again it follows that an overly consumerist society might limit our overall happiness especially for older people. Thirdly would argue that our consumerist culture encourages an attitude to work which limits the happiness we experience. Let us accept that some work can give our life meaning and that this meaning increases our happiness. There are two different definitions of work. Firstly, we might define work simply as labour undertaken for some economic reward or hope of such a reward, let us define this as working for something. Such work is instrumental and has no intrinsic value. Secondly someone might work at something. For instance, she might work at playing some musical instrument simply because she enjoys it. Someone playing a musical instrument might become fully immersed with her music losing any feeling of reflective self-consciousness.  According to Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi when someone is in such a flow state she experiences positive emotions. These emotions contribute to his happiness. Our consumerist culture encourages working for something at the expense of working at something and by so doing limits our ability to experience our ability to experience the positive emotions generated by flow. It again follows that an overly consumerist society damages our overall happiness. Lastly our consumerist culture emphasizes consuming things makes us happy. I don’t deny consumption might make us happy for a while. A consumerist culture places emphasis on momentary happiness. It seeks to make people happy, which in itself is laudable, but it is much less concerned with happy people and this lack of concern also limits our happiness. At this point I must it clear that when I speak about happy people I am concerned with people who have a disposition to be happy rather than people who are simply experiencing positive emotions. Our consumerist culture limits happiness because momentary happiness is fragile happiness whilst the happiness experienced by happy people is more robust than momentary happiness. It again follows that an overly consumerist society damages our overall happiness.

What conclusions can be drawn from the above? First our consumerist society damages our happiness and we should seek to broaden the focus of society. Our attempts to broaden the focus of society should concentrate on work and education. This expanded focus might be particularly important if automation leads to people working less. If work provides some meaning in life then it is important to change society’s focus from ‘working for’ to ‘working at’, see work, automation and happiness . An overly consumerist society might find such a change difficult. Secondly if it is hard to broaden society’s focus it becomes especially important to have an accurate idea of what makes us happy, our concept of happiness matters.

1. Fred Feldman, 2010, What is this thing called Happiness? Oxford, page 29.
2. Daniel Haybron, 2008, The Pursuit of Unhappiness, Oxford, page 147.
3. Haybron, page 138.
4. Haybron, page 113
5. Martin Seligman, 2011, Flourish, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, Chapter 1.
6. Haybron, page 130.