Happiness is a delusion and its pursuit demeaning folly. Nietzsche, at least, thought so. “Mankind does not strive for happiness; only the Englishman does that,” he wrote. He was teasing those English utilitarians, for whom the greatest happiness of the greatest number was the ultimate good.
Ten years ago I met an Englishman striving for happiness. The LSE economist Richard Layard was then the government’s “happiness tsar”. He thought happiness was desirable, measurable and attainable. Inspired by a recent fact-finding mission to Bhutan, he argued Britain should emulate the Himalayan kingdom, whose government tries to maximise GNH, or gross national happiness. Layard called for cognitive behavioural therapy courses that would cost £750 for each person. These would pay for themselves in money saved on incapacity benefits and lost tax receipts. Everybody – especially the Treasury – would be happy.
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