Are the goals of material wealth we have unwittingly set for ourselves really worth pursuing? Have we mistaken the means for the end? Could we have placed too much trust in the market to set our goals? How did we allow ourselves to be enslaved by market forces and become numbers that matter only as consumers?
These were the questions posed by the Prime Minister at the 80th Anniversary of Thai Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Bangkok today.
Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y.Thinley is in Thailand for a two-day visit to speak on Gross National Happiness.
The Prime Minister said the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) indicator that has been blindly and wrongly accepted as a measure of societal well-being is now being recognized as the primary culprit for setting human society on unsustainable path to self destruction. He said while GDP is to be given the credit for much of the good that mankind have achieved, many people are now convinced that the pursuit of limitless growth just does not make sense any more.
“The search for a meaningful and fulfilling way of life has become serious and it begins with the call for a more reliable measure of development that goes beyond the singular purpose of monitoring quarterly economic growth variations.”
The Prime Minister said there is a need to find the wisdom to determine how, by agreeing on a shared vision, a path that will lead toward real progress, can be chosen.
He said Bhutan by following Gross National Happiness as a development paradigm, has managed to balance modernity with tradition, the material with spiritual and cautious growth with sustainability and equality.
“…the growing international interest in GNH has persuaded my country to appreciate that unless GNH renders itself quantifiable with a clear yardstick, it will fail to guide practical policies and programs in a world where anything that cannot be measured is not worth pursuing.”
Lyonchhoen spoke on the four pillars of GNH into nine domains which are measured against 72 variables.
Lyonchhoen also spoke on nuclear weapons. He said it is time to recognize nuclear weapons for what they are not. “They are no longer war deterrents. They make human survival less certain. The world is no more secure now than in the heydays of super-power rivalry.” Instead, the Prime Minister said, what human society needs is the will to build relations that are founded on trust and cooperation.
Lyonchhoen will be back in the country tomorrow.
