Net Happiness and Internal Satisfaction

What is net happiness? A new concept from Singapore former Prime Minister and now Senior Minister (SM), Goh Chok Tong as reported by Channel News Asia recently:

SM Goh acknowledged the situation has resulted in many unhappy Singaporeans, and he sought to put things in perspective.

"Those who missed out, those who can't buy this, who can't upgrade and so on, so we are really feeling the unhappiness, question is was the policy good?

"Unhappiness, those who are happier, in total there's net happiness, there's no such thing called total happiness, don't believe in it. It's whether we create net happiness in all this," said SM Goh. - CNA/fa

He seems to refer to Singapore as a whole. Some are happier and some are not happy. We can’t reach total happiness, i.e. every Singaporean is happy. As far as there are net gain in happiness – positive is greater than negative happiness. We are OK.

How come he is so sure that the net is positive and not negative happiness? Is our dear leader giving a new definition of net happiness? Does he mean in fast developing economy likes Singapore, while achieving high GDP growth, we will sure to achieve net happiness even we have some Singaporeans feeling unhappy.

Perhaps, we can look at the issue from the perspective of internal happiness? To Chinese philosophy, they don’t really talk about happiness either net or total. They want to have internal satisfaction or achieving happiness in one’s heart. To obtain this so called satisfaction or happiness internally, they enjoy the process, regardless of the end result. This is why many Chinese heroes are indeed failures, however, because of their persistence in doing the way they want they gain respect or even worship from the people.

It is important to have self satisfaction internally regardless of materials gain. In order to achieve economic growth, we use materials as a motivator to push Singaporeans to work harder. However, not all can get good job, high salary, better income, better flat, best school etc. Perhaps, we have neglected the quality of life – and SM Goh no more talking about Swiss standard of living anymore!

Of the four major leading philosophical thoughts of the “Hundred schools of thoughts”, perhaps only the legalist is closer to what SM Goh is talking about.

To Confucianism, satisfaction is to doing things morally right. And in the process, one will enjoy satisfaction by improving and enriching ethics and values. Confucianism’s highest achievement is to gentleman. One should obtain highest moral standard by improving and enriching the lives of the people and show love and kindness to people.

To Daoism, they stress even more for the internal force. They believe in harmony with the nature. Things will go and move naturally and reach the end stage without intervention from the state. They don’t have the “net” concept. They seek internal fulfillment. One’s internal richness and closer to Dao is the moment of satisfaction.

To Mohism, they can scarify themselves to achieve their goals. They will do things that they believe are right (i.e. love to all) and help the poor or weak even though they may not be able to resist the strong attaching force. They are happy to carry out their duties even though they face great difficulties or hardship in doing so.

To Legalism, their goal is to assist the Emperor to achieve his goal i.e. a strong nation with military and economic strength. In doing so, some one will have to scarified including the legalists themselves.

Invisible hand and Wu Wei

The theorem of Invisible Hand can be quite similar to wu wei (without action) in philosophical Daoism. Laozi in his book of “Dao de jing” stated that there was no description or definition for Dao (they way) and one will need to improve and learn to acquire “De” to be closer to Dao. And the best way to reach the (never able) state of Dao is though wu wei. Leave everything to nature and it will reach the harmony state of Dao.

It looks simple, just like leaving the market to the invisible hand and then the market will reach equilibrium automatically. Below is the explanation of invisible hand from www.investorwords.com:
“Term used by Adam Smith to describe the natural force that guides free market capitalism through competition for scarce resources. According to Adam Smith, in a free market each participant will try to maximize self-interest, and the interaction of market participants, leading to exchange of goods and services, enables each participant to be better of than when simply producing for himself/herself. He further said that in a free market, no regulation of any type would be needed to ensure that the mutually beneficial exchange of goods and services took place, since this "invisible hand" would guide market participants to trade in the most mutually beneficial manner.”

This is Economics and Adam Smith was born in era of Industrial Revolution and the emergence of Capitalism and middle class. People in that era were seeking profit, market, trade and materials.

However, Laozi’s era was more than 2000 years ago. Facing a warring period, uncertain future, war, and poor, Laozi looked to nature, wu wei (without action), universe changes, self improvement (De), and Pu (simplicity) to reach the way of harmony. And according to Wikipedia:

“Wu wei (无为) is a central concept in Daoism. The literal meaning of wu wei is "without action". It is often expressed by the paradox wei wu wei, meaning "action without action" or "effortless doing". The practice and efficacy of wu wei are fundamental in Taoist thought, most prominently emphasized in Taoism. The goal of wu wei is alignment with Tao, revealing the soft and invisible power within all things. It is believed by Taoists that masters of wu wei can observe and follow this invisible potential, the innate in-action of the Way.”

How come invisible hand is not able to let free market reach the most ideal stage? How come wu wei can not bring one to the philosophical stage of harmony Dao?

In the way to free market stage of most mutually beneficial benefits, there are many obstacles, and the most important one is the value system and moral behaviour. We have given a free hand to the financial market to develop. However, the investment bankers ignore their social responsibilities that lead to Global Financial crisis.

Similarly, how can one reach the harmony state of Dao when one only thinks of hate, greed, zealous, and angry? One does not have enough De, how to talk about Dao?

So, it all goes back to the basic – the fundamental of being good.

Imperfection as motivator

Imperfection is always not ideal. However, once you reach the perfection, that is the end and you will start to fall and decline. Ancient Chinese scholars who studied Yi-Jing or Dao De Jing believed in imperfection. They believed the most beautiful moment was when the moon was approaching full moon and the flower was approaching full bloom. Full moon or full bloom, although perfect, will lead to a down fall.

In surface, this explanation may not be logical, especially for business looking for maximum profit. However, if you analyze it further, you will realize the significance. Look at Microsoft, when they launch their Window version in the market, they are already working on the next version of Window. The just launched version has yet to reach its full market potential. However, Microsoft has already worked on the next version. If Microsoft waits till its full potential, it will be too late to R&D the new version.

Let’s refer to Laozi’s Dao De Jing Chapter 15 (part):

孰能濁以靜之徐清？孰能安以動之徐生？

Who by quieting can gradually render muddy waters clear? Who by stirring can gradually quicken the still? Source: Susuki’s translation, YellowBridge

We can clarify troubled waters by slowly quieting them. We can bring the unconscious to life by slowly moving them. Source: Goddard’s translation, YellowBridge

Here, I provide 2 translations from YellowBridge as 1 translation may not be sufficient to explain the work of Laozi. There are time periods that waters become clear and at the same moment, still waters begin to move again.

Perhaps, we can use the biological activities of cells to explain these changes a little bit. There are passive and active transport in cells. In Wikipedia, we can find the meanings of cell transportation as follows:

Passive transport means moving biochemicals and atomic or molecular substances across the cell membrane. Unlike active transport, this process does not involve chemical energy.
Active transport is the movement of a substance against its concentration gradient using energy. In cells this is usually concerned with accumulating high concentrations of molecules that the cell needs, such as ions, glucose, amino acids

Passive transport does not need energy. However, active transport requires the cell’s energy to generate movements. From muddy waters to clear waters, it is like passive transport and from still waters to moving waters it is like active transport.

Because of passive and active transport or muddy/clear waters and still/moving waters, the situation or environment is always not complete and imperfect. Due to this imperfection, there are rooms for improvement and hence, the activities become motivators for improvement or generators for changes.