By Brian Carnell

Friday, August 30, 2002

While the World Summitt on Sustainable Development focused on how to raise much of the under developed world out of poverty, British leftist George Monbiot decided to weigh in with his view that being rich just plain sucks and rich Westerners might enjoy life a little more if they were as poor as, say, the average Ethiopian.

Of course Monbiot insists that he's not glorifying poverty even though that's exactly what he's doing with his vague, impressionistic analysis of the levels of happiness in places like Ethiopia vs. places like the United States. According to Monbiot,

I hardly dare to mention this for fear of being accused of romanticizing poverty or somehow conspiring to keep people in the picturesque state to which I would never submit myself. But it is impossible not to notice that, in some of the poorest parts of the world, most people, most of the time, appear to be happier than we are. In southern Ethiopia, for example, the poorest half of the poorest nation on earth, the streets and fields crackle with laughter. In homes constructed from packing cases and palm leaves, people engage more freely, smile more often, express more affection than we do behind our double glazing, surrounded by remote controls.

Now an obvious possibility here is that people in southern Ethiopians are probably happier than the sort of dour leftist lot that Monbiot likely spends time with. Certainly I've never seen any dearth of happiness or lack of public displays of affection around my wealthy (by Ethiopian standards) neighborhood.

Monbiot, however, thinks he's got proof.

But while poverty does not cause happiness, there appears to be some evidence that wealth causes misery. Since 1950, 25-year-olds in Britain have become 10 times more likely to be affected by depression. And it is surely fair to say that most of us suffer from subclinical neuroses, anxiety or a profound discomfort with ourselves.

Again, when diagnosing the nervous ailments of Westernerers, Monbiot would do well to direct his gaze away from the mirror and stop projecting his own internal problems on Western society as a whole.

As for the claim that the number of 25-year-olds afflicted with depression increased 10-fold since the 1950s, this is a typical weasely bit of Monbiot nonsense. A better way to phrase this would be that the number of 25-year-olds diagnosed with depression has increased 10-fold. Why? Well, gee, could it have anything to do with the fact that Western societies have spent a lot of time and money educating the populace about mental illness and the societal wealth that Monbiot seems to have no use for has allowed for numerous treatment options for such disorders.

Only someone with Monbiot's habit of missing the obvious would make such an absurd claim.

And, of course, Monbiot forgets to mention that poverty-stricken Africa is one of the few places where mentally ill people are still occasionally accused of witchcraft and murdered by vigilantes or imprisoned by the state.

Richer is better, and someday Africa will enjoy the same standard of living as those of us living in developed countries. And, inevitably, those societies will foster their own versions of Monbiot who remember the good old days of their joyful poverty.

Source:

What do we really want? George Monbiot, The Guardian (UK), August 27, 2002.

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