This structure is to highlight areas of work. I may be able to complete some areas quickly and have some skills for some others. However, I might be completely at loss in some others. There I would invite guest writers or try to "outsource".
Financial wellbeing
Psychological wellbeing
Physical fitness
Pursuit of happiness
Further break up as detailed below
Financial well being
A family should be well fortified against financial disasters, should have a robust current finance status and should be able to fund its dreams.
To this end following specifics emerge
1. Living within its means - the calculation related to lifestyle and income sources
2. Outlining goals, milestones and dreams - collectively - and prioritizing
3. Comprehensive planning and execution of the plan over time
4. Fortification - life and general insurance, indemnities, hidden risks and protection against them
5. Degrees of freedom - what all can a family do and how? The trade-offs into psychological wellbeing
6. Long term wealth building - creating assets for the next generation or large projects
Connected within family domain to
Psychological wellbeing: dreams, conflicts
Physical fitness: Diseases
Pursuit of happiness: Costs of leisurely activities, charity
Psychological wellbeing
This means the family needs to form an environment of security and comfort for its members. These are hygiene factors. The family where it can afford should also try to promote its members to transcend themselves.
On the other hand, the family also needs to ensure lack of mistrust, control of envy, management of dissent and conflicting aspirations. In a sense the family needs to have informal or formal institutions to address these. Hence the following elements seem to emerge
1. Conflict management - short term and deeper conflicts of aspirations and personality types
2. Environment building - security and comfort, development of support systems for members
3. Transcendental drive - ability of the family to enable its members to discover themselves
4. Institutionalization - mostly to manage conflicts but also to enable growth
Connected within family domain to
Financial wellbeing: dreams, conflicts
Physical fitness: Sex life, diseases
Pursuit of happiness: Impact of the pursuit on the environment
Physical fitness
The family members should be fit barring the congenital diseases. These should also be planned for appropriately. The family needs to be proactive in ensuring its members are free from diseases, disease-provoking lifestyles or habits and that its members build robust physical health. This can thus be listed as below
1. Healthchecks
2. Controlling destructive habits and building good ones - special reference to smoking and drinking
3. Exercise and maintenance of momentum
4. Managing diseases
5. Healthy sex lives of members
Connected within family domain to
Psychological wellbeing: Sex life, diseases
Financial wellbeing: Diseases
Pursuit of happiness: Constraints on activities, time allocation to physical fitness and pursuit
Pursuit of happiness
A family should promote its members to discover themselves. However, it should also promote collective activities and actions which will enable collective pursuit of happiness in addition to the individual projects of its members. This involves the following areas.
1. Leisure activities - short duration
2. Vacations and time off - few days
3. Daily life activities - routines which are delightful for all
4. Projects undertaken collectively
5. Ceremonies and functions
6. Charity and charitable activities
Connected within family domain to
Psychological wellbeing: Impact of the pursuit on the environment
Physical fitness: Constraints on activities, time allocation to physical fitness and pursuit
Financial wellbeing: Costs of leisurely activities, charity
The above attempt is of course deductive and analytical in nature and thus is not likely to capture the synthetic and inductive part of the discussion on wellbeing. In other words, the above analysis deals with parts of overall wellbeing of the family in isolation. At best there is an attempt to understand the interconnections amongst these basic elements. What this analysis will leave out is the interconnection of these elements with the social, economic, and political context of the family. On the personal side it also overlooks the individual aspirations and the tradeoff between these and the family's priorities. Lastly on a subtler level, it also ignores the effect the environmental stimuli have on the various sub-elements.
Thus the analysis will remain imperfect. Probably that is for the better. The handbook is not a prescription. It is a provoker and guide to structuring of thoughts. It is also expected to serve another purpose. It is taking out one thing at a time from the overall context, analysing it and placing it back. In doing so, it is expected to at least understand the elements. Once such understanding is mastered, the synthsis can be attempted with renewed vigor. One might object to the approach and claim that the analysis may not add any value whatsoever to a synthetic approach. That however is a conceptual dead end. The whole of the study of wellbeing is so highly complex that one can only get overwhelmed and stop further study. The hope of this analysis is that in the units outlined in the introduction to the handbook project (social, family, individual, state, markets, global cooperation) are large enough for allowing their own study while temporarily ignoring the effects from other elements. The final synthesis will then deal with the entire system whose parts we understand better than earlier.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The handbook of wellbeing
I was discussing this concept with chhavi the other day. It occurred to me when i was looking at maps of various continents. If you know a bit of history and geography, it is a very good exercise to look at the maps. With sufficient imagination you can almost see the soldiers moving across the lines, ships and pipelines getting built and so on.
I looked at Asia - and saw south east asia on one side, south asia on another, central on third, west on forth, east on fifth! How diverse are these regions! The south east with its new found vigor, the south with its renewed claim for the place under sun, the east with the growth that looks like it will change the global order and the further east which has already done so in the past. The central which looks really lost if you ask me. And the west which is not lost but definitely not the beacon of hope for the the future of humanity either!
Africa is depressing if you look closely enough. The straight lines of the borders in the northern africa smack of the imperial past and the atrocities then as now. The collection of small nations near the western belly of the continent is at best unnerving, one can only relate football or civil wars or blood diamond to it! Central Africa is no better - with nations you would never prefer to find yourself in. South gets a little better but only little.
Russia to me is a continent in its own right! Weird country, now it was there now it wasn't. It seemed like it challenged the amroos successfully, and then not quite and maybe again so!
Europe is the starkest example of how differences can exist so near each other. Europe is ironically a better showcase of capitalism and its virtues (i dont believe in it fully, this is just for those who are looking for showcases) than US. The east is so much behind the west, and the north inspires intrigue in its prosperity and egalitarian society. The mighty blood suckers UK and France and the confused Italy, those of glorious past but average present namely spain and portugal and those of even more glorious past but better than average present namely greece and turkey.
North america is a straightforward affair - quite linear in its ideology especially seen in the context of the confusion all over the world - india, japan, china, europe, west asia, africa and so on. Unlike these, for better to worse, US is very clear in its liking of domestic capitalism, hatred for free trade and an aspiration to lead the world, predominantly militarily and financially (not necessarily economically).
South and central america is quite interesting and a bit puzzling. Their imperialism was so much different and older than asia's or africa's. Their orientation in life is also that much more different. They are neither oriental nor occidental. Their cultures are affected by the imperialists but still maintain a strange halo of the past! Higher prosperity than asia or africa even if it is lower than US or western europe.
That survey provokes several emotions in one's mind. The primary one that i was left with was a sense of difference in achievements of various people. The prosperity levels differ so very widely that it is almost puzzling for an alien observer. There is another layer of social stability which varies as much and at times at odds with prosperity - e.g. middle east! Then there is intellectual sophistication and cultural evolution - which is at times more marked in otherwise poor places like India. Where does that leave us?
This propelled me to think that wellbeing can be sought by all human beings - in different walks of their lives - by starting to study and emulate the more advanced ones on their own planet! To their credit, many are doing it already. China is learning from the west on capitalistic growth, US is learning from India Yog and spiritual well being. The project i wish to undertake is a step in similar direction. Since my strength lies in masterminding a project than in executing it, i am going to focus on outlining what needs to be done. If i have sufficient money in the latter part of my life, or at least access to such money, i would try to set up a think tank which will carry the work forward. Else i will have to rely on the collective wisdom of human beings in evaluating it and taking it forward if found worthy of it.
The Project thus has following elements
.Handbook for the welfare state - economic growth and human development
.Handbook for the individual - spiritual upliftment and cultural refinement
.Handbook for the family - financial security, growth and pursuit of happiness
.Handbook for the society - culture, its evolution and maintenance
.Handbook for the markets - benefits and limits of various models of development
.Handbook for the police state - containing destructive element in the long term
.Handbook for the global conglomeration of states - beyond arbitration
The orientation of The Project will be experimental and fact driven. The topics related to states and markets will be dealt with using secondary data and in future primary interviews. The topics related to individuals and families will be dealt with largely through experimentation and primary interviews. The experimentation will be on my own family.
I looked at Asia - and saw south east asia on one side, south asia on another, central on third, west on forth, east on fifth! How diverse are these regions! The south east with its new found vigor, the south with its renewed claim for the place under sun, the east with the growth that looks like it will change the global order and the further east which has already done so in the past. The central which looks really lost if you ask me. And the west which is not lost but definitely not the beacon of hope for the the future of humanity either!
Africa is depressing if you look closely enough. The straight lines of the borders in the northern africa smack of the imperial past and the atrocities then as now. The collection of small nations near the western belly of the continent is at best unnerving, one can only relate football or civil wars or blood diamond to it! Central Africa is no better - with nations you would never prefer to find yourself in. South gets a little better but only little.
Russia to me is a continent in its own right! Weird country, now it was there now it wasn't. It seemed like it challenged the amroos successfully, and then not quite and maybe again so!
Europe is the starkest example of how differences can exist so near each other. Europe is ironically a better showcase of capitalism and its virtues (i dont believe in it fully, this is just for those who are looking for showcases) than US. The east is so much behind the west, and the north inspires intrigue in its prosperity and egalitarian society. The mighty blood suckers UK and France and the confused Italy, those of glorious past but average present namely spain and portugal and those of even more glorious past but better than average present namely greece and turkey.
North america is a straightforward affair - quite linear in its ideology especially seen in the context of the confusion all over the world - india, japan, china, europe, west asia, africa and so on. Unlike these, for better to worse, US is very clear in its liking of domestic capitalism, hatred for free trade and an aspiration to lead the world, predominantly militarily and financially (not necessarily economically).
South and central america is quite interesting and a bit puzzling. Their imperialism was so much different and older than asia's or africa's. Their orientation in life is also that much more different. They are neither oriental nor occidental. Their cultures are affected by the imperialists but still maintain a strange halo of the past! Higher prosperity than asia or africa even if it is lower than US or western europe.
That survey provokes several emotions in one's mind. The primary one that i was left with was a sense of difference in achievements of various people. The prosperity levels differ so very widely that it is almost puzzling for an alien observer. There is another layer of social stability which varies as much and at times at odds with prosperity - e.g. middle east! Then there is intellectual sophistication and cultural evolution - which is at times more marked in otherwise poor places like India. Where does that leave us?
This propelled me to think that wellbeing can be sought by all human beings - in different walks of their lives - by starting to study and emulate the more advanced ones on their own planet! To their credit, many are doing it already. China is learning from the west on capitalistic growth, US is learning from India Yog and spiritual well being. The project i wish to undertake is a step in similar direction. Since my strength lies in masterminding a project than in executing it, i am going to focus on outlining what needs to be done. If i have sufficient money in the latter part of my life, or at least access to such money, i would try to set up a think tank which will carry the work forward. Else i will have to rely on the collective wisdom of human beings in evaluating it and taking it forward if found worthy of it.
The Project thus has following elements
.Handbook for the welfare state - economic growth and human development
.Handbook for the individual - spiritual upliftment and cultural refinement
.Handbook for the family - financial security, growth and pursuit of happiness
.Handbook for the society - culture, its evolution and maintenance
.Handbook for the markets - benefits and limits of various models of development
.Handbook for the police state - containing destructive element in the long term
.Handbook for the global conglomeration of states - beyond arbitration
The orientation of The Project will be experimental and fact driven. The topics related to states and markets will be dealt with using secondary data and in future primary interviews. The topics related to individuals and families will be dealt with largely through experimentation and primary interviews. The experimentation will be on my own family.
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