Monday 7th August - 07:20 PM BST
The Solo Talk: The Happiness Index and the Futility of Suffering
In the so-called 'happiest' countries in the world, the uncomfortable reality of high rates of depression, suicidality, chronic pain and social isolation are obscured by the conflation of happiness with capitalist conformity.
In this intriguing talk, Rob Boddice challenges the tenets of happiness indices that flatten the subjective states of citizens, and asks pointedly if it is still possible for suffering to be a virtue.
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Rob Boddice
Rob Boddice is a writer and historian who unravels the complexities of the human condition; he is the author/editor of 14 books, most recently Knowing Pain: A History of Sensation, Emotion and Experience (Polity Press). His 2018 and 2019 books, The History of Emotions and A History of Feelings are defining works in the field. He is currently Senior Research Fellow at the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the History of Experiences, Tampere University, Finland, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.