The embedded video below comes by way of Auntiegrav in a recent comment, and I love it. No surprise I’ve long been enamored with measuring data, so it’s a real kick in the seat to see statistician Nic Marks talking about happiness and ecology.
Another cool resource to kill a couple of hours (fair warning) is Nationmaster. It’s no wonder I married a Venezuelan girl.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Fuck the nightmare. Shine a light instead. I don’t fear fear. Fear fears me. Dump paranoia and adopt pronoia: “I have a funny feeling the universe is conspiring to help me.” You can’t count wine, only the glasses you pour it into. The reason we don’t measure happiness is because once you’re happy, it speaks for itself. The only truly scarce resource is our imagination. This guy is on the money — it’s quality, not quantity. Less is more. Especially when you shit-can the military and put money into things, as Auntie likes to say, that are USEFUL. Indeed, we need to carry on the unusual business of well-being, if for no other reason than to continue paying into the matrix of our slave-masters. Just kidding. Naturally, our connections to others are important, but they don’t presuppose or supersede one’s relationship to self, from which those other relationships flow. The five ways to be happier are all good. Generosity is a virtue. I’ve been to the top of the mountain too. It looked so good I flew off the top.
I am, by nature, an unhappy person (“A bitchin’ sailor is a happy sailor.”), but after many years of self-searching and learning, I simply have found that my form of happiness has no place in the U.S. of Opportunism. That’s because what satisfies my core being is to be useful and to be appreciated for it (and the attention to detail which that entails). My associations with other people, if they are agreeable, come about because I find them to be useful and I try to show my appreciation of that. I would call it “deep contentment” rather than “happiness”. “Happiness” in the general sense has been associated too much with “fun”. “Fun” is faddish and temporary and shallow. Deep contentment is saying, “There is no shame in this death. This is a good death.” After all, it is at the point of our death when our perpetual change comes to a halt. It isn’t the “5 people you meet in heaven” that matter: it’s the one person you know on
Earth when you die that does, and everyone dies alone.
That said, I am in the midst of three mindful authors at once: This talk about the happy index actually conflicts to some degree with “Stumbling on Happiness” by Gilbert (also partially covered in a Ted talk here:”Our Mistaken Expectations” http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_gilbert_researches_happiness.html). Some countries get it right: dropping their paranoia in favor of cooperation is probably the most important (setting up an environment of lower stress), as we cannot predict what we will actually ‘want’ from one day to the next, let alone far into the future. It’s better to stop trying to make people happy(which usually means selling something), and reduce the stress on everything else. The third mindful story I’m in is “Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture”. When “Cheap” is combined with Gilberts illustation of our inability to predict the future or remember the past, one can easily understand how the consumer culture has become a primary motive of self-destruction (Cheap crap makes people happier than expensive crap). We cannot consume our way out of it, and leaving it takes some serious leadership, both from the bottom and the top (there is no middle class).
Sorry that was so long.
P.S. Here’s someone doing a lot for the future: Growing Power’s National-International Urban & Small Farm Conference
September 10 – 12th 2010http://www.growingpowerfarmconference.org/
Auntie, my brother used to say anger was my default position. It worked for me in some tough times, but it has it’s cost. As I got older, I realized the amount of energy it took to be that way, and how the wake it left behind had consequences. I had, and still do to some extent, a way of leaning on people; testing them, wearing them down. I want to know who you are and how you behave when you are off balance. The ones that push back and show spirit and resourcefulness get my most loyal and generous side. My daughter used to tell her friends “the reason he is messing with you is because he likes you. Otherwise, he would ignore you”.
I have an issue with the term “Happiness”. There is a great song by the band Shinedown called “Happy is a Yuppie Word”. It is something you don’t experience over time; it happens in short bursts. The day you get married, the birth of a child, the celebrations of life. It’s not sustainable. So like a crack addict who keeps chasing the first high, the consumer keeps buying the next best thing, hoping to keep that happiness plate spinning on the stick. But the cost benefit is just not there.
I prefer the word thankful. That is something I can manage. It is attainable every day of my life, but I must look for it. In the course of, what I perceived to be, a “bad day”, an older custodian in the building listened to me bitch. He was an immigrant from some poverty stricken African country, a worker in uniform that is a ubiquitous fixture in the American commercial property. In one of my few pauses he said “You must choose to be thankful”. Just like that. I didn’t hear it then, but I have heard it since, and frequently. My worst day was probably better than his best, and he had the dignity to refrain from laughing in my face and gave me a touchstone to take with me. This is what consists of a small act of generosity. So I started to mind how I spoke to the everyday folks in my life. All interaction has consequence. You create the spin.
“There is no shame in this death.” Man, don’t you know it. This is my pep talk to myself. If I were told today that I had a year to live, how would I react? Well, at first, maybe entitled to something more. But on reflection, had I been offered these terms from the start, I probably would have signed up. Let’s see; we are offering you high grade food and shelter, meaningful work, a soul mate, amazing children, a committed and loving extended family, a large circle of close friends, an insatiable appetite for a bottomless well of knowledge, and the ability to laugh through any pain. But at 55, you gotta go.
Shit, where do I sign?
“I don’ fear fear, fear fears me”. Shine on, Will!
In the words of the immortal Marcellus Wallace, “That’s just pride fuckin’ with you…fuck pride”.
I kinda wonder if this chart showing Ireland and Iceland near the top pre-dates their recent financial woes.
Tommy – I’m just catching up on your posts. Is that photo down the page your little girl? She’s beautiful.
KJEAN,
Not sure about the age of the charted data. Yep, that’s my girl. Thanks. We call her, “The Wild Child.”
Another great discussion. I can relate to Auntie… I sort of gave up “happiness” and found that it helped pave out a sense of contentment. Being happy is a lot of work, and I prefer being free. This means, free to get extraordinarily pissed off, sad, annoyed, and even paranoid at times. The more I’ve tried to control it, the more extreme I’ve become.
Happiness and satisfaction are fleeting, but I like “useful” and I like “thankful” in terms of simplicity and utilitarianism. I still live for the fleeting moments, though — the wedding days and birth of children because it always seems like these moments that we create and anticipate is when large groups choose to commune. No matter what, we’re going to connect, but that can happen even in extraordinarily unhappy periods as well.
One thing is for certain, I appreciate the community here — even if it is virtual it still has meaning for me. Thank you.
I also appreciate & value the community here. And your ‘wild child’ is adorable! I’m really glad that her fun, smiles, and laughter “flew the bird” to the TCA person trying to control her!
So… what I’ve learned from this dialogue:
Happiness is what you make it – for some it’s “things” for others it’s relationships, but it’s all fleeting and temporary; however, gratitude and contentment is deep and sustainable… and a choice.
Finding joy in the eternal moment that is NOW – how much more so if it is “usefull”!
@Auntiegrav:
Talk about consumers forgetting the past. I recently talked with a coworker, and her aunt was a Starbucks addict! but once 9/11 happened and Starbucks was selling bottles of water to victims of the collapse, at $10 a bottle!! she vowed to never drink their coffee again… and she hasn’t!!
I wonder how many people made that same vow, then -over time- forgot.
Sumo:
Since seeing “The High Cost of Low Price” years ago, I have not stepped foot in a Wal Mart, and implore others to watch the movie. But they still go because they save 50 cts. on a six pack of Coke (drinking Coke, a whole other issue to examine). Lots of people simply don’t WANT to know because they are afraid of the slippery slope of knowing the truth.
Once you take the red pill, there is no going back.
Really like what Nic Marks has to say.
How sad for us that the metrics dominating our lives are mostly all financial/economic in nature. Somewhere along the way we allowed these sectors of influence to have control over our lives.
So how to replace/change the metrics which are a reflection or representation of “what matters most” to the people of this Country?
If we apply Nic’s thinking, we’d say that “It’s time to ReNEW/ReCLAIM the AMERICAN DREAM” by rethinking our PURPOSE, VISION, VALUES (what matters most), and GOALS/Roles as AMERICANS. This would be a massive undertaking and in my mind is the most important task at hand. New metrics would arise and be a direct reflection of what we say matters most in the lives of Americans.
Notice how this is a counterpoint to the “Take our Country Back” idea (which means snatch it from the claws of the evil folks who are destroying it). This popular movement encourages us to fight each other over our Country while we engage in a massive blame game and fear smear to win her back.
Why not engage in the Rebuilding of the American dream as the major project of the 21st Century? It would BE the infrastructure of our future and the foundation for a new prosperity.
@Susan Marie: “Why not engage in the Rebuilding of the American dream as the major project of the 21st Century? It would BE the infrastructure of our future and the foundation for a new prosperity.”
I like what you are trying to get to, but a lot of the words make me cringe. “American Dream” gives me nightmares of exurbs and suburbs full of drywall McMansions, and “prosperity” reeks of money and exploitation to me.
I think what you are trying to get to is that we should be working toward thriving in new ways, not reigniting competition, but rebuilding communities that foster their people. Recent egg recalls remind me that there are very few small processors of food for people who WANT to raise their own chickens for the town. Things like that come from the people, not from ‘above’, and so we need to build them ourselves.
The typical dish of American “happiness” is too watery and bland. I like to add a bit of Hellenic meat and spice (snatched from my local wikimart) to our freedom stew…
Eudaimonia is a classical Greek word commonly translated as ‘happiness’. Etymologically, it consists of the word “eu” (“good” or “well being”) and “daimōn” (“spirit” or “minor deity”, used by extension to mean one’s lot or fortune).
Although popular usage of the term happiness refers to a state of mind, related to joy or pleasure, eudaimonia rarely has such connotations, and the less subjective “human flourishing” is often preferred as a translation.
“Eudaimonia” is a central concept in ancient Greek ethics, along with the term “arete”, most often translated as “virtue”, and phronesis, often translated as “practical or moral wisdom.” Some philosophers believed eudaimonia (not arete) to be the highest human good, and were concerned with studying ways to achieve it.
English “happiness” refers to a subjective state or overall measure of designated states as an assessment of the quality of one’s life, whereas eudaimonia refers to the experience of a life course which is objectively desirable in itself.
A moral theory which links virtue (arete) and happiness (eudaimonia) specifying the relation between these two concepts is one of the central preoccupations of ancient ethics, and a subject of much disagreement. As a result there are many varieties of eudaimonism.
Two of the most influential forms are those of Aristotle and the Stoics. Aristotle takes virtue and its exercise to be the most important constituent in eudaimonia but does acknowledge the importance of external goods such as health, wealth, and beauty. By contrast, the Stoics make virtue necessary and sufficient for eudaimonia and thus deny the necessity of external goods.
@ AUNTIE – Appreciate the feedback. Let’s see if we can come up with something better.
I chose the American dream + prosperity approach because it has deep roots and most folks understand the concepts. I’m always trying to build bridges from where we are today to where we need to go…so I choose words/ideas that have the potential to include and attract as many people to the cause as possible.
Let me rethink my words…
This is getting interesting!
I have one big relevant bit of usefulness to contribute to this discussion: Bhutan.
Bhutan, a small Himalayan Kingdom, has been working for some time now with the concept of Gross Domestic Happiness (GNH). I have pulled a few useful quotes to paint the picture… there is much more to consider at the sites I link to below:
1. “His Majesty the King has said that a GNH society means the creation of an enlightened society in which happiness and well-being of all people and sentient beings is the ultimate purpose of governance.
2. Need for GNH index: Across the world, indicators focus largely on market transactions, covering trade, monetary exchange rates, stockmarket, growth, etc. These dominant, conventional indicators, generally related to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reflect quantity of physical output of a society. GDP, along with a host of supporting indicators, is the most widely used indicator. Yet GDP is heavily biased towards increased production and consumption, regardless of the necessity or desirability of such outputs, at the expense of other more holistic criterion. It is biased against conservation since it does not register conservation or stocks.
3. GNH as Goal: Happiness is a subjectively felt public good. Happiness is a public good, as all human beings value it. Hence, the government of Bhutan takes the view that it cannot be left exclusively to private individual devices and strivings. If a governments policy framework, and thus a nations macro-conditions, is adverse to happiness, happiness will fail as a collective goal. Any government concerned with happiness must create conducive conditions for happiness in which individual strivings can succeed.
4. The GNH indicators have been designed to include nine core dimensions that are regarded as components of happiness and well-being in Bhutan, and are constructed of indicators which are robust and informative with respect to each of the dimensions. The nine dimensions were selected on normative grounds, and are equally weighted, because each dimension is considered to be relatively equal in terms of equal intrinsic importance as a component of gross national happiness. Within each dimension, several indicators were selected that seemed likely to remain informative across time, had high response rates, and were relatively uncorrelated. The nine dimensions are:
1. Psychological Well-being
2. Time Use
3. Community Vitality
4. Culture
5. Health
6. Education
7. Environmental Diversity
8. Living Standard
9. Governance
In this perspective happiness comprises having sufficient achievements in each of the nine dimensions.
Much more information can be found at the site I copied the above text from: http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/gnhIndex/intruductionGNH.aspx
and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_national_happiness
How do we, in Western Corporatocracies, realign ourselves to a framework of governance that hold the concept of GNH (or one very much like it) central to all that we do?
There is a high emphasis placed on USEFULNESS in this blog, and I wonder what that truly means. It is such a subjective term, and is really actually meaningless. No offense, but you all spend so much time and energy talking around the point that I am starting to wonder if you know what it is. The identification with usefulness is troubling, to say the least, and is only a last ditch effort to cling to some manifestation of the ego-centric NEED to be useful.
You want to be free? Let it go.
You all are completely useLESS. Believe THAT, and you will have begun the true path of a “Freedom Guerilla.”
I say this from a place of deep respect.
@STEVE:
Yup, we murdered Wal-Mart right out of our budget and routine, and the mere use of the word -in our household- conjures a curled lip as if someone said “pedophile!”. We’re trying to buy local whenever possible.
@SUSAN MARIE:
You have a beautiful mind & heart.
I knew what you meant/your purpose for choosing the words you did.
@A.F. WALKING:
Thanks for sharing that! I am fascinated and intrigued… and fantasizing what it would be like to live in a society like that – top down/bottom up caring about others.
@ECOPAX:
“You all are completely…” I think you mean “WE all are completely…”. I also think you could have elaborated a bit more on the ‘ego’ thought. Tolle – brilliant.
@ A.F. WALKING: Thanks for bringing GNH/Bhutan WAY into the discussion. I would be very HAPPY to LIVE and CONTRIBUTE in a community built around these VALUES.
“How do we, in Western Corporatocracies, realign ourselves to a framework of governance that hold the concept of GNH (or one very much like it) central to all that we do?”
The only answer is to form small/local communities around the values we hold dear and let the rest happen.
This provides a living, breathing, in real-time example of how The People can/could reframe/realign the American dream + prosperity.
@ECOPAX: Is it useFULNESS? I am guilty of the need to be practical. It is in my nature to translate/clarify for my own deeper UNDERSTANDING. I take your comment as insightful – and I respectfully look within to identify when/where I may be needing to be useful.
UseFULNESS – being used fully in FULLNESS?
I am inclined to “make it happen” vs “let it happen”. Maybe that is the trigger. Much of the “make it happen” energy is useLESS. Less is more more or less. Just Musing…….
I’ll clarify “net useful” to some extent, and obfuscate some more…
Think of a mosquito: it consumes your blood. It annoys you (consumes your peacefulness), and spreads disease (consumes your security). Meanwhile, it produces offspring that feed the bats, the barnswallows, the trout, and the dragonflies. Its ability to produce so many offspring in so short a time from so many sources of blood is its primary usefulness. The spreading of diseases stimulates immune systems and tests them, making them stronger when other diseases come along. We may put screens up to keep out the mosquitoes and those also might keep out things that would kill us that we didn’t know about yet.
Second example: A baby starts out completely dependent upon its parents. Eventually it grows up, starts to do helpful work, perhaps builds a home for itself, cares for the land in a way that produces more food and life in the soil than would grow without its good work. This person grows old, becomes dependent upon their children to care for, but then provides stories and guidance of experience and sustainable living.
Usefulness is subjective. Consumption is subjective. A term like “net usefulness” is a philosophical comparison between these two things, yet nature measures and defines the results continuously, and the final judgment is not complete until long after the individual is dead and gone and all of that individual’s influences are tallied by one thing: the continued existence of that species in the ecosystem. The current trend, as Ecopax notes, is that humans are use-less, not use-full: as a species, we are consuming more than we are creating for the ecosystem. Evolution happens when some members of the species break off and act on the fringe: outside of the ‘norm’, and they cooperate with the ecosystem to survive the various threats of Randomness while the “normal” or “mean” are extinguished by their own consumption, overpopulation or by random fireballs from the sky. If there are enough on the fringe to escape the concentrated vulnerability of the mean, they manage to reproduce and continue.
The very existence of humans means that they have the ability to be net useful at least to their own existence, pretty much in the physical form we have now. Whether the vulnerability of the mean becomes a threat to the fringe is up to fate and capability (if we get “Venus” or “greenhouse” effects).
The happiest people you will ever see are the poor in Africa. They play and laugh and enjoy life. 80% of them die from preventable childhood diseases before they turn 18. Most women have children at about age 15 and they have 6-8 kids they can neither feed adequately nor house. They work themselves into a crippled old age of about 55 if they are lucky enough to live that long. Their dental health is awful they suffer from many preventable diseases as adults and their average life expectancy is 39. So why are they happy??? Probably simple ignorance. So is a survey of how “happy” people in a nation are of any value or accuracy?
I can give you a much better measure. Create a chart showing each country and a bar graph showing how many people try to get into the country legally and illegally each year. I’m guessing the U.S. will be the top of the list.
@Gone,
Good question. Another good question is, “why AREN’T Americans happy????” After all, we’ve got all this security and wealth and shit.
Another good chart would be to measure how many immigrants would love to go back to their home countries after being in the US for more than 6 months. Having met several hundred of these immigrants, my guess would be that’s the number is fairly high — except that we’ve got these dollars that seem to make the world spin. Most times they’re here in order to either save their family from oppression or to save their family from oppression. Would you sacrifice your happiness in a mad world for the opportunity to enhance the lives of your tribe?
So, why not fuse “happiness” (however ill defined) with security? In the words the best XO ever… “this doesn’t have to suck.” We just seem to make it want to suck – as if the world spins on an axle of sucking. Waste, degradation, and “preventable childhood diseases” seem to reign supreme in the wild, wild world of things that should not be. I don’t understand it.
I have never been to Africa, but what I know about this area of the world is that there are plenty of wasted opportunities, wasted resources, and wasted lives — similar to America, but — you know, totally different. I guess I’m an Utopian. I just don’t see why the land of excess can’t fuse with the land of depletion and learn from each other. Oh yeah, I forgot about a slew of asshole politics and unnatural boundaries.
Simple ignorance? That seems mighty ignorant. I’ve never been to Africa, but I know plenty about Latin America, and I know that the Venezuelans have little to look forward to with Hugo Chavez but plenty to celebrate with their own families. Something tells me that Africans may also have similar values — community, unity, and family. How ignorant. Oh, and BTW, in the race for happiness and dental health I’m going with happiness. Fuck the teeth.
You seem to value things like security and longevity. I don’t. I’d rather live a short, meaningful life than a long, meaningless life. There are some Americans who have suffered plenty and understand that shared suffering can actually bind. Maybe the fact that a happy African life is so improbable makes it all the happier — I don’t know. The paradox is that all this wealth ain’t doing shit for the happy American life. Calling it ignorance seems so insulting to me. But, I guess that’s how it rolls for you.
The US is at the top of the list because we disagree with each other, grapple, fight, and argue like family. It’s our culture. It’s one of the only things that makes us great. We can spin bullshit on a website then re-spin some ill formed argument then go toe to toe. We can challenge each other and still be intact. We’re obsessed with our freedom, just like the Founders intended.
I absolutely love your comments. Sometimes in the FG Cafe we get caught up in support and tend not to challenge each others’ bullshit. However, we’ve been here for almost a year, and we’ve seen the challengers come and go. I hope you stick around.
Tommy said, “We just seem to make it want to suck – as if the world spins on an axle of sucking. I don’t understand it.”
I think you understand, you just don’t really want to admit that you do.
A lot of the unhappiness in the U.S. is intentionally generated.
“You stink.”
Wanna buy some deodorant?
“Your kid’s teeth are crooked.”
Wanna buy some braces?
“You’re a sinner. Everyone is.”
Wanna buy your way into heaven?
See a pattern to Western ‘Civilization’ emerging here, Scully?
It’s ALL in the marketing.
Convince people they are happy to have a bowl of GMO rice and they won’t mob your blood diamond-financed palace. Tell them they need doctors they can’t afford and they are glad to pay ‘half price’ to get insurance which pretends to get them those doctors at full price.
The point to Gilbert’s “Stumbling on Happiness” is that happiness is synthesized according to what our brain needs to have. In the U.S., happiness is never allowed to accumulate before the next Big Thing has to be sold (like a war on Terror, for example, that is statistically insignificant compared to the automobile or the mistakes of our hospitals and doctors).
Happiness, like an Economy, is only a second-hand result of people being useful to each other. GWTW is correct that it is a bullshit way of measurement, but then, it is still a good thing to have more of, and apparently, reducing frenetic activity surrounding money seems to result in more economy and more happiness, and more stability to both.