I've been wondering, .gs, where in the world are people really happy?
Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Canada typically rank up there in terms of polling. There is indeed such a thing as a World Happiness Report, which released the following ahead of a United Nations holiday celebrating... well, happiness.
It's actually really interesting reading if you have the time for it, but it does beg some deeper questions. Is there a reliable way to test for happiness? If the study is to be believed, then what qualities do the highest ranked countries share? What makes people happy?
My own observations lead me to think about things like public health, material security, quality of social relationships, and maybe most importantly, freedom and creative control over work. Amartya Sen put it pretty elegantly when he said the central concern of human development is ‘our capability to lead the kind of lives we have reason to value’.
How happy do you think people are in your area of the United Kingdom? How happy are you as an individual?
It is my ambition to find a girl who prefers anal to vaginal intercourse. Not because I'm particularly fond of anal sex, but the idea of it is remarkably kinky and arousing.
Until I find that woman I fear I will never be truly happy.
Sadly, it is rather frowned upon to use sites like Fetlife for hook-ups, and I have no intention of participating in that community.
I may have some depraved fetishes, but I'm otherwise a mentally sound individual, something which simply cannot be said for the majority of LGBT/fetish oriented lifestyle types.
>It's actually really interesting reading if you have the time for it
No its not and I will explain why by looking at the methodology:
>The rankings are based on answers to the main life evaluation question asked in the poll. This is called the Cantril ladder: it asks respondents to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10, and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale.
http://worldhappiness.report/faq/
Absolute pop-sci bollocks that people have managed to swindle trips around the world, countless interviews and probably a book out of. I'd hate to be a cunt but if I say 5 and its followed by murmurs and angry scribbling its not my country that is wrong. Similarly cultural biases flourish at least from the Swedes who approach such a question (and life) from the concept of Lagom which is fundamentally different to how we approach and see life.
What even is happiness and why would I want it? This is what made me bin Aristotle.
>>23906 Why is it that every time I go to correct a minor typo some smart arse has replied to me?
Anyway I might be a miserable sod but I like being a miserable sod. Lets see your theory of happiness handle that one.
>>23908 >I'd hate to be a cunt but if I say 5 and its followed by murmurs and angry scribbling its not my country that is wrong.
I don't follow what you mean here. Are you saying that some of the people answering would have been mentally unstable or coerced?
What would a better methodology be for answering a question like this? If you really do think it's 'pop-sci bollocks' then I'm happy to move the conversation into more rational territory. So to criticise the study, I agree that cultural bias would play a part, and the subjective element involved in the perception of happiness would make it difficult to measure.
That being said, I do genuinely believe that people share certain universal needs, like the ones I listed:
>public health, material security, quality of social relationships, and maybe most importantly, freedom and creative control over work.
I don't want to go too far into abstract definitions of happiness. I'm more interested in what creates a better environment for people to flourish.
Cantril developed his ladder in 1965; it has been widely studied and used for over 50 years. Researching something as broad and hard to define as happiness is inherently difficult, but that doesn't mean that this research is meaningless.
Most research now distinguishes between happiness, which tends to fluctuate over quite a short time-frame, and life satisfaction, which tends to be relatively stable.
