The huge issue with these happiness polls is that people define happiness in many different ways.
It is very easy to just say "these people have money, they have food, they can go to school, they must be the happiest", meanwhile that just fills a lot of the basic needs. I'm not saying those needs are not necessary or that nobody lack them or nobody is unhappy because they lack them.
But a lot of Nordic countries seem to lack different needs human beings have. Namely community, bonds. Also, guidelines and aims in life.
Ask a little child what he wants to eat. Tell him, "you can pick anything" and he will say weird things and become incoherent, ask for impossible things, etc. Tell him "you can pick from this list of items" and you will have a much easier time.
A lot of these extremely comfortable societies have the same issue; people have no guidance and no defined paths. Some benefit from that immensely, but most normal, average people with average to low motivation, average intelligence, etc. just kind of get lost and many slip through the cracks.
You are forgetting the incredible push from Scandinavian countries to destroy their culture and heritage and import another one.
That is extremely difficult for the youth to accept because they don't WANT a foreign culture. They are told what they know is bad and what they see as bad is good, so they turn to drugs because life doesn't make sense to them.
Why build a life in a country that doesn't want you in it?
Why build a life in a country that doesn't want you in it?
When I was a kid, it was a given that I'd be living out my days in America, because America was among the best places to live on the planet and it was only getting better.
Now, it's almost a given that I won't be living here much longer, because it's rapidly becoming a shithole and I'm ruled by malicious tyrants who hate me.
I don't think I'll end my life in America, not because any other country on Earth is more tolerable, but because I don't think America will out-live me.
Where are you thinking about moving that's less fucked than here?
Any non-EU country in Europe is going to weather the next 20 years better than the rest of the world. Every great country in the world became great by having a "fuck you, I'm doing what's best for my people" attitude. It's all that's required to prosper. Most of the world has forgotten this, but certain countries are beginning to remember.
but most normal, average people with average to low motivation, average intelligence, etc. just kind of get lost and many slip through the cracks.
Yep. Widen the possible paths people can take and you minimize the chance of any one landing on a "good" path.
The older I get, the more I see just how helpful constraints are to people. I have to tell you, realizing this really just opens the door to questioning a lot of presuppositions we take for granted in the West.
The huge issue with these happiness polls is that people define happiness in many different ways.
It is very easy to just say "these people have money, they have food, they can go to school, they must be the happiest", meanwhile that just fills a lot of the basic needs. I'm not saying those needs are not necessary or that nobody lack them or nobody is unhappy because they lack them.
But a lot of Nordic countries seem to lack different needs human beings have. Namely community, bonds. Also, guidelines and aims in life.
Ask a little child what he wants to eat. Tell him, "you can pick anything" and he will say weird things and become incoherent, ask for impossible things, etc. Tell him "you can pick from this list of items" and you will have a much easier time.
A lot of these extremely comfortable societies have the same issue; people have no guidance and no defined paths. Some benefit from that immensely, but most normal, average people with average to low motivation, average intelligence, etc. just kind of get lost and many slip through the cracks.
You are forgetting the incredible push from Scandinavian countries to destroy their culture and heritage and import another one.
That is extremely difficult for the youth to accept because they don't WANT a foreign culture. They are told what they know is bad and what they see as bad is good, so they turn to drugs because life doesn't make sense to them.
Why build a life in a country that doesn't want you in it?
When I was a kid, it was a given that I'd be living out my days in America, because America was among the best places to live on the planet and it was only getting better.
Now, it's almost a given that I won't be living here much longer, because it's rapidly becoming a shithole and I'm ruled by malicious tyrants who hate me.
I don't think I'll end my life in America, not because any other country on Earth is more tolerable, but because I don't think America will out-live me.
Where are you thinking about moving that's less fucked than here?
Any non-EU country in Europe is going to weather the next 20 years better than the rest of the world. Every great country in the world became great by having a "fuck you, I'm doing what's best for my people" attitude. It's all that's required to prosper. Most of the world has forgotten this, but certain countries are beginning to remember.
"Seinfeld, four?"
Yep. Widen the possible paths people can take and you minimize the chance of any one landing on a "good" path.
The older I get, the more I see just how helpful constraints are to people. I have to tell you, realizing this really just opens the door to questioning a lot of presuppositions we take for granted in the West.
Decision paralysis is real, and inducing it on the masses has not been the act of a kind and understanding ruling class.