What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘happiness’? There are different lenses to happiness, not just at the individual level, but also at the macro level.
This is a short film by Steve Cutts titled Happiness.
This short film depicts a society of rats, which clearly represents modern men in a rat race. The rats take trains that lead them…nowhere. They are constantly surrounded by billboards and advertisements that promise them happiness when they buy things that they probably do not need. A rat was even prescribed happiness as a medication, which brought him to a temporal high before crashing back down to reality. The parallels drawn in this short animation hit a home run. It makes us wonder if the ways we pursue happiness are truly meaningful, or have we been caught in a happiness trap?
Doesn’t it make you wonder what makes a happy society?
This year, the World Happiness Report ranked Finland, Norway, and Denmark as the top three happiest countries out of 155 countries surveyed. Varying methods of measuring happiness (or what psychologists call “subjective well-being”) are used such as scoring for income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust in governance, and generosity. This report focused on migration, and explored the happiness of immigrants in host countries. An interesting finding was that immigrants are as happy as the local population in the host countries, which can bring new insights into the complex issue of international migration.
Importance of culture in determining happiness
Studying the cultural and social values to determine society’s happiness has helped in the shift away from the traditional forms of measuring a nation’s progress like economic growth, levels of crime or corruption, and quality of education. One oft-cited example of a happy place is Denmark. The Danes have a central cultural value called ‘hygge’. Hygge cannot be substituted with one English word, but can be understood as “the art of creating intimacy“, or a good social atmosphere that evokes feelings of coziness and enjoyment. It is said that this value in Denmark helps city-dwellers to manage stress and create opportunities for quality social connection. Both aspects are important to the wellbeing of an individual. A wonderful example of this can be found on the website Trouva, and in its article on how a ‘hygge’ home could look like.
Government’s role in society’s happiness
At the macro level, governments are concerned about improving the overall well-being of their population. Happy people make a healthier and more harmonious society, which also positively affects health and the economy. City planners are looking at how better urban planning can improve well-being through smart city technologies (example: Dubai’s Happiness Agenda) or rethinking the built environment to foster quality human connection.
Happiness is also a highly personal and subjective state. While some people may be able to change their living environment by moving to another country, others may not be as mobile. Thus, how we respond to the life circumstances, especially with increased stress and competition, and creating our own happiness enabling environment at the individual level is essential to a content life. Consequentially, we may not be as susceptible to get trapped in the proverbial rat race.
Questions for personal evaluation
- Why is it important for a society to be happy?
- How would you define happiness for yourself? How similar or different is it to how governments measure happiness?
Useful vocabulary
- ‘camaraderie’: mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together
- ‘egalitarianism’: the doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities
- ‘proverbial’: referred to in a proverb or idiom
Here are more related articles for further reading:
- Channel News Asia: Commentary on the paradox of measuring happiness.
“Yet levels of global economic inequality and high rates of global depression and mental distress persist. In other words, while we know a lot more about happiness, happiness as a whole has not improved.
This is a pressing issue, and should affect how national governments, cities, and local authorities go about their modern attempts to improve happiness levels.
The problem is that as the field has taken off, a particular understanding of happiness has taken hold. And it is increasingly clear that this definition is limiting.”
- The Atlantic: An interview with someone who has travelled around to find explanations for different levels of happiness in societies.
“In terms of choosing a place to live, people who live near water—whether it’s a lake or river or an ocean—are about 10 percent more likely to be happy than people who don’t. And people who live in medium-sized cities are more likely to be happy than the anonymity of a big city or perhaps the too in-your-face, limited-possibility environment of a tiny town. You’re more likely to be happy if your house has a sidewalk, and if you live in a bikeable place.”
Picture credits: https://pixabay.com/en/crowd-men-women-casserole-2152653/