Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think it’s more that we just can’t relate to it. How can we relate what people went through hundreds of years ago? You don’t even have to go back in time. By logic, we should be happy if all we have is toast for dinner, because starving people in other countries don’t have anything to eat. But if all you had was toast for dinner, chances are you’d be upset by it. I don’t think it means you’re an ungrateful person or anything like that.
I don’t think it’s any different than a physical ailment. If my knees are killing me, I’m going to be depressed about it, not say “some people have no legs so I should be grateful”. It’s just not human nature to think like that.
I think I read something recently about why Scandinavians are so happy. It’s apparently not really that they are happier than other people, but that they seem to have lower expectations as to what will make them content. That’s not to say that we don’t have valid reasons for not being content all the time. I know someone from Scandinavia who is in the US on a short work assignment. I think he is now a citizen of that country, but he is originally from a country that has a history of human rights violations. He has no desire to go back to his birth country, but is very disillusioned by the American lack of work-life balance. There is something to say for people who have more time to spend making personal connections with family and friends.
I think I read something recently about why Scandinavians are so happy. It’s apparently not really that they are happier than other people, but that they seem to have lower expectations as to what will make them content. That’s not to say that we don’t have valid reasons for not being content all the time. I know someone from Scandinavia who is in the US on a short work assignment. I think he is now a citizen of that country, but he is originally from a country that has a history of human rights violations. He has no desire to go back to his birth country, but is very disillusioned by the American lack of work-life balance. There is something to say for people who have more time to spend making personal connections with family and friends.
Beyond family and friends which I consider my most valuable assets, I also think the Scandinavian tradition of stoicism is a good practice for providing contentment. I see very little of that in American citizens under the age of sixty or seventy.
There is a whole new language in America which involves phrases I never heard while growing up and sounded shocking until I began to hear them everywhere. They reflect a sense of entitlement probably born of prosperity and sound like this:
I deserve. . .
It's my right. . .
Nobody should have to. . .
There's no way I would ever. . .
I don't know how anyone can be content with a list of expected entitlements.
Poor people here in the US have endless luxuries compared to more than half of the world's population alive today. They remain bitter and resentful because others around them have more.
When I traveled the world while in the US Navy, I often said that the poor around the world would gladly switch places with the poor in America. Often poor in the US means you have a home, a car, TV, A/C and other material goods. What they lack is excess money for the nicer things or wants. All their money goes to needs. And even then they find money to get nail done or get the kids $100 sneakers.
It's not materials things, it's the mental and spiritual state of the country that is causing unrest and cumulative dissatisfaction; overwhelming stress at work and over negative news, climate change, Jan 6, twin towers, covid, politics... The list goes on. It's behind the opioid deaths, suicides, depression and anxiety.
As others have probably already mentioned while its certainly true that the level of material comfort existing today in developed countries is far greater than that experienced any time in the past , the non material needs of people living in such countries are greatly lacking for a variety of reasons .
" Man does not live by bread alone " as they say .
I think I read something recently about why Scandinavians are so happy. It’s apparently not really that they are happier than other people, but that they seem to have lower expectations as to what will make them content. That’s not to say that we don’t have valid reasons for not being content all the time. I know someone from Scandinavia who is in the US on a short work assignment. I think he is now a citizen of that country, but he is originally from a country that has a history of human rights violations. He has no desire to go back to his birth country, but is very disillusioned by the American lack of work-life balance. There is something to say for people who have more time to spend making personal connections with family and friends.
Well, he's not alone in that. I too am upset by the American work-life balance, I'm gone 12 hours a day with commute. I have no life at all really because the weekends are just catching up all the chores I couldn't do during the week. We are relatively unique in that in first world countries.
So if I understand this topic.
Depression is not a biological or health concern.?
It's considerably about a persons economic circumstance? Or their perception that little Johnny has more....?
My uncle suffered from depression. He was intelligent, outgoing, terribly giving to his church and community. His economic life was above average.
Maybe he is an exception ... I tend though to find that depression in the medical sense isn't an external onset entirely.
And no...having rainbows and unicorns in the ' be positive!' is not aiding in understanding or acknowledging the truly afflicted. It's not a switch that flicks on or off.
Sure the external circumstance can infiltrate the internal dialogue. It still is a mental deficiency...
When I traveled the world while in the US Navy, I often said that the poor around the world would gladly switch places with the poor in America. Often poor in the US means you have a home, a car, TV, A/C and other material goods. What they lack is excess money for the nicer things or wants. All their money goes to needs. And even then they find money to get nail done or get the kids $100 sneakers.
I don't think that money...at least, disposable income that can be spent on non-essential things...is meaningful to happiness. I don't believe that iPhones and designer jeans contribute to our quality of life in any way that really matters.
In a capitalist society, having enough money to alleviate survival and security fears does play a part and definitely has meaning. If you live with a lot of peril hanging over you, you're going to be stressed by it.
But I think that what other people in some other cultures might have that many in America do not, is community and strong extended family connection. I think that the (again, capitalist) drive to break us up into relatively isolated little household bubbles is harmful in the long term, to our mental and emotional wellbeing.
I think that people who feel isolated, are far more prone to despair.
I know it probably sounds like I'm saying that capitalism is bad...I don't think that it is, but I think that any such system (economic, political, etc) that is not checked by other forces, that is left as a "might makes right" free for all with no limits on exploitation by anyone who can, will spin out of control. Will eventually cause great damage to most of the people trying to live within it.
And it doesn't do much good to tell any group of unhappy people that they should be happy or that others have it worse. They aren't happy, OK, well...why? Get all the way to the roots of the "why?" question and start building solutions there.
Or we can just dismiss it, turn away, there's just no pleasing some people and you can't save everyone and there have always been losers in every game and it's just the way life works.
That would certainly be easier.
I am not, however, persuaded that it is better.
I often hear that people today live in luxury compared to people 150, 200, 400 years ago, etc — but why is it so hard to appreciate this luxury without making relative comparisons to only people around us today?
Even the bottom 20% in the US have luxuries that people 200 years ago couldn’t fathom…television, radio, cell phones, internet, cars, modern medicine, fast food, etc, etc.
Many experienced depression i.e. melancholia in the 19th century (even kings); it’s not going to disappear. You’re making the assumption all is relative to modern luxuries or conveniences whereas it’s simply our perception of ourselves/life, (depression being) most often due to maladaptive wiring and/or ineffective coping skills/problem-solving.
That said, it’s a no-brainer the poorest 20% in the US will face more day-to-day hurdles (as well as a lack of education/resources in which to handle them).
Last edited by CorporateCowboy; 04-07-2022 at 03:40 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
