Happiest countries in the world

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The U of Leicester in the UK has published an article that includes this interesting map:

First Ever World Map of Happiness Produced

And here is the list of the “happiest countries”

Top index marks

273 -  Denmark – Switzerland

260 – Austria – Iceland

257 – The Bahamas – Finland – Sweden

253 – Bhutan – Brunei – Canada – Ireland

The three least happy countries were:

110 – Democratic Republic of the Congo

110 – Zimbabwe

100 – Burundi

Source: University of Leicester

This raises the question for me: Would I rather live in a country in the top 10 of this list, or in the richest most powerful nation in the world?

Those Brits are something though! They will look into anything and everything and look at it unblinkingly. Could this kind of research have been published in the US?

Looking at this list again I am amazed that Malaysia, a Muslim country with strong Islamist elements, is in the top 20 and perplexed that Japan scores so low, #90! But I am not surprised that a survey done by a middle rank UK University rates the US towards the end of the top 40 countries.

A broader conception of happy lives is offered in this Wikipedia post!

It is noteworthy that Denmark is at the top of this list. It has been at the top of most Euro-based surveys of happiest countries/people for the last 30some years. It was suggested in an NY Times article that Danes do a better job of managing their own expectations from life in Denmark than most other peoples do. Americans and Canadians come to mind here!

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America the un-Beautiful per Morris Berman

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To many Americans he represents the dark side of the thinking left wing. I realize that a lot of what he says sounds extreme and very provocative, especially to all America Firsters. Here is a sample from his latest politico-cultural screed:

A sequel of sorts to Mr. Berman’s 2000 book, “The Twilight of American Culture” — which described the country as a highly dysfunctional society afflicted with apathy, cynicism, alienation and rabid consumerism — “Dark Ages America” begins as a grim prophecy of decline and fall, citing four traits shared, he says, by the late Roman Empire and the United States today, namely, “the triumph of religion over reason,” “the breakdown of education and critical thinking,” the “legalization of torture” and declining respect and financial power on the world stage.

Yes it sounds very very negative. But who can quarrel with the sense of the four traits, he asserts are shared by the US today and the late Roman Empire? In some particulars, I can see why he draws the connection. Oh, I know that most Christians will question whether or not the late Roman Empire’s religions were authentic or not. But it is a fact that the last gasps of that Empire, represented by the reign of Constantine, saw the elevation of the original version of Christianity or the catholic (universal) religion mutated into a state religion.

That Western Empire’s demise followed not too many years later  by the rise of the original Vatican Emperium over catholic religion and politics in the states that preceded the Italian Kingdom and state.

Yes, I can see why and how Berman outlines this dark picture of America.

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