Posted by thatoneengineer 12/16/2025
Wealth, Rich, Successful are words cited as common “better life” in the blog, but that’s simply not true as the World Happiness Report demonstrates.
10, I'm living my best possible life. It's conceivable that my "best possible life" may not be as happy as the lifes of other people, but I have achieved the maximum that's possible for me.
Any other "possible life" would require some combination of different genes, being in a different place and living at a different time.
It is all part of this broader wave of newspeak. If you can quite literally redefine happiness, you can redefine anything. Nothing has meaning anymore. You will live alone, you will consume antidepressants, you will be protected from the sunlight, you will not smile, you will not laugh, and you will be happy.
The saddest people I've seen were in the richest countries, like the U.S. and Germany. Yes, the homeless population, I've met them too - but more surprisingly, the wealthy ruling class. They've conquered the land, covered it with concrete and asphalt, colonized their own public, produce and broadcast mass media entertainment, and command the largest militaries. Yet their culture has clearly devolved and degenerated, propped up by drugs, cosmetic surgery, nice clothes, nice houses, nice cars. But it's not enough to fill that emptiness inside.
It's a simplification of course, there are many very miserable poor people, that's the base majority of humanity, on whom the pyramid of modern civilization is built. But I have no respect for those at the top, the self-styled kings of today. They're deeply unhappy people who are not fit to lead the world, much less themselves.
What always surprises me is that a lot of the most comfortably well off people in the US, and a lesser extend the UK, seem to live in a state of perennial fear.
It varies wildly by culture, but we're all conditioned somewhat to falsely report our feelings. I don't expect an honest answer if I greet someone with "How are you doing?".
How do you decide what to eat when you are out with friends if asking them for their opinion is out?
Or do you ask but then spend all night afterwards worrying that maybe they lied and you should have gone for tacos instead?
Seems exhausting, why not trust people a little?
I'm afraid struggles with dishonesty about what they want to eat is a somewhat common relationship problem: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/sydaj0/w...
I mean the original meaning of the word Scandinavia certainly doesnt make sense anymore:
1765, from Late Latin Scandinavia (Pliny), Skandinovia (Pomponius Mela), name of a large and fruitful island vaguely located in northern Europe, a mistake (with unetymological -n-) for Scadinavia, which is from a Germanic source (compare Old English Scedenig, Old Norse Skaney "south end of Sweden"), from Proto-Germanic skadinaujo "Scadia island." The first element is of uncertain origin; the second element is from aujo "thing on the water" (from PIE root *akwā- "water;" see aqua-). It might have been an island when the word was formed; the coastlines and drainage of the Baltic Sea changed dramatically after the melting of the ice caps.
I suspect there may be a pattern, every time I hear on the radio that it's "World $x Day" I'm afraid I start wondering who's actually behind that specific press release and/or what funding and incentives are really in play...