The annual World Happiness Report has again ranked Finland and other Scandinavian countries the most cheerful nations on Earth. Costa Rica and Kuwait entered the top 20 in place of the United States and Germany.
Finland has remained the happiest country in the world for the seventh year a row with nordic neighbors Sweden, Denmark and Iceland also retaining their places in the top 10, according to the annual World Happiness Report published on Wednesday.
But rising unhapiness especially among young people has seen other Western countries drop down the UN-sponsored index, with the United States and Germany dropping out of the top 20 for the first time since the report’s first edition more than a decade ago.
Taking their place were Costa Rica and Kuwait at 12 and 13 respectively, while Eastern European countries Serbia, Bulgaria and Latvia reported the biggest increases in happiness.
Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, remained in last place.
i remember not suffering under the surveillance state.
People have been talking about the loss of privacy for decades.
This Peanuts character first appeared in 1963. He’s a little boy named ‘5’ whose father changed the family’s names to numbers after doing his income tax and being forced to provide tax payer ID, Social Security number, Zip Code, bank account number, and phone number.
https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/555_95472
that doesn’t make me feel any better about having governments and their constructs (corporations) looking over my shoulder.
When did anyone have privacy?
Back in the day, traveling shows would have someone hit the next town a week or so ahead of the rest. The peddler/tramp/salesman would spend a day or two casing the town and then report back. When the show arrived, people would go to the fortune teller and be amazed that someone who’d never been in town knew all their secrets. Many times, the spy didn’t even have to talk to people; they knew how to read who was doing well by what wash was on the clothesline or who had the nicest horse or had just painted their barn.
and how many government agencies could access that database with a simple letter?
Anyone could write a letter to the local Mayor, or pastor, or the town banker, or sheriff, and get an answer.
Dear Mr. Mayor. Hack has applied for a job as a cuspidor inspector. We would like to know what you think of his character and intellect.
that’s not really the same as having a database full of people and all the information at your fingertips.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover
Hoover could get records in less than a day.
i’m sorry. where are we going with this? are you suggesting it’s ok to let corporations and governments compile databases of information on people, and that surveillance is not, itself, a form of oppression?
How much of the suffering was actually caused by someone physically giving you trouble, throwing you in jail or stopping you from doing something, and how much by emotions of fear that you have inside you?
i know plenty of people who ended up in jail, but never me.
are we really measuring trauma here? shouldn’t we be fighting oppression together?
I just think in the grand scale of things, a state doing limited surveillance is fairly low on the injustice ladder. I’m generally against it, but I think more of it is done by google and facebook than the FBI.
I’m also not a believer that all oppression can/should be eliminated, as some will always be necessary for self-defense purposes. It’s not like countries invading other countries doesn’t happen, and we do need ways to fight back, which would necessitate some limited intelligence-gathering capabilities.
That said, we do need to repeal the current surveillance laws, they went too far. It’s not limited strongly enough.
>I’m also not a believer that all oppression can/should be eliminated
… i’m an anarchist. so that’s like my raison d’être
I think anarchists are important too. It’s our plurality of positions that makes us free. And stronger/more innovative in the idea space.
I think the whole surveillance state thing is less about throwing individuals in jail, and more about controlling mass discourse.
For example how social divisors like gender, age, sexuality and whatever else are amplified while criticism and action against the people cooking us alive is buried. You don’t need black chaikas and fear if you have soft power and constant outrage. TBH I think that’s why Trump got elected, a bunch of people went “fuck this shit” and either went and voted for Trump to “stick it to the man”, or just didn’t go to vote at all.
How else is a state owned healthcare system deemed radical and hospitals being owned by private equity normal if it’s not those few profiting off the death and suffering setting what’s normal?
Yeah, but we’re going to have to regulate our massive companies to address that. Outrage is very profitable. Fear sells, just like sex.