Happy, a Documentary on happiness throughout the world was a very eye opening film. The film describes people throughout the world that find happiness through something as simple as an activity. Ronaldo Fadal, a surfer from Brazil finds his happiness through surfing in the ocean. He also owns a small car and a small house which goes to show he is happy with what he has and his life that he is living. The Blanchard family from Louisiana is another example of happiness in the world. They have lunch or dinner together at least once a week and they make food from the crabs they catch in the waters surrounding there house.
Of course those are two examples of happiness in the world, but what about unhappiness? According to the film Japan is the least happiest place in the world. After watching the film this makes sense because the Japanese literally have a saying that describes what unhappiness is called Karoshi. This translates to working too much causing death because of lack of sleep. After Nagasaki and Hiroshima were destroyed by the U.S they had to rebuild everything and that’s where they get working all the time from. Although, on the other side of the spectrum there is Denmark. According to the film Denmark is the happiest place in the world because of many things. One thing that stuck out is the co-housing. This co-housing lets kids have friends both in school and at home. It also lets the kids work in a team rather than on his or hers own. In my opinion the U.S falls right in the middle of the happy and non-happy spectrum. The U.S is all over the place because of our democratic society. The theory that best describes social status in the U.S is the hedonic treadmill theory. This theory states that whatever level of social status you are, you will adapt to that status and then always want more. I think we can all reach one thing as a world and that’s we need to be more happy as a world regardless of class. This is because everyone wants the next best thing and they don’t learn to appreciate what they have or that they are living not dead yet. That is the true agenda when looking at what happiness really is. |