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How can we actually create happy societies?


Still Waters

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Imagine two different societies. In the first, people tend to be stressed, tense, irritable, distracted and self-absorbed. In the second, people tend to be at ease, untroubled, quick to laugh, expansive and self-assured.

The difference between these two imagined scenarios is vast. You’re not only more likely to be happier in the second scenario – you’re also more likely to be safer, healthier and have better relationships. The difference between a happy and an unhappy society is not trivial. We know that happiness matters beyond our desire to feel good.

So how can we create a happy society? 

https://theconversation.com/how-can-we-actually-create-happy-societies-124711

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I was just making notes on this about an hour ago!!!

This is what I quickly jotted down. A good diet, some exercise, helping folk or doing some kind of good work. Some kind of meditation or yoga, cleanliness and cold showers. Some kind of project or creative artistic endeavour to work on.

This is a personal view but it might well resonate with other folk too?

And there is a mental aspect. To be positive, up-beat and optimistic is very important.

So how do we create a happy society? One person at a time, by being the change that we want to see - until enough folk are walking their talk, and the rest of us can see all those benefits of living this life, then there is a tipping point and everything shall change very quickly. Like an unveiling of the truth and the façade of ignorance, fear and lies shall come crashing down. And once that happens, our happiness shall know no bounds... 

I actually feel that a happiness test, or scale, should be used as an indicator of success rather than financial and material matters.

But this is a real work.

 

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46 minutes ago, Still Waters said:

So how can we create a happy society? 

Frank Herbert outlined some excellent ideas in 'Heretics of Dune' and 'Chapterhouse Dune' but they are far to extensive to post here.

I recommend reading both if you wish to learn about the structure of a truly workable democracy and ideas about coming as close to a utopian society as mankind possibly could. 

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19 minutes ago, Crazy Horse said:

And there is a mental aspect. To be positive, up-beat and optimistic is very important.

Some people can't.

I control my depression-imbalance with diet, exercise and my Jianshu forms but this doesn't work for everybody because of lack of drive due to the imbalance. A vicious circle. 

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6 minutes ago, Piney said:

Frank Herbert outlined some excellent ideas in 'Heretics of Dune' and 'Chapterhouse Dune' but they are far to extensive to post here.

I recommend reading both if you wish to learn about the structure of a truly workable democracy and ideas about coming as close to a utopian society as mankind possibly could. 

I read both and have no idea what you're talking about.  Although being able to move at hyper speed or having a null-sphere to live in would be nice.

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3 minutes ago, Piney said:

Some people can't.

I control my depression-imbalance with diet, exercise and my Jianshu forms but this doesn't work for everybody because of lack of drive due to the imbalance. A vicious circle. 

I know some folk find it very, very difficult, due to many different reasons, but I would never say "can't".

If there is a way into depression, then there must be a way out. Making a list, personal to you, and then by taking small steps, I feel its possible.

Even the act of making a list made me feel good, and energised.

But I did say its a real work.

And if you can find somebody who has been through it, or something similar, then so much the better.

 

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4 minutes ago, OverSword said:

I read both and have no idea what you're talking about.  Although being able to move at hyper speed or having a null-sphere to live in would be nice.

When? In the 80s? :lol: 

A congress of "Proctors" picked from all walks of life whether they want the job or not. No head ruler.  Laws not set in stone but regulations made when needed which are fluid with the situation and eliminated as needed. Self policing of neighborhoods and no cities. Just manufacturing centers where people don't live. 

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10 minutes ago, OverSword said:

I read both and have no idea what you're talking about.  Although being able to move folding space or having a no room to live in would be nice.

:tu:

Speak proper when you speak of the greatest scifi ever written.  :o

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1 hour ago, Still Waters said:

This is impossible because the present person has elements that prevent him from being happy and they are stronger than the desire to be happy.
I repeat again the same idea that a person will become happy only by surpassing the human mind and getting rid of all the typical flaws of this mind and personality.

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Work less lol.

A society that has to work less and has less pressure about work.

Also social connections. Our institutions of community are kind of gone now due to commuting, Loss of religion, and technology. 

Humans are social. We need some kind of community to be happy.

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16 minutes ago, Piney said:

:tu:

Speak proper when you speak of the greatest scifi ever written.  :o

Apparently you don't remember the Bashar being capable of moving at super speed after something in the Atredies genes were triggered during torture or the Harkonnen null sphere which was undetectable to guild navigators and contained null entropy devices which made food and clothing storable virtually forever.

 

As far as regulations which can be arbitrarily "eliminated as needed"  sounds like a sure way for a proctor to add or eliminate rules which suit them for greedy reason.  I don't think I would want to live under any system in the Dune books unless it was pre-Agamemnon or Omnius.

 

edit for:  It was a No sphere not a null sphere.

Maybe we should start a Dune thread.  Those books had a huge influence on me as a teen, especially the Bene Gesserit practices of concealing any little emotion.  It was kind of a game to me and went right along with my admiration of Vulcans.

Edited by OverSword
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9 minutes ago, Coil said:

This is impossible because the present person has elements that prevent him from being happy and they are stronger than the desire to be happy.
I repeat again the same idea that a person will become happy only by surpassing the human mind and getting rid of all the typical flaws of this mind and personality.

Being happy could be counted as one of those flaws along with any other emotion.  Live Long and Prosper.

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5 minutes ago, OverSword said:

As far as regulations which can be arbitrarily "eliminated as needed"  sounds like a sure way for a proctor to add or eliminate rules which suit them for greedy reason. 

There has to be a 80 percent consensus......

.....and please don't mention any of Brian's stuff. They are a aberration and disappointment.  But a Dune thread sounds cool.

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10 minutes ago, spartan max2 said:

A society that has to work less and has less pressure about work.

Work "as needed" not on a clock. That's the injun way and the healthiest. 

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9 minutes ago, Piney said:

There has to be a 80 percent consensus......

.....and please don't mention any of Brian's stuff. They are a aberration and disappointment.  But a Dune thread sounds cool.

I like Brian and Kevin's stuff as well.  All written using Franks notes.  Recall in Children of Dune, Leto II channeling Agamemnon and then it being mentioned it wasn't the Agamemnon of ancient Greece but an ancestor who had adopted the name.  The Honored Maitre's being guided by the ancient enemy of man who turn out to be Omnuis and Erasmus.  Sorry, those books weren't written by Frank but are still pretty good and based on his own prequel ideas.

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10 minutes ago, Piney said:

There has to be a 80 percent consensus......

Until you change that to 51% :gun:

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25 minutes ago, Coil said:

This is impossible because the present person has elements that prevent him from being happy and they are stronger than the desire to be happy.
I repeat again the same idea that a person will become happy only by surpassing the human mind and getting rid of all the typical flaws of this mind and personality.

The present person is not in a fixed state of being, everything changes, including humanity - therefore, it is possible.

The mind is the greatest tool in the whole universe, we can use it for selfish, or selfless deeds, one may bring happiness, the other.....not so much!

But, the important bit here is, that it is in our personal control, to be able to choose, one little step at a time.

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Today I came to realise something. That the pursuit of happiness, and my spiritual quest, are utterly entwined, perhaps even the same thing, more or less!

Only, seeing it as a pursuit of happiness makes it a whole lot easier to define, and hopefully, to achieve.

These are my definitions of happiness and the spiritual journey, and I don't expect anyone else to necessarily agree with these interpretations, although you may well do!

My ideals are heavily interlaced with moral behaviour and helping others, because I already know from personal experience, that these things make me happy.

 

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Maybe happiness is not the right goal.  Being happy is an emotion and fluctuates.  Maybe the goal isn't a happy society but a meaningful society? Having meaning or value may lead to a more overall happiness.

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Happiness comes from wanting only what you need (and having it).   In most cases this is much less that what we have, and we are unhappy because we still want more.  Hence the very rich are often no happier than those who have very little.

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2 hours ago, Still Waters said:

So how can we create a happy society? 

A person can be happy,  as for a happy society? How big is this society as it seems the bigger the town,  the more crime and stress. 

Are we better off with individual."village" style areas to get a happier "society".

Are humans able to live in built up areas of  societies and still be happy?  

Living in big towns amongst strangers where you have those that have,  those that have not and some who have it all,  can not be a good  ingredient to a happy society. 

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1 hour ago, OverSword said:

Being happy could be counted as one of those flaws along with any other emotion.  Live Long and Prosper.

I did not understand your thought. The goal of humanity is to truly become happy in the bliss of God because it is an integral part of the True person.

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10 minutes ago, Coil said:

I did not understand your thought. The goal of humanity is to truly become happy in the bliss of God because it is an integral part of the True person.

When did God command us to be happy?  I think it was be fruitful and multiply.

Edited by OverSword
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A life where every person feels they are of value to the society would be a good start.  It's a fact that those who are idly wealthy are often miserable and self-destructive.  Give people something to strive for as a group and ensure that they all feel invested in the outcome.  Even then, it will only be as successful as the most malcontented allow it to be.  It's our nature, not our government or economic structures that are the worst problem.  

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1 hour ago, OverSword said:

When did God command us to be happy?  I think it was be fruitful and multiply.

Bliss is an integral part of God and, accordingly, man too:

He realized that bliss (ānanda) is Brahman; for from bliss, verily, are these beings born; by bliss, when born, do they live; into bliss [at the time of dissolution] do they enter, do they merge.

Verily, different from this [sheath], which consists of the essence of the intellect, but within it, is another self, which consists of bliss (ānanda). By this the former is filled. This too has the shape of a man. Like the human shape of the former is the human shape of the latter. Joy (priyam) is its head, delight (moda) is its right wing, great delight (pramoda) is its left wing, bliss is its trunk, Brahman is its tail, its support.

Furthermore, he becomes this—he becomes Brahman, whose body is space (ākāśa), whose nature is true, who delights in life (prāna) and rejoices in the mind, who abounds in peace, who is immortal.

He who knows the Bliss of Brahman, whence all words together with the mind turn away, unable to reach it—he never fears.

This [sheath of bliss] is the embodied soul of the former (the sheath of the intellect).

Who could direct the prāna and the apāna [to perform their functions] if this Bliss (Brahman) did not exist in the ākāśa [of the heart]? Brahman verily exists because It alone bestows bliss.

https://universaltheosophy.com/sacred-texts/taittiriya-upanishad/

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