happiness ranking

… not too far off for Norway

I am not sure if, and if so how much, such ranking matters to anyone, but that we Norwegians are ranked at second place in the World Happiness report 2013 sounds about right once we come to think about it.

We Norwegians know very well that we live in a country of unmatched political stability that is fully packed with natural beauty and resources, and that most of us pretty much got all we want and plenty more than we need. So, why on earth shouldn't we be happy?

the great Norwegian enlightenment

Of course, somebody had to write a report that explains how happy we are, and split up why we are happy in its finer details. Otherwise happiness wouldn't have been on our minds at all – we are kind of slow that way up here in the cold north.

However, now that the report is out, we can start complaining about why nobody has stood up and told us before how happy we Norwegians supposedly are.

Would have been nice to know about these things a long time ago, you know. Maybe then we would not have been complaining so much year in and year out about all the things most of us think is wrong in our happy society. Or maybe…

we Norwegians will always find something to complain about

Probably part of human nature to complain no matter what, and we Norwegians have no problems finding something to be unhappy about no matter how high ranking we get in a World Happiness report.

That very few of us Norwegians have anything of substance to complain about, rarely ever holds us back. We are “experts of invention” in that sense.

sincerely  georg; sign

Hageland 12.jan.2014
last rev: 10.feb.2014

side notes.

we are not happy with…

  • being ranked second in the latest World Happiness report, after Denmark. We Norwegians don't like being behind Denmark in anything.
  • not being paid more for doing less. It is a game of ours, and according to our neighboring countries we are quite good at playing it. Not as good as we ourselves would like though.
  • not getting what we want for next to nothing, and have all we want available near by.
  • having TV news and entertainment that is almost as bad here as in other countries, and that it keeps on getting worse year by year. Won't be long until it is on level with what is presented in the US and the UK – the turn‐off level.

…and given time I am quite optimistic we shall be able to come up with many, many more reasons for us Norwegians to be seriously unhappy no matter what the report says.

come to think of it…

Maybe we here in Norway should cook up our very own “national unhappiness” report, just to put things right. Can't have anybody else tell us Norwegians what state we're in, even if they did come reasonably close this time.

Some think This Is Norway, and for all I know they may be right.

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