Despite Positive Trends, Americans Embrace Unhappiness, Institute Speaker Says
One of the most puzzling paradoxes of affluence is that Americans are better
off than ever before -- but less happy, Gregg
Easterbrook told an Honors Institute audience in the Opening
General Session.
The Honors
Institute is being held June 16-21 at San Francisco State University.
More than 400 members, advisors and alumni are spending a week devoted to
the examination of the 2008-2010 Honors
Study Topic, The Paradox of Affluence: Choices, Challenges,
and Consequences.
Easterbrook, author of The Progress
Paradox: How Life Gets Better While You Feel Worse, said much of the
failure to achieve happiness is a result of widespread media attention
given to negativity, and the failure to report good news.
Easterbrook
cited a number of trends that prove Americans today - and indeed the citizens
of many countries - are better off than in previous years, including:
*
Per capita income is rising
* Unemployment levels are falling
*
Crime rates are lower
* Pollution, except for greenhouse gases, is
declining
* Major diseases such as cancer and heart disease are lessening
*
More people than ever before are receiving higher education
* Access
to information has improved dramatically
* Personal freedoms are
at a higher level, especially for women and ethnic minorities
* The
standard of living is higher, including among the working poor
* The
level of poverty is declining not only in the United States, the European
Union and China, but also in some countries in the developing world
*
In the United States, there are more bedrooms than people - when previously
people's dreams included "a room of one's own."
Despite these
advances, Americans are not happy with their lives, Easterbrook said,
generally because of the impact of the growing number of media outlets,
who attract an audience by "treating consequential problems and inconsequential
problems the same."
"In the words of George Bernard Shaw, journalists
are unable to distinguish between a bicycle accident and the end of civilization,"
he said.
Factors that influence our negativity include rising
stress levels and a heightened awareness of unhappiness, Easterbrook
continued. Some experts believe that evolution is involved, that because
our discontented ancestors were more likely to survive in a hostile world,
they passed their discontent on to their descendents. And, when our expectations
are satisfied, when we achieve our material dreams of new and finer cars,
bigger and more expensive homes, we tend to be unhappy because these attainments
are not as fulfilling as we thought.
"The most unhappy country
today is Japan -- Japan looks great on paper, but the Japanese feel the future
will be less successful than the past. The happiest country is Ireland,
because ending the violence and the economic growth make the Irish feel
life will continue to improve."
"In the United States, our unhappiness
in the midst of plenty can also be traced to a skewed view of material possessions."
Easterbrook said. "Instead of asking if your house is better than your neighbor's,
if you make more money than your co-workers, ask if what you have meets your
needs," Easterbrook said.
Spending money on ourselves generally
does not make us happy, he continued. Social spending, or giving money to
help others, does.
Three ways to improve your happiness level
is to be grateful, forgiving and optimistic, said Easterbrook. Cultivate
these qualities for yourself, not for others -- these are the "selfish reasons"
to be happy, he said.
Persons who are grateful, forgiving and
optimistic live longer, have higher incomes and longer marriages, are
rarely involved in criminal acts and donate time and money to others.
"Give
away your time for selfish reasons," Easterbrook said in closing. "Believe
your life has meaning, for selfish reasons. People who believe their lives
have meaning have a higher rating of happiness, and make the world better
too."
"Above all, believe that it is never too late to change
the world," he said. "Look at the drop in crime and air pollution, the fall
of communist states."
"My parents' generation had to overcome
the Great Depression and fascism. Your generation will have to overcome
climate change and end global inequality."
"Be optimistic,
grateful and forgiving," he concluded. "And if you think your life has meaning
-- you are right!"
