Social unhappiness is a state that is obvious. It is enough to go outside and look in the eyes, to notice the severe faces, the sour words and the aggressive behaviors. What factors influence or determine the happiness of a society? I think they are essentially four, which I immediately go on to show and analyze. Keep reading.
I once wrote that happiness is not a gift, but a conquest of intelligence and consciousness. Today I reaffirm it to refer to the issue of social happiness, which I understand as a sum of achievements and well-being generated by a diverse human group that unexpectedly shares common wishes, interests and needs.
The search for happiness has always been seen as an individual phenomenon, something that each person yearns for and pursues, and which can be accessed by thinking or executing certain actions. Today, with what we know about politics, physics and spirituality, we can affirm that individual happiness could depend more than imagined on social happiness, since we are all related and affect each other at every moment, whether we know it or not. The programming of a television station modifies the values of the home; the decision of a president unites or disunites a country, what a teacher says in class leads the students to make decisions about their future. We are so close that we invest thousands of hours to gain acceptance from others.
Now, if we can agree that this is so, if it is true that we must think about social happiness since it influences our own happiness, what elements should we attend to, review or promote to create that state of group plenitude? I propose here four elements as a starting point, as the first step for discussion and work: peace, freedom, justice and prosperity, which I will briefly review to stimulate reflection on them.
Peace: There is no happiness without peace. Peace is the terrain that makes citizen coexistence possible, which, by the way, is built on the basis of bonding harmony. This does not come spontaneously, but requires a structure of values promoted by the great social training centers, such as: the family, the school, the media and the company. From there paradigms of tolerance, respect, integration, solidarity, negotiation and compassion are built, as formulas that break from within, and not by artificial or decreed imposition, human tendencies to selfishness, greed, envy, jealousy, greed, that although they do not disappear, they cease to be stimulated and rewarded. That is the origin of social peace.
Justice: Justice leads to peace. Justice, understood as the possibility of giving everyone what they have earned or what they deserve for their effort and talent. Although the measurement of these merits is subjective, societies develop parameters in various areas of reality: as in the cases of study and work, mainly. I am also referring here to regulated justice, regulated by the laws of each country, which must be adjusted to the idiosyncrasy and real needs of the population, considering the time and the setting where the lives of the inhabitants take place.
Social happiness demands the cessation of impunity, the rescue of an adequate morality, adjusted to the times, that rewards and sanctions, that sets the parameters of what is allowed, what is tolerable, what is negotiable, and what is prohibited, intolerable and non-negotiable. In this, the role of authority as ruler and model is fundamental, since acts have more weight than words, and the letter, the written regulation, is stunned, unworkable and dying before the enormous power of a bad example.
Freedom: Freedom is, in essence, the adult and voluntary ability to choose between options. She is, after life, the most precious right for human beings. Although many seem to opt for quiet slavery, to prioritize safety and survival over flying freely, living like this is nothing more than a pose, a self-deception derived from fear and ignorance.
The awareness of choosing and the language to express preferences are two potentials that make us truly human. Freedom, of course, must be accompanied by respect and responsibility, since each choice creates a destiny and affects others. My air is your air, my land is your land, my sun is your sun. There is no step that does not leave a trace, there is no seed that does not yield fruit, there is no night that does not bring a day.
The society that restricts freedoms or conditions them to ideological or political submission, opens the door to hell, rebellion and resistance, since nothing can stop the emergence of talent or the thrust of excellence, which wants to rise in the end over all mediocrity. This is human and this is shown by the history that has taken us from the Stone Age to Quantum Mechanics. There must be consensual regulation, not abuse of power, to create authentic social happiness.
Prosperity: Prosperity is the consequence of smart, sustained and ecological work. Creating prosperity implies generating abundant resources for one's own enjoyment and that of others. People who prosper have particular qualities: Some of them are: Awareness of available resources and limitations to overcome, creativity for the proper use of those resources, confidence in the possibility of achieving their dreams, bold initiative to go after what has not been done, discipline to systematize effort and unyielding will to bring it to fruition.
The society that wishes to prosper must generate opportunities for development, stimulate freedom of initiative and pioneering thinking that seeks to go one step further. It must also highly value production, fair bargaining, saving and investment. Always in a context of human values that prevents dehumanization and the prevalence of money over human beings.
With these qualities, peace, freedom, justice and prosperity, as the vital north of the everyday, we would undoubtedly advance towards an increasingly just, livable, productive, free and therefore much happier society. Thanks for reading me. www.laexcelencia.com
My phrase of the week: "You cannot advocate for equality among all, who assumes themselves superior to all"
