Geography of Bliss

Kunstler, James Howard. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. Print.

I believe that one of the ultimate questions that all members of the human species asks is ‘How can I find happiness?’ and reflected in this question is a desire to find a happy, fulfilling, quality life. Many people try to find such happiness through their careers, material possessions, and all manner of other pursuits. What a large portion of these people do not realize is that happiness and the elements necessary to achieve a quality life may not come from place, position, or possession but from attitude. In both Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell and Sunny Chernobyl by Andrew Blackwell, the reader can see these ideas explored in great detail.

As human beings we are naturally wired to seek happiness wherever we can find it. When we don’t, we may enter a stage of anger, anxiety, or distress. That’s why it is our personal goal to look for happiness and preserve it once we acquire it. Many have explored ways to find what triggers this feeling of “happiness” and what we can do to keep it; nonetheless, the evidence found is hardly sufficient to make a public statement on how to find happiness. For this reason, most of the time we speculate what might provoke this feeling of contentment. “Happiness is a glass half empty,” an essay written by Oliver Burkeman, highlights the importance of happiness and discloses how we can find delight through unorthodox methods. The prime objective of this piece of writing is to inform the audience about the effect of happiness on their lives and how their usual attempts of becoming happier can sabotage achieving this feeling. Furthermore, he wants to promote the benefits of pessimism and describe how it can help us in the long run. The author utilizes pronouns, logos, and pathos in order to prove his point and draw the audience into his essay, in an attempt of making them reconsider the way they live their lives and adopt this new pessimistic way that would greatly boost their level of happiness.

Senior compares what people think about people in other states and locations happiness, finding that usually these comparisons are untrue. Different studies and polls found that the Swiss and Canadians rank themselves among the happiest, while the Japanese are less happy. European countries tend to rank themselves the least happy, with Russia coming in last. Is happiness really based on location? I find that just because people don’t like the snowy weather doesn’t mean that they are unhappy during the holiday season. Families seem to come together and rejoice in each other’s company during this bad weather season. “And no matter where they live, human beings are terrible predictors of what will make them happy” (426). Senior discusses how we fill in the gaps, where we tend to remember only happy events and feelings and phase out bad ones. She discuss how our imaginations work in rationalizing situations and feelings, setting ourselves up for big disappointments, but deal with the successfully at the

In Happy by Roko Belic (a 2011 documentary), “All I want is to be happy in life” was a reoccurring statement from the people in the film. A majority of people in today’s world agree with that statement. Everyone wants to be happy, but what truly defines happiness? The Happy documentary presents different things that make certain people happy, and what influences their feelings. The film does not only imply that direct message, but also paints a bigger picture for the audience. The bigger picture being: how ecology is the main factor behind people’s happiness. The director of this film combines real experiences from people around the world along with research from scientists to explain our simple emotion, happiness.

In The Geography of Bliss One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World he plots a guide of joy for absence of a superior depiction and afterward goes to a portion of the most joyful nations on the planet to discover why their kin are glad. From Iceland to Qatar, the Netherlands to India, Switzerland to America, Weiner visits a modest bunch of nations that are either ended up being cheerful by the factually disapproved of Dutch, who track such things) or have made satisfaction a need, (for example, Bhutan, with its estimation of Gross National Happiness. For a shockingly delightful complexity, he visits the exceptionally miserable individuals of Moldova, demonstrating that a cynic like Weiner is taking care of business when offered

Envision a realm, filled with genderless inhabitants. A realm of pure bliss, where there is no such thing as “mankind and all beings are [biologically] equal. Now imagine an opposite realm, a realm in which Andrea Dworkin resided. Advocate turned author turned agitator. Andrea Dworkin was a heterodox feminist vanguard who paved a path of her own to support this women’s crusade. Defiant, confrontational and arguably offensive, she immersed herself into the tacit realm of patriarchy, seeking to enlighten and expose the sinister sexual methodologies of man that preserve the role of women as besmirched objects of male indulgence and exploitation. Her ideas and concepts of such is best expressed in Dworkin’s two earliest novels; Pornography: Men Possessing Women [1981] and Intercourse [1987]. Consecutively loved and loathed, Dworkin’s has exerted an important impact on the means and degree of male dominated sexuality and female oppression.

Despite having nearly double the Gross Domestic Product of any other country in the world, the United States consistently ranks outside the top ten in statistics dealing with happiness and quality of life. In recent years, several social and economic problems have gained attention in the public sphere. Many of these problems have significant overlap with business conditions in the Northeast Ohio region. (World Bank, 2012; Helliwell, Layard and Sachs, 2012, p 31-55, Economist, 2005)

In conclusion, to be happy one has to travel to far off places but the physical destination doesn’t need to be far

As human beings we are naturally wired to seek happiness wherever we can find it. When we don’t, we may enter a stage of anger, anxiety, or distress. That’s why it is our personal goal to look for happiness and preserve it once we acquire it. Many have explored ways to find what triggers this feeling of “happiness” and what we can do to keep it; nonetheless, the evidence found is hardly sufficient to make a public statement on how to find happiness. For this reason, most of the time we speculate what might provoke this feeling of contentment. “Happiness is a glass half empty,” an essay written by Oliver Burkeman, highlights the importance of happiness and discloses how we can find delight through unorthodox methods. The prime objective of this piece of writing is to inform the audience about the effect of happiness on their lives and how their usual attempts of becoming happier can sabotage achieving this feeling. Furthermore, he wants to promote the benefits of pessimism and describe how it can help us in the long run. The author utilizes pronouns, logos, and pathos in order to prove his point and draw the audience into his essay, in an attempt of making them reconsider the way they live their lives and adopt this new pessimistic way that would greatly boost their level of happiness.

Happiness is a reprise from the many trials and turmoil of life, and so it is natural that we should actively seek it. Ironically though, in our naïve belief that we can somehow augment the amount of happiness in our world, we are actually making our world more depressing to live in. Both John F. Schumaker, in The Happiness Conspiracy, and Ray Bradbury, in Fahrenheit 451, argue that our myopic pursuit of happiness is actually counterproductive. The two authors attempt to persuade the reader that happiness is, and should be, an almost-serendipitous byproduct of a truly fulfilling life, and therefore should not be an explicit objective.

From the reader of Happy City by Charles Montcomepy, in Chapter 2: The City Has Always Been A Happiness Project, I have more understanding on how happiness is came into our life with factors of living environment no matter in town or countryside, which will control our happiness indirectly.

The philosopher Aristotle once wrote, “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” This famous quote compels people to question the significance of their joy, and whether it truly represents purposeful lives they want to live. Ray Bradbury, a contemporary author, also tackles this question in his book, Fahrenheit 451, which deals heavily with society's view of happiness in the future. Through several main characters, Bradbury portrays the two branches of happiness: one as a lifeless path, heading nowhere, seeking no worry, while the other embraces pure human experience intertwined together to reveal truth and knowledge.

I started to question about happiness in America after I saw a pattern in high school that students are often confused or stressed. I started out with the question, “why is it hard to be happy when being happy shouldn’t be that hard?” To answer these questions, I found Sophie Chan’s 2011 study, “Hong Kong Chinese community leaders’ perspectives on family health, happiness and harmony: a qualitative study.” This study would help answer questions on my audience’s curiosity about other countries happiness compared to the United States. Then I started to think that there were also other issues that friction with happiness in America and

The world seems to be a dark and unforgiving place, but happiness is hidden within. It is found in a beautiful view, an uplifting song, or a compliment from a friend. According to the Ted Talk video, The Habits of Happiness, Matthieu Ricard claims that everyone “has a deep, profound desire for well-being or happiness”(Ricard 2:39). Ricard uses the three techniques of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to captivate and move his audience. With the use of metaphors, personal experiences, and even graphs Matthieu explained to his audience the full force and perception of the bendable word that is happiness. This Ted Talk dove into philosophical meaning on just how to achieve well-being, without having everything in the world.