By reflecting on the Happiness Index, Gülseren Onanç, the Founding Chair of the SES Equality and Solidarity Association, argues that in order to construct a “happy country” we should live in balance and harmony by trying to understand the other, without imposing our own truth.
I am writing these lines from Bodrum. While one part of me tells me that I should write and work, the other side thinks that I should surrender myself to the slow flow of summertime. On one side of me, there is the excitement of the holiday, and on the other, there is the concern for the future of the world and my country.
Today, I want to reflect on the anxiety and worry that shape our lives and write about the formula for happiness. I think it would be good for me to think about how we can recapture the joy of the holiday period.
We are living in times of anxiety and worry all over the world. This state of anxiety hinders the development of societies. Societies whose people worry about their future are weakening. In countries where democracy is established, governments are now conducting research to monitor the happiness levels of their citizens in order to measure their added value.
Young people’s life satisfaction falls, anxiety level rises
The Happiness Index, which measures how people evaluate their own lives through surveys conducted in 146 countries around the world, is one of these studies. In the happiness index published for the tenth time in 2022, the level of happiness worldwide was measured as 5.6 out of 10. There is a decrease in the life satisfaction of young people compared to the previous year and an increase in those over the age of sixty. There is generally an increase in the level of anxiety about the future compared to the previous year. On the other hand, there was a significant increase in the category of kindness throughout the world. Helping strangers in communities, volunteering and donations increased around the world in 2021, almost 25 percent above pre-pandemic levels.
Happiness increases with trust in government and institutions
The last two years, dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have shown that trust is vital to the happiness of societies. In 2020 and 2021, deaths from COVID-19 were significantly lower in countries with greater reliance on public institutions and lower inequality. As individuals’ trust in the state and institutions rise, their level of happiness also increases. Scandinavian countries dominate the happiness index, Finland has been the happiest country in the world for five years. Turkey, on the other hand, fell from the 104th to the 112th place in the last year. Therefore, we can also state that trust in the state and its institutions in Turkey has declined further in the last year.
Happiness = balance and harmony
The pursuit of happiness continues to advance every year with new ideas and approaches that are constantly emerging scientifically. After ten years of research, the academics who wrote the World Happiness Index report said that balance and harmony came to the fore as the most important factors. They concluded that the essence of individual happiness is inner harmony, which includes the concepts of inner peace, contentment and balance. Although this information does not seem like a new scientific discovery, it is valuable in terms of its global data.
Life is a balance in which opposites exist together
Academics emphasize that the concept of balance/harmony is mostly identical with eastern cultures. For example, according to the Yin Yang theory of Taoism, which originated in China, there is an understanding that life is a balance in which opposite poles constantly coexist. The poles are interdependent and transform into each other. As one of the opposites is formed, the other is formed at the same time. As one disappears, the other also disappears. The poles actually contain the other within themselves.
On the other hand, Aristotle’s philosophy which shapes the way of thinking of Western culture, is based on the quest for one reality and one truth, and in this sense, it may miss the search for balance and harmony. Happiness researchers say that while social cohesion is closely related to happiness in Eastern cultures, happiness is understood in a more “individual manner” in Western cultures.
Eid provides us with an opportunity to reflect on happiness
I see the approach of Selahattin Demirtaş, the former Co-Chair of the HDP, who has been imprisoned for more than five years, as a valuable example in terms of achieving social happiness. I find it valuable that he said, “We have to embrace the whole of Turkey with self-confidence, without allowing our victim identity to lead us into a state of oppression or anger.”
We should not forget that if the society we live in is happy, we will be happy too. When we reach the maturity to embrace the whole society with self-confidence, regardless of political preference, we will build a happy country when we live in balance and harmony by trying to understand the other, without imposing our own truth.
With this feeling, I wish you all a happy eid.