Thursday, March 10, 2016

Gross National Happiness

     This afternoon I read an article in my retiree magazine. A trip to the Kingdom of Bhutan was described.

     The Bhutanese government is based on the understanding "that each individual's well being must take precedence over the economic and political practice of materialism." Gross National Happiness, which measures the country's prosperity not by monetary value, but by the
 physical, spiritual social and environmental well being of the population.

     Each person is part of a larger whole. All people are dependent on the other.

    The article went on to say that the Bhutanese realize a certain amount of financial security is needed. They reject greed and accumulation of wealth.

    The Bhutanese have four underlying principles of Gross National Happiness: generosity, ethics, tolerance and perseverance.

     Generosity is considered very highly. We know that generosity gives one a great feeling of pride and satisfaction.

     Ethics means how we behave towards each other. Ethics means that we behave decently toward others. Just think how we would have to treat those who are different than we are.

   Tolerance is difficult for us as we have our own personal bias's .We are all equal concerning our fundamental humanity. After that, all bets are off for many of us. We find differences in each other as far as religion, language, gender, wealth and many other aspects of ordinary everyday life. We keep pushing these differences for selfish reasons.

    Perseverance means facing life's challenges and continuing in spite of challenging circumstances.

    Since we've just had an election where division was promoted so that one party could win, I thought this was an appropriate idea to consider. One party wanted only Christian refugees brought to this country. One party did all it could to stall funding to indigenous projects and education.

   I prefer politicians who promote unity. I think generosity, ethics, tolerance and perseverance would go a long way to bringing happiness to our population.


27 comments:

  1. I like how Butan rules better.I have looked at traveling there, a unique world to be part of.

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    1. It's out of the way but sounds like we could learn from them.

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    1. Yes, I could do without the greed and aggressive behaviour.

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  3. I totally agree with you Red, unfortunately, a good majority of our society would not. There's an awful lot of greedy people out there and it seems, the more they have, the more they want. Take Donald Trump for instance. ha,ha Great Post.

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    1. Unfortunately most of our society have never heard of this and I wonder if they could get their heads around it even if they did hear about it.

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  4. Your Prime Minister visited Washington yesterday. Gosh, I'd LOVE to have a leader who is as open and warm as yours. Maybe I should move to Bhutan where they seem to have the correct values for a good community life. Thanks for the information, Red. :-)

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    1. I hope that our new prime minister can make some real progress here

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    1. I think it deserves another good look.

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  6. I'm with you. The more we emphasize "us and them," in any context and any nation, the more discord we will sow.

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    1. Amen! I don't know when all the greed and aggressiveness will end.

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  7. Ours would be a little low

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  8. i couldn't agree with you more.

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    1. The sad part is that many of us could put much of this into practice but I'm afraid more have to buy into it before it would work.

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  9. me, too. i wish more world leaders thought outside the party box.

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    1. Good turn of phrase "outside the party box".

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  10. Those we wonderful ideals. I can't imagine them being popular in the US or people considering that they are the path for attaining happiness. Married to Bhutan by Linda Leaming is a really good book and a fun read about living in Bhutan. Ms Leaming went for a visit and ended up moving there.

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    1. Thanks for the suggestion of a book. I'll have to look for it.

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  11. Great post! I agree totally. Unity is a wonderful goal to achieve. I'm so glad we voted in someone better suited to place us on that road.

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    1. I think thee will be much more unity. The old guys are starting to look pretty silly as they pursue their former pattern of behaviour.

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  12. This sounds very utopian, but not realistic for the USA because we are a huge and very diverse nation, not at all homogeneous in our heritage, customs, religion or values. We are basically not a socialistic nation. We are a bootstraps nation, where the value of hard work is still at the core of many of our citizens, especially those who are Conservatives. It makes us less generous.

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  13. An interesting post, as always!
    The sound bytes and images from the US/Canada meetings have been glorious. Trudeau, speaking to university students, was amazing. He refuses to comment on another country's politics, which is an excellent moral choice.
    I think part of North America's problems are that people left the UK to come here wanting independence, freedom, and the right to bear arms. There is very little in our DNA that gets us to look after one another. Especially since we are living on native lands.

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  14. Interesting post! I've always thought that the US was a great melting pot- but I think as time goes on we are becoming more and more divisive. I cannot even watch the hatefulness that I am seeing on the television and internet. I don't know if it has been brewing all along, or if we are just going BSC as one politician so aptly put his feelings about a particular party.

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  15. I agree with Terri. This is the opposite of what we are seeing in America right now during the election season. Pitiful!

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  16. Hi Red, This past week I enjoyed reports on the news about the meeting between our President and your new Prime Minister. I am truly impressed with Justin Trudeau. Golly ... I wish the USA could come up with someone like him for our leader. In your post here you said, "I prefer politicians who promote unity. I think generosity, ethics, tolerance and perseverance would go a long way to bringing happiness to our population." I think Justin Trudeau is just the one to meet those challenges!

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