After our class discussion on Friday (which I must say KUDOS once again to you all) I found myself pondering the future - more so than normal. Many of your comments lead me to believe that our future is one of overt individuality, fewer altruistic gestures, and an increase in the "live for self" mantra. This worries me. I do not want to live in a world that does not attack future problems together, with a community spirit. The adversity that we face on a world scale cannot be solved by millions of "lone rangers" worried only about him/herself.
These issues also worry me because study after study cites things like communication, altruism, participating in an environmentally conscious lifestyle, and keeping active (especially in group activities) as being cornerstones for happiness. If we have found time and again that the very characteristics that are slowly dwindling are the same characteristics that are associated with happiness, what kind of future are we creating?
In his Ted talk, Nic Marks explains his idea for a new way to measure the productivity of countries around the world. He argues that a nation's success should not be measured solely by monetary means (which is often gauged by the productivity of stuff) but also by the well-being of its people. Marks presents an intriguing idea. Can we be happy without creating stuff? Can we live in balance with the world without losing too much of our way of life?
Please watch the Ted talk and create a response in which you analyze Marks' idea and state whether you agree or disagree with his argument.
15 comments:
I definetely agree with everything that Nic stated. I also believe that many people throughout the class discussion were saying several negative statements about the future of the world and about people in general. Yet, I don't agree with any of those statements.
I believe that a plentiful of people have the capacity to make change. I don't believe that people don't care about the world they live in, or that they want to make a change, but don't. I don't believe that people are self absorbed and only care about their surroundings.I believe the complete opposite. Of corss we all are self absorbed at times, but there are also many people that care very much about our world and others. Martin Luther King, for example wanted to make a change and didn't simply slouch around waiting for an answer. He did something about it and eventually made a change. I believe that there is a piece of Martin.L.K in all o us, we all can make a change if we're postitive and persavere.
Nic stated that a truly successful country, is one where there is happiness without wearing out the earth, and I completely consent with this idea. Man! would I love to live in Costa Rica=)
I agree with Nic and I also agree with you. As we were doing the Socratic Seminar I realized that most people don't seek out the good in the world, It's almost like they search for the negative things that happen around them. Kids were saying that all human beings are selfish but a perfect example of a human being that isn't entirely selfish are the environmentalists because they want to make a change for the next generation of the world and they know that the change won't effect them but it will affect there children and their children's children. If the were truly selfish, they wouldn't care about the next generation and they would waste as much resources as possible.
I agree with Nic in that society has portrayed this depressing and apocalyptic future. Lately you see movies coming out about the end of the world and on the news on a daily basis you see people dying but, what if they put the good things on the news. He stated that measuring a nation's success to it's economical status. It should be measured on "happiness" as he says the quality of life in a country not the quantity of things. According to the poll that scientists around the world, people prefer happiness over money.
To me, personally people love competition and if Nic's happy planet chart worked in a community and could be used in your house it would greatly change the way people think about the world and the environment. This could be used a motivational tool for people to start to think about new ways to change and in a innovative form find a way to change their families way of thinking about the environment and eventually this will motivate to change, then their community, and slowly people will start to change the world. Instead of showing "the newest fashion trends" on television there should be a segment on every new channel that shows how you can be more environmentally friendly.
Throughout the course of this Ted Talk, Nic stated some pretty outrageous numbers and statistics that surprised me. I couldn't fathom how the way to a better future was just simply happiness. During our socratic seminar this past week, the comments made were pretty negative and it kinda made me upset. I'm not the type to make my future a negative one, I want to do something useful with my life, to help the world, to make a change, no matter how small or big, besides big changes begin with just a small act of courtesy. I think our class is pretty bummed or negative about the situation because of what we see daily. For example, Nic recalls the movie "The Road" were everything is dead surrounding the travelers, this future is not perceived as a great one but a dark and treacherous road. Setting a simple but achieveable goal will get us to where our ultimate goal is, worldwide happiness. I believe Nic did a gret job in explaining his message and he mentioned some great facts and quotes for us to really think about the quality of our life and the succes that can come from the future without wearing out the earth.
Laura Ballesteros
I agree with Nic Marks, everything he stated was something that I can relate to. On friday the Socratic Seminar was filled with a lot of different opinions. One thing that really caught everyones attention was that everyone agreed that the world around us was negative. I however don't fully agree with that. I understand what my peers were saying but I also feel that not everything is awful in our surroundings.
Like Nic said, we should all stop thinking that the future will be a nightmare and just look at the future the way we all want it to be. Theres many reasons as to why the future is seen in such a harsh manner. One of those reasons can be society. News channels spend 10-15 minutes discussing bad news happening around the world, but when it comes to discussing happy news they spend about 5 minutes on that topic. If we looked more into the good things that are happening maybe our views on the future will change.
I really liked how Nic showed us charts and mentioned facts that could really persuade people into being more positive with the future. Nic's happy chart was a good idea because that can make a change in any way, shape or form. People create chain reactions, what I mean by this is that, we love to follow people and sometimes when we follow someone's ideas it can lead to good things. The chart can change people's views on the world. It can be a tool to help our society.
This was one interesting Ted Talk! I have never thought about the fact, that a better would could simply mean happier lives. It seems as if everyone out there who care about our planet and want to make it better, are only trying concentrating on changing the environment, when they should be searching for the answer within themselves.
Nic stated some mind baffling facts during this presentation. He talked about the Western society and how we use the greatest amount of resources and make a bunch of "stuff" , but we are still not even near the happy life years expected from our society. Costa Rica is the happiest nation and they do not use near as much resources as we do. People often make a mistake thinking that: the more stuff you have, the happier you are. Wrong. Nic especially stated that giving was a one huge leap into happiness.
Happiness is not found from making and buying things, but going out there and meeting new people and gaining new knowledge about this planet.
People in the world are to focused on the negatives. They don't want to see the good sides of things for who knows what reason. Nic made a great statement of how happiness needs to spread. It won't spread if it doesn't get out to the people across the world. The goverment needs to look over to the promise land and start caring about its people and stop worrying what is going to happen to them. The change will start with the government, by posting commercials about how to make "your" world happy. Costa Rica might be poor, but their government is doing a fine job looking after it's people living in the country.
As Nic stated, the world should be measured on "happiness" and not on the quantity of things. Generosity will also lead to happiness as Nic said. I feel amazing when I do my best to help out someone in any way that I can. People just need to stop depending on the Earth to feed them and help them live. We have to live through each other.
Juan Garcia
P.3
(This video couldn't load on my computer so i can only respond to the first questions)
I think people can be happy without creating stuff. We don't need to have the most advanced technology or the most powerful army. THe well-being of citizens can really show how great a country is. I think America is always trying to create new stuff because they want to show off. Keeping things the way they are doesn't harm a society.
I think we can't keep the balance because as technologies and other things keep improving, if America keeps trying to keep up then it could affect citizens' lifestyles. We would lose much of our lives if america keeps trying to stay with other countries. It minimizes the chance of citizens to have a balanced life.
ALLAN NUDELMAN P3
The ideas that Nic had about measuring a nation's success according to happiness is very interesting to me. It is a whole new concept that I had never thought about and it makes a lot of sense. Instead of measuring success by money, why not measure it by happiness? Like me, most people would probably choose happiness over money, so a nation would actually be more "successful" if all the people in it were happy. And you dont need money to buy happiness, as the famous quote states it. Although Nic's beliefs are very rational and have a nice point of view on things, it is very hard to determine whether a nation is "happy" or not. How can you measure the happiness of a whole country filled with millions of people? You really can't. Therefore, this way of determining successfulness is hard to achieve, but I do have to agree that people around the world can make a noticeable change for the better, which would bring unmeasurable happiness. During the Socratic Seminar, we were all convinced that society now a days is very greedy and selfish. If it keeps progressing this way, our future does not look good. But as I just stated, people can start to make small changes and gradually, the chain will go all around the world and the world overall will be a happier place.
This TedTalk with Nic Marks really bewildered me by how determined he truly is to the words he has preached to others. He says that by achieving these 5 steps, your happiness could have a major increase. What about the people who's happiness runs on the income they gather? That money diminishes all their pain and suffering?
I agree with all of Marks's widespread thoughts and how to accomplish happiness, all we need to do is to love and be loved. Many people, including myself, would respond with, " Well that isn't too difficult" or " I do that everyday of my life". But do we really stop our lives and think about the others around us? On other respond, some people would totally disagree with the whole love concept. They would believe that money can: bring love, happiness, and life fulfillment. This is the point where enough is enough. We, as people, need to at least attempt to work together if we ever want to see a consummated progress in this economy. The question - who is going to one to rebel and start this adjustment for everyone to be happy?
I'm not stating that everyone you meet is conceited or obxnious; in order to get through the economy's struggle, we must have teamwork. Maybe all we need to actually undertake is that rough trip up to the mountaintops, and then we can full and true happiness.
- I was appalled at our class discussions; it made me ponder around the question 'has my generation lost hope?' I didn't initially think so with all the environmental movements and caring charities that a large amount of students participate in, but the idea of how selfish humans are seemed to disperse across the room. However, Marks is right when he stated that giving actually gives us more happiness than taking selfishly. If more people start to realize the latter than we could give more often and reach higher states of happiness. We can be happy campers without having to create stuff.
- When we are taking so much from nature and when our only focus is materialistic there is a high probability the we ought to lose ourselves. I takes a change of mindset to keep going in the path of life strong, fit, and blissful. If more people constantly remind themselves of the positive achievements they wish to make like Martin Luther King Jr. did by seeing the promised land, than we can start to carve the path to reach this vision. By doing so we will feel better about ourself and the planet we live in.
~Luz C
To stop and think about the visions of humanity scares me. It has been instilled in our brains that that our world will have a devistating and apocalyptic end. In our 3rd hour class discussion it became more and more apparent that our generation is only thinking about themselves and how things affect them similar to how our nation thinks. We are only planning for our financial well being instead of being a happy, healthy society. Humans have the idea that more is better in a numerical sense, but we have enough. Our measure of progress is everything accept what we live for. I totally agree with nick we need to stop thinking about the path that we are headed down and start to think about the solutions to the problems we are in. It isn't practical to think that we will change over night and unfortunatly that is how Americans think. I also believe that we need to drop our ancient methods of how a country should work and look at future solutions. We are running our country on the ideas of our forefathers, but when we face the facts we dont have the same problems. This isn't something that we need to face as a country or nation, but as a world, a civilization.
Alex Hebert
Nicole Ramlal
A nations success should be based off of happiness more than anything because as Joseph Campbell once said, "I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money - has turned himself into a slave." In other words, When people only work to live, they aren't experiencing all the great things of life. They work so that they can have money, but money can't buy happiness.When people are happy with what they do, they will want to do it more and it wont feel like work to them.
I think, if everyone really tried, we could give up things that aren't necessities. For example, Costa Rica is one of the happiest place in the world and because they live pretty simple lives. They use renewable resources and believe in education which helps them to become one of the most literate places on Earth. I agree with his argument because most people depict the world coming to an end and all the recent natural disasters are proving that, but in reality life isn't a nightmare.It's a blessing disguised with many issues that can be solved if we all worked together like Nic Marks said in his 5 ways to happiness. Most people focus on the problems but instead should accept it, and focus on finding a solution to that problem together.
I completely agree with what Nic Marks proposed in his speech. Modern society is incredibly cynical, and people in general hold an unbelievably morose idea of what is to come in the future. People in general need to have a more positive and confident outlook on life on in the future. Such pessimism can cause one to begin only looking out for himself, which leads to selfishness. Our society should be more altruistic and have a more optimistic outlook on life.
When Marks addressed the idea that the measure of national welfare should be based on other concepts in addition to the current one (which is based on monetary income), I couldn't have agreed more. Like Simon Kuznets said, a nation's welfare can scarcely be inferred from its national income. Many countries focus too much on what will bring in more money rather than what will equip their people with a better life. However, according to the statistics mentioned by Marks, humans in general favor happiness, health, and love over money; these things should be taken into account in addition to finance when determining the welfare and progress of a country.
As stated by Robert Kennedy, "the gross national product measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile." In other words, the most important things in live include happiness, love, and health; after these things comes money, but of the four, money should be the least significant priority. Basing the measure of national welfare solely on financial income is a poor measure of a the progress of a nation.
Melissa M. Period 3
Having been someone who contributed many negative statements in the Socratic Seminar, I must say that i have changed the way I view things. I think that we all as human beings have a responsibility to be good.
Many people do not focus on anything else but the things very near to them. How could you blame them? Do you do it too? I know that I do. We live in a world where if your not skinny, pretty, and perfect, your abused, and made fun of. One person can make a big difference, yes, but how many people are actually going to step up and make that difference?
WE control the future, as WE control the present. I agree with Nic to a point, but it is going to take some time. Most people are good. Good is out there. As is GREAT. We as people have responsibilities, and it is our job to make sure we fulfill them.
cory leschel p 3
I have to sa that i definately agree with the message that nick was trying to convay in this ted talk. I also think people in this world are headed in the wrong direction. The sad thing is during are socratic seminar last Friday people said some awfull negative things of what they thought the future held. I feel like everyone last week was only looking at the bad in life not the good. Nic was right we he stated about everyone wanting to predict an "apocalyptic future." When you focus so much on the negative, it might cloud your thoughts, andtake you away from the truth. I beleive that humans are more than capable to come together in peace, and unity. One of the things i mentioned last week in the seminar was "World Peace." I strongly believe that world peace is veryy possible. If people decide to stop fighting, stop hating, and start enjoying life, "World Peace" might be closer than you think.
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