Breakthrough Writer

All Geography of Bliss Lessons on One Page

Lesson One

Lesson Two

Lesson Three

Lesson Four

Lesson Five

Lesson #5: Happiness in Thailand

 

 

Chapter 7: Thailand: Happiness Is Not Thinking 

 

1.  The “sexpat” is not happy. He’s a farang, a foreigner with a lot of money, who is disheveled. “As long as his wallet is in reasonably good shape, the rest of him can fall to pieces.” He’s looked at as pathetic, mush, unhappy.

Why? Because his hedonism has pushed him into a condition of moral dissolution.

Moral dissolution is the condition of breaking down or disintegrating spiritually, intellectually, and physically until one becomes like a zombie. 

Moral dissolution is the final outcome of any addict. 

Moral dissolution can be simply understood and the general emptiness, numbing, and mindlessness one suffers after "going to the well" too many times. 

The danger of moral dissolution is that the afflicted doesn't know she suffers from it. 

Sometimes it takes a miraculous epiphany for one to see the condition of moral dissolution in oneself. I know a cocaine addict from the 1980s who experienced such an epiphany.  

2.  Thais are happy and one of their beliefs is that too much thinking will make you unhappy: “Thinking is like running. Just because your legs are moving doesn’t mean you’re getting anywhere. You might even be running into a headwind. You might even be running backward.”

Thinking, or over-thinking, can be like an onward interior mental loop of futility, like a dog chasing his tail. 

In other words, not all thinking is alike. Smart thinking is efficient and efficacious. Stupid thinking is compulsive, habitual, addictive. 

With smart thinking, you get in and get out. 

With dumb thinking, you linger in the chamber of your depression and malaise until you can't find your way out. "Help, Mr. Wizard, I'm lost!"

 

3.  Thais do not read self-help books, go to therapy, or talk endlessly about their problems. Their wisdom lets them know that this type of naval-gazing makes your problems worse. You go backward. 

The Thais know this truth about self-help books: If one worked, we'd all read it and be happy. 

Too much self-help these days is not self-help at all, but exercises in narcissism resulting in the self-help patient becoming a prisoner of his own self-centered hell. The Thais are wise enough to avoid this condition.  

4.  Another saying against thinking: “Happy people have no reason to think; they live rather than question living.” 

5.  Conclusion: Thinking about happiness makes us less happy. So reading Weiner’s book, which makes you think about happiness, must be depressing. 

6.  Weiner learns this in Thailand: There are only 3 ways to increase our happiness: You can increase the amount of good feelings; you can decrease the amount of bad feelings; or you can change the subject. Take a tormented relationship, for example.

Thais don’t trust words. To change the subject, they say, “Mai pen lai.” It means “never mind” or “pay not attention.”

Wise guys in mafia films say, “Forget about it.” In America, we have a saying, “Water under the bridge” and “Let sleeping dogs lie (stay asleep).” Here are some tormenting questions: How come Person X doesn’t like me after all I did for her? Why is there suffering in the world? How can I enjoy this chocolate cake if just one baby is starving in Ethiopia? How can I focus on my homework when there is the possibility that the sun will explode and destroy our universe as we know it? How can I look forward to going to Heaven when so many people are doomed to spend eternity in Hell? 

7.  Thais believe in keeping a “cool heart,” keeping bad feelings inside, but Weiner points out that Thailand has a very high incidence of wives castrating their cheating husbands. Perhaps Thai women are afflicted with insane jealousy, the kind that brings out the knife. 

 

8.  Unlike Americans, Thais are free from the egotism that makes everything so serious. When they trip and fall, it’s funny to everyone, not a huge embarrassment. You can call your fat friend, “hippo,” and it’s cool. Not so in America.  

9.  The Thais hold a higher value of sanuk—happiness—over money and ego. Unlike Americans, Thais don't wake up every morning and kiss up to the giant God of Ambition.  

10.   Thais are solaced that if things don’t work out well in this life, they might be better in the next one. 

 

Causes of Happiness in Iceland, Bhutan, and Thailand 

One. Cooperation and social reciprocity 

Two. Empathy ("we're all in this together" mentality) 

Three. Wisdom to understand self-interested altruism 

Four. Humor, being able to laugh at the human condition 

Five. Moral code of integrity and social reciprocity

Six. In Thailand, the moral code is too diminish inflated self-regard through humor and discouraging self-centered over-thinking. 

A Mixed Book Review

NYTimes Book Review of The Geography of Bliss

Toulmin Model of an Argumentative Essay

Purdue Owl Overview of Toulmin Model

 

 

 

 Sample Essay with Rebuttal and Counterargument: "Good Guy with a Gun Myth" 

How to Set Up a Counterargument in Your Rebuttal Section (The Templates) 

Some of my critics will dismiss my claim that . . . but they are in error when we look closely at . . .  

Some readers will 0bject to my argument that . . . However, their disagreement is misguided when we consider that . . .

 

Some opponents will be hostile to my claim that . . . However, their hostility is unfounded when we examine . . .

 

While Author X is guilty of several weaknesses as described by her opponents, her agument holds up to close examination in the areas of _________________, ______________, _____________, and ______________.  

Even though author X shows weakness in her argument, such as __________ and ____________, she is nevertheless convincing because . . .  

While author X makes many compelling points, her overall argument collapses under the weight of __________, ___________, ___________, and ______________.  

 

 

Unhappiness in Moldova

1.  Envy: To resent others for having a better situation than yours. The unhappy cannot bear the sight of the happy. I only suffer from half-envy. I wish I could be like some people, but I don't hate them.

 

2.  The human condition is one of contrast: Hot means nothing without cold. Mozart is enhanced by Barry Manilow. Happy places are more interesting because of unhappy ones. The darkest part of the planet is Moldova. It is the least happy nation on the planet.

 

3.  The body language is sour and bitter and this in turn makes people feel sour and bitter.

 

4.  Natasha says “We have no money for life.” That is her reason, but Weiner doesn’t buy it because he’s visited other countries who in poverty don’t hold that attitude.

 

5.  The male citizens are skinny; the male cops are fat and thuggish, a bad sign.

 

6.  They’ve been beaten down into learned helplessness (see other lectures on this topic) The Moldovans say, “This is Moldova.” Or “What can I do?”

 

7.  Moldovans compare themselves to the richer countries, not the poorer ones. So of course the glass is half empty.

 

8.  The service industry is rude and this is a self-fulfilling prophecy of misery because you're turning off tourists, among other people.

 

9.  There is no trust of anything, including their own people, and this results in nihilism.

 

10.    The people are neither Russian nor Moldovan. They exist in a nether world of no identity or culture. “How can you feel good about yourself if you don’t know who you are?”

 

11.   Their new “freedom” means nothing without jobs. They cannot afford to eat at McDonald’s.

 

12.     Corruption and nepotism are rampant.

 

13.     Men don’t care about their appearance because they’re outnumbered by the woman who wear raccoon makeup.

 

14.    They are consumed by selfishness: “No este problema mea.” They can’t even recognize selfish altruism, which encourages reciprocity.

 

15.    The Moldovans are fueled by schadenfreude; “They derive more pleasure from their neighbor’s failure than their own success.”

 

16.  Scapegoat everything on “Perestroika.” When you scapegoat other source for your problems, your proclaiming your helplessness.

 

17.     Envy accumulates like toxic waste.

 

18.      There is no queuing, a sure sign of nihilism, anomie, and chaos.

 

19.    They trust nothing: doctors under thirty-five, their own friends.

 

20.     The once cheery American Peace Corps workers are becoming gloomy and depressed.

 

21.    No one wants to be in Moldova, including Moldovans.

 

22.    Helping professions score the highest in happiness surveys.

 

23.      The Moldovans have thrown politeness and civility out the window. They say, “Give me that.” No please. In contrast, Japan emphasizes politeness. A common expression: “Gomen nasai.” I’m sorry.

 

24.   Freedom has been reduced to a small number of people who have enough money to consume the growing selection of goods.

 

25.   Moldovans haven’t used the golden rule of positive psychology: hedonic adaptation: No matter how severe our misfortune, we adapt. But this adaptation cannot occur in the absence of culture, living in a shadow of moral rot. They have never learned that social reciprocity results in happiness more than bitter selfishness, a condition they cling to with all their defiant strength. Moldova is a “fabricated nation.” It really does not exist.

 

26.   Weiner concludes with “lessons gleaned from Moldova’s unhappiness”:

 

27.    Lesson One: “Not my problem” is a mental illness, a condition of no empathy.

 

28.    Lesson Two: Poverty is too often used as an excuse for unhappiness. Their reaction to poverty is worse than the poverty.

 

29.  Lesson Three: A culture that belittles the value of trust and friendship and rewards mean-spiritedness and deceit cannot be happy.

 

Why Is Britain Distrustful of Happiness

1.  Reticence is part of the very fabric of the British culture. Reticence is part of being proper, respectful, self-contained. It’s part of a deeply-entrenched ethos or moral code.

2.  Happiness is looked at as a disease, a volatile illness that can result in the loss of control.

3.  Britain is a repressed nation. Showing emotion is considered uncouth and embarrassing.

4.  Britain values stoicism, which is a sign of strength. Happiness is looked upon as juvenile giddiness (silly, infantile, confectionary) and therefore is a weakness in character.

5.  Brits are more comfortable being grumpy, churlish and surly than they are being happy. For a Brit, ironically enough, grumpiness is happiness. See page 246.

6.  Happiness is synonymous with air-headed superficial stupidity. “Only dumb people are happy.”

7.  Happiness suggests emotional ups and downs. This is threatening to Brits who “don’t want to bother anyone.” See page 247.

8.  Trying to be happy, reading self-help books, is looked upon as being a trashy American and is a sign of weakness. See page 248.

9.  Brits reject Thomas Jefferson’s individual pursuit of happiness and replace that quest with utilitarianism, the practical guide to wellbeing: The pursuit of the greatest happiness for the greatest number. This is also called “felicific calculus.” Happiness is only okay if it’s pursued as a math problem or a science.

10.               We learn that for Brits and Eric Weiner that for some people grumpiness and sadness is a form of happiness.

 

Part Two. Why Are Self-Help Books and the Positive Psychology Movement Fraudulent, Bogus, and Harmful?

1.  Happiness is a red herring. A red herring is a distraction from the real issue. (red herring link on Internet). If happiness is not the real issue, what is? Growth, human development, maturity, individuation. See Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving and Escape from Freedom. : It would seem that the amount of destructiveness to be found in individuals is proportionate to the amount to which expansiveness of life is curtailed. By this we do not refer to individual frustrations of this or that instinctive desire but to the thwarting of the whole life, the blockage of spontaneity of the growth and expression of man's sensuous, emotional, and intellectual capacities. Life has an inner dynamism of its own; it tends to grow, to be expressed, to be lived. It seems that if this tendency is thwarted the energy directed toward life undergoes a process of decomposition and changes into energies directed toward destruction. In other words: the drive for life and the drive for destruction are not mutually independent factors but are in a reversed interdependence. The more the drive toward life is thwarted, the stronger is the drive toward destruction; the more life is realized, the less is the strength of destructiveness. Destructiveness is the outcome of unlived life. Those individual and social conditions that make for suppression of life produce the passion for destruction that forms, so to speak, the reservoir from which the particular hostile tendencies--either against others or against oneself--are nourished.

2.  Psychology is about using your shrink as a crutch to keep his pay checks going.

3.  There is no empirical evidence that therapy, life coaches, motivational speakers, and their ilk do anything to help people getter better or to become happy, yet Americans spend billions of dollars on the therapy, self-help, and self-actualization movements every year. A digression: Americans spend billions on supplements that are proven NOT to help them.

4.  Therapy encourages self-centeredness, narcissism, victimization, and discourages personal responsibility. The self-help culture has created a nation of malcontents, whiners, victims, narcissists, swindlers, mountebanks, gluttons, road-ragers, Kool-Aid drinkers, and neer-do-wells.

 

Part Three. America Ranks Low on the Happiness Index. Why?

1.  America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world but ranks low on happiness index. (23^rd). Why? Some say we suffer from the “paradox of choice.” The more choices, the more we become anxious about making the “wrong choice." Also more choices results in inflated expectations.

2.  Abundance leads to restlessness. Again, think of the hedonic treadmill.

3.  While Americans have enjoyed more abundance in general, they also work longer hours and have longer commute times, which result in unhappiness. 

4.   “The More Factor” is in many ways a curse. As we read in McMahon’s blog the Breakthrough Writer, the hunger for more generates a delusional fallacy, what McMahon calls “Either/Or.”

5.    The hunger for More is in many ways instinctual. But as Tim Kasser observes in “Mixed Messages,” these instincts can go haywire, become inflated and actually work against us.

6.   According to Laurence Shames’ essay “The More Factor,” Americans are misguided by the “presumption that America would keep on booming—if not forever, then at least longer than it made sense to worry about.” But for all of our innovation and economic greatness, Laurence Shames laments that our materialistic excess has retarded our moral growth. As he writes. He opines that “Americans have been somewhat backward in adopting values, hopes, ambitions that have to do with things other than more.”

7.  America encourages Darwinian competition, which results in isolation and paranoia. Our appetites for Darwinian competition are evidenced in the onslaught of “reality” TV shows like Survivor.

8.  Darwinian competition has created a nation where pleasure has been reduced to schadenfreude, taking pleasure in other people’s failures.

9.  The American Dream is living apart from the rest in a gated community, insulated with satellite TV, wireless Internet, techno-gadgets that keep us “connected” in the most unreal way. America is a good place to be lonely. People are not as lonely in other countries. Weiner points out that Latino cultures bring their family unity from other countries to America and that they rank higher than other Americans on the happiness index.

10.               American consumerism is a religion that possessed most Americans and makes the shopping mall America’s Holy Temple. Of course, such worship traps consumers in the hedonic treadmill, leading to numbness and ennui.  

 

Why Parallelism Is Important:

 

 

 

For making lists like mapping components in a thesis:

 

 

 

While I generally don’t support US troops going on fools’ errands in the Middle East, we must intervene there now to degrade the terrorist group ISIS because the group’s purpose is to wipeout Western civilization, the group is exacting humanitarian nightmares in the region, the group is using its power to recruit an unprecedented amount of new terrorists, and the need to help our Iraqi allies. (The last component should read “. . . the group is crushing our Iraqi allies.”

 

What is parallel structure?

 

Faulty and Correct Versions of Parallel Structure

 

Margaret Benner's Parallel Structure Lesson

 

Parallel Structure Exercises

  

 

Parallelism

Parallelism’s importance is most apparent when looking at mapping components in a thesis. We want those components to be written in parallel form whether we’re referring to a list of phrases or clauses. 

 

Faulty Parallelism Example

Marijuana should be legalized because it’s safer than alcohol and many pharmaceutical drugs, its medicinal properties; it’s a fool’s errand to wage a war against it, and keeping it illegal increases criminal activity. 

 

Above we have a mix of clauses and phrases. We should correct it by changing all the mapping components to clauses. 

 

Corrected

 

Marijuana should be legalized because it’s safer than alcohol and many pharmaceutical drugs; it has medicinal properties; it is too common to waste money in a feeble attempt to eradicate it, and in illegal form it results in too much criminal activity. 

 

We use parallelism in all types of writing. 

 

Faulty

 

The instructor sometimes indulges in bloviating, pontificating, and likes to self-aggrandize.  

 

We see above two gerunds followed by an infinitive, which is a faulty mix. 

 

Corrected

 

The instructor sometimes indulges in bloviating, pontificating, and self-aggrandizing. 

 

Using parallelism after a colon 

 

Faulty 

 

Kettlebell exercises work on the major muscle groups: thighs, gluteus, back, and make the shoulder muscles bigger. 

 

Corrected

 

Kettlebell exercises work on the major muscle groups: thighs, gluteus, back, and shoulders.

 

McMahon Grammar Exercise: Parallelism

 

Correct the faulty parallelism by rewriting the sentences below.

 

One. Parenting toddlers is difficult for many reasons, not the least of which is that toddlers contradict everything you ask them to do; they have giant mood swings, and all-night tantrums.

 

Two. You should avoid all-you-can-eat buffets: They encourage gluttony; they feature fatty, over-salted foods and high sugar content.

 

Three. I prefer kettlebell training at home than the gym because of the increased privacy, the absence of loud “gym” music, and I’m able to concentrate more.     

 

Four. To write a successful research paper you must adhere to the exact MLA format, employ a variety of paragraph transitions, and writing an intellectually rigorous thesis.   

 

Five. The difficulty of adhering to the MLA format is that the rules are frequently being updated, the sheer abundance of rules you have to follow, and to integrate your research into your essay.   

 

Six. You should avoid watching “reality shows” on TV because they encourage a depraved form of voyeurism; they distract you from your own problems, and their brain-dumbing effects.   

 

Seven. I’m still fat even though I’ve tried the low-carb diet, the Paleo diet, the Rock-in-the-Mouth diet, and fasting every other day.   

 

Eight. To write a successful thesis, you must have a compelling topic, a sophisticated take on that topic, and developing a thesis that elevates the reader’s consciousness to a higher level.   

 

Nine. Getting enough sleep, exercising daily, and the importance of a positive attitude are essential for academic success.   

 

Ten.  My children never react to my calm commands or when I beg them to do things.

 

 

Lesson on Finding and Evaluating Sources for Your Research Paper (adapted from Practical Argument, Second Edition)

When you use sources for a research paper, the sources supplement your ideas; however, it should be clear the sources do not take over the writing of your essay. Your voice, your knowledge, your deep thinking about the issue are all on center stage of your essay.

 

Some people say a research paper is 80 percent your words and another 20 percent of quotations, paraphrases, and summary from your research sources. That sounds about right.

Your college library has a Website, containing its online catalog, electronic databases, and reference works.

Evaluating Sources

You must assess six things to determine if a source is worthy of being used for your research paper.

The author’s objectivity or fairness (author is not biased)

The author’s credibility (peer reviewed, read by experts)

The source’s relevance

The source’s currency (source is up-to-date)

The source’s comprehensiveness (source has sufficient depth)

 

The author’s authority (author’s credentials and experience render him or her an expert in the field)

 

Warning Signs of a Poor Online Source

 

Site has advertising

 

Some company or other sponsors site

 

A political organization or special interest group sponsors the site.

 

The site has many links to other biased sites.

 

 

Summarizing Sources

 

“A summary restates the main idea of a passage in concise terms” (314).

 

A typical summary is one or two sentences.

 

A summary does not contain your opinions or analysis.

 

Paraphrasing Sources

 

A paraphrase, which is longer than a summary, contains more details and examples. Sometimes you need to be more specific than a summary to make sure your reader understands you.

 

A paraphrase does not include your opinions or analysis.

 

Quoting Sources

 

Quoting sources means you are quoting exactly what you are referring to in the text with no modifications, which might twist the author’s meaning.

 

You should avoid long quotations as much as possible.

 

Quote only when necessary. Rely on summary and paraphrase before resorting to direct quotes.

 

A good time to use a specific quote is when it’s an opposing point that you want to refute.

 

Using Signal Phrases or Identifying Tag to Introduce Summary, Paraphrase, and Quoted Material

 

According to Jeff McMahon, the grading rubric in English classes is used in such a way by instructors that soon there will be no such thing as an “easy” or “hard” professor. They’ll all be the same.

 

Jeff McMahon notes that the grading rubric in English classes is used in such a way by instructors that soon there will be no such thing as an “easy” or “hard” professor. They’ll all be the same.

 

 

 

The grading rubric in English classes is used in such a way by instructors, Jeff McMahon observes, that soon there will be no such thing as an “easy” or “hard” professor.  

 

The grading rubric in English classes is used in such a way by instructors that soon there will be no such thing as an “easy” or “hard” professor, Jeff McMahon points out.  

 

Common identifying tags

 

Grammar Review (what should have been covered in 1A)

 

Dependent and Independent Clauses

 

 

Gerunds and Other Phrases

 

 

Clause and Phrase Quiz

 

 

 

Another Clause and Phrase Quiz

 

 

 

McMahon Grammar Exercise: Identifying Phrases, Independent Clauses, and Dependent Clauses

 

Identify the group of words in bold type as phrase, independent clause, or dependent clause.

 

One. Toward the monster’s palace, we see a white marble fountain jettisoning chocolate fudge all over the other giants.

 

Two. Before going to school, Gerard likes to make sure he’s packed his chocolate chip cookies and bagels.

 

Three. Because Jack’s love of eating pizza every night cannot be stopped, he finds his cardio workouts to be rather worthless.

 

Four. Maria finds the Lexus preferable to the BMW because of the Lexus’ lower repair costs.

 

Five. Greg does not drive at night because he suffers from poor nocturnal eyesight.

 

Six. Whenever Greg drives past HomeTown Buffet, he is overcome with depression and nausea.

 

Seven. People who eat at Cinnabon, according to Louis C.K., always look miserable over their poor life decisions.

 

Eight. After eating at Cinnabon and HomeTown Buffet, Gary has to eat a bottle of antacids.

 

Nine. Towards the end of the date, Gary decided to ask Maria if she’d care for another visit to HomeTown Buffet.

 

Ten. Whenever Maria is in the presence of a gluttonous gentleman, she withdraws into her shell.

 

Eleven. Greg watched Maria recoil into her shell while biting her nails.

 

Twelve. Greg watched Maria recoil into her private universe while she bit her nails.

 

Thirteen. Eating at all-you-can-eat buffets will expand the circumference of your waistline.

 

Fourteen. Larding your essay with grammatical errors will result in a low grade.

 

Fifteen. My favorite pastime is larding my essay with grammatical errors.

 

Sixteen. Larding my body with chocolate chunk peanut butter cookies followed by several gallons of milk, I wondered if I should skip dinner that evening.

 

Seventeen. After contemplating the benefits of going on a variation of the Paleo diet, I decided I was at peace being a fat man with a strong resemblance to the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

 

Eighteen. In the 1970s few people would consider eating bugs as their main source of protein although today world-wide food shortages have compelled a far greater percentage of the human race to entertain this unpleasant possibility.

 

Nineteen. Because of increased shortages in worldwide animal protein, more and more people are looking to crickets, grasshoppers, and grubs as possible complete protein amino acid alternatives.

 

Twenty. The percentage of people getting married in recent years has significantly declined as an economic malaise has deflated confidence in the viability of sustaining a long-term marriage.

 

Twenty-one. Before you decide to marry someone, consider two things: your temperament and your economic prospects.

 

Twenty-two. To understand the pitfalls of getting married prematurely is to embark on the road to greater wisdom.

 

Twenty-three. To know me is to love me.

 

Twenty-four. To languish in the malignant juices of self-pity after breaking up with your girlfriend is to fall down the rabbit hole of moral dissolution and narcissism.

 

Twenty-five. Having considered the inevitable disappointment of being rich, I decided not to rob a bank.

 

Twenty-six. Watching TV on a sticky vinyl sofa all day, I noticed I was developing bedsores.

 

Twenty-seven. While I watched TV for twenty consecutive hours, I began to wonder if life was passing me by.

 

Twenty-eight. Under the bridge where a swarm of mosquitos gathered, the giant belched.

 

 

Lesson #4: Happiness in Iceland

 Iceland: Happiness Is Failure

1.  In Iceland ambition is tempered by a sense of humor. Humor is the antidote to many human ills:

excessive self-regard or self-importance

pretentiousness

Humor gives us a sense of irony, which creates wisdom in the face of suffering

In contrast, we lose humor when we worship the God of Ambition, the main God of America. We don't realize this truth until it’s too late: He is a false god. (end of Chapter 4)

In contrast to the God of Ambition, Iceland values connection with fellow human beings more than money and power and ambition.

2.  Colder climates are happier. Why? There’s the Get-Along-or-Die Theory. In warm climates we can be isolated if we want. In harsh climates, we need each other. We call this social cooperation and reciprocity. 

Society's built on cooperation must evolve a moral code such as "Don't do to others what you want done to yourself." 

3.  “Interdependence is the mother of affection.”

4.  A society built on reciprocity develops trust and love.

In contrast, a lot of college students, moving from another country away from family and friends, live a life of isolation. They take classes alone, go home alone and study. The amount of isolation that afflicts a lot of college students is mind-boggling. 

5.  Iceland is so small, there are no strangers in Iceland. This adds to a key ingredient to happiness: Having a sense of community and belonging.

6.  Iceland shares the pain of inflation. Unemployment is far worse because it’s experiences individually. 

Unemployment is so crushing to the soul and mind that it's regarded as an official mental disease in the United States. Unemployment is a disease from which many never recover. 

Studies show after 3 years of unemployment, people "go off the grid" and disappear. 

7.  Icelanders don’t suffer delusions of grandeur or immortality about their cities. They feel insignificant in the best, humble sense of the word. And this sense of humility results in happiness.

8.  They accept the wonder and harsh doom of nature. As a result, they feel close to nature and this is a spiritual orientation that results in happiness.

9.  Icelanders love their language and their greetings are benevolent such as “Go happy,” vertu saell,” and “come happy,” komdu saell.”

10.   Their language is “egalitarian and utterly free of pretense.” In contrast, America is a niche elitist society where the upper classes, doctors, lawyers, computer nerds, etc., all have their own "speak," which no one else can understand. Doctors and lawyers use language you can't understand so you feel helpless and feeling helpless makes you feel dependent on them and feeling hopelessly dependent on them is good for their business. 

11.  They feel connected to the land and receive creative energy from it. In spiritual terms, this is called Pantheism, the idea that you can experience spirit or God through nature. 

12.   They have a sense of style, which is always connected to glamour. See Virginia Postrel in Atlantic article. Glamour elevates us from the banality of everyday reality. 

13.  Icelanders suppress envy by sharing things, in contrast with the Swiss who hide things.

14.  Failure doesn’t carry a stigma in Iceland. It’s okay to fail with the best intentions. It’s okay to try and fail. This is a nurturing society, not a society of haters. In contrast, failure in America results in shame, stigma, a permanent mark of ignominy and disgrace. 

15.   Naïveté serves them well. There’s a certain innocence, a goodness, about them. They’re not so “sophisticated” in an arrogant stuffy sense of the word.

16.  The collective culture encourages creativity, which allows you to lose yourself in something larger than yourself, called “flow.”

17.    Icelandic people thrive on being sad and happy at the same time, a natural part of the human condition.

Why Is Encouraging Failure an Essential Moral Component for a Thriving Society?

First, let us look at this worthy blog post.  

Encouraging failure acknowledges that to grow and succeed in life we must go through trial and error.  

To encourage growth and success is to lay down the groundwork for a nurturing society.  

A nurturing society, based on mutual cooperation and reciprocity, is a moral society. 

 

Encouraging failure is allowing people to stretch their arms and not be squeezed in a box in terms of their life roles.  

Too often we pigeonhole people into their roles and identities. Because Iceland doesn’t do this, the country has the highest number of artists per capita. 

Encouraging failure evidences a community exacting cooperation, not ruthless competition.  

Encouraging failure gives people freedom to try new things without suffering mockery and ridicule.  

Encouraging failure as a natural byproduct of trial and errors spares people from the lifelong stigma of “being a failure.”

Encouraging failure emphasizes good intentions over results. 

Encouraging failure frees us to explore new things and emphasize the journey over the end result. 

Encouraging failure allows us to be rewarded for the hard effort over the result. 

Developing Your Thesis 

A thesis statement is one sentence that articulates the central idea of your essay. 

A thesis statement is one sentence that tells readers your position or argument. 

A thesis statement often outlines your essay’s body paragraphs with mapping components. 

A thesis statement is born out of your assigned topic. 

A thesis statement can never be merely a statement of your topic. Rather, it must be the point you are making about your topic. 

Example 

Topic 

Standardized testing is part of the No Child Left Behind program. 

Argumentative Thesis Statement 

Standardized testing is a profit-driven sham that we need to replace with more reliable measures of student learning outcomes. 

Standardized testing is a money-grabbing sham that we need to replace with more reliable measures of student learning outcomes because the evidence shows that _______________, ___________________, ________________, and _________________. 

Topic 

In high numbers, upper class educated Anglos are not vaccinating their children from measles and other diseases. 

Cause and Effect Thesis Statement 

Many upper class educated Anglos are not vaccinating their children because their pride, paranoia, and pseudo-science have intoxicated them into embracing all the myths de jour of the anti-vaccine movement. 

Argumentative Thesis Statement 

There should be harsh penalties incurred against parents who don’t vaccinate their children because ________________, ________________, _______________, and _______________________. 

Topic 

Unlike other first-world countries, the United States spends close to 18 percent of its GDP on healthcare while other countries spend closer to 10 percent. 

Cause and Effect Thesis Statement 

The United States is resigned to spending 18 percent of its GDP on healthcare because __________________, __________________, _________________, and _______________________.

Argumentative Thesis Statement 

The United States needs to get its healthcare GDP down to about 10 percent because _______________, _______________, ______________, and ___________________.

Topic 

The link between morality and happiness is the focus of our writing assignment. 

Definition Thesis 

Reading The Geography of Bliss, we learn that happiness is not pleasure or wealth but strong moral cultural norms, which are characterized by ____________, _____________, _____________, and _______________.

Cause and Effect Thesis 

Reading The Geography of Bliss, we discover that strong moral cultural norms nurture happiness by ________________, __________________, ______________, and ___________________.

It is imperative, we learn through The Geography of Bliss, that we embrace strong moral cultural norms to facilitate happiness evidenced by _______________, _______________, ________________, and ___________________.

As The Geography of Bliss teaches us however implicitly, it is imperative that we embrace strong moral cultural norms to create happiness evidenced by _________________, __________________, ________________, and ____________________.

 

  

 

 Happiness in Thailand:

 Chapter 7: Thailand: Happiness Is Not Thinking

1.  The “sexpat” is not happy. He’s a farang, a foreigner with a lot of money, who is disheveled. “As long as his wallet is in reasonably good shape, the rest of him can fall to pieces.” He’s looked at as pathetic, mush, unhappy. Why? Because his hedonism has pushed him into a condition of moral dissolution.

2.  Thais are happy and one of their beliefs is that too much thinking will make you unhappy: “Thinking is like running. Just because your legs are moving doesn’t mean you’re getting anywhere. You might even be running into a headwind. You might even be running backward.”

3.  Thais do not read self-help books, go to therapy, or talk endlessly about their problems. Their wisdom lets them know that this type of naval-gazing makes your problems worse. You go backward. 

4.  Another saying against thinking: “Happy people have no reason to think; they live rather than question living.”

5.  Conclusion: Thinking about happiness makes us less happy. So reading Weiner’s book, which makes you think about happiness, must be depressing.

6.  There are only 3 ways to increase our happiness: You can increase the amount of good feelings; you can decrease the amount of bad feelings; or you can change the subject. Take a tormented relationship, for example. Thais don’t trust words. To change the subject, they say, “Mai pen lai.” It means “never mind” or “pay not attention.” Wise guys in mafia films say, “Forget about it.” In America, we have a saying, “Water under the bridge” and “Let sleeping dogs lie (stay asleep).” Here are some tormenting questions: How come Person X doesn’t like me after all I did for her? Why is there suffering in the world? How can I enjoy this chocolate cake if just one baby is starving in Ethiopia? How can I focus on my homework when there is the possibility that the sun will explode and destroy our universe as we know it? How can I look forward to going to Heaven when so many people are doomed to spend eternity in Hell?

7.  Thais believe in keeping a “cool heart,” keeping bad feelings inside, but Weiner points out that Thailand has a very high incidence of wives castrating their cheating husbands.

8.  Unlike Americans, Thais are free from the egotism that makes everything so serious. When they trip and fall, it’s funny to everyone, not a huge embarrassment. You can call your fat friend, “hippo,” and it’s cool. Not so in America. 

9.  The Thais hold a higher value of sanuk—happiness—over money and ego.

10.   Thais are solaced that if things don’t work out well in this life, they might be better in the next one.

Happiness Review

Causes of Happiness in Iceland, Bhutan, and Thailand

One. Cooperation and social reciprocity

Two. Empathy ("we're all in this together" mentality)

Three. Wisdom to understand self-interested altruism

Four. Humor, being able to laugh at the human condition

Five. Moral code of integrity and social reciprocity

 Qatar

1.  Weiner’s big question upon visiting Qatar, the richest per capita country in the world: What happens to your soul when you indulge in excess, craven luxury? You hit the hedonic treadmill; your pleasure sensors acclimate to stimulation so you need greater and greater stimulation until you short-circuit. See page 100. You might see the film A Simple Plan.

2.  Can all their wealth lead to the good life and happiness and Weiner, relying Betrand Russell, defines it on page 110 as connecting with something larger than yourself? The answer is no because self-indulgence disconnects you from the outside. Self-indulgence results in solipsism, which is the opposite of connected happiness. Self-indulgence kills empathy, which kills connection to human race.

3.  Qataris are the nouveau riche and as such they possess arrogance and insecurity. When we become suddenly rich, we become a parvenu, a person who is insecure with his new role. He never feels he measures up, so he over-compensates. See page 102.

4.  Wealth makes us unhappy because we instinctively use wealth to isolate and insulate ourselves from the outside world whom we see as vultures eager to steal our treasures. Happiness is fear and loathing of the human race; it is connection with others. Wealthy people tend to be unconnected. See page 114. I’m reminded of Citizen Kane.

5.  Qataris have no taxation or representation so they feel disconnected from their own society. See pages 118 and 119.

6.  Weiner equates Qataris’ sudden wealth to winning the lottery. Winning the lottery historically is connected with unhappiness and ruin. See pages 122-125: We adapt to pleasure so that we have to spike the pleasure and then we have adapt to pleasure so that we have to spike the pleasure again. It’s like a cycle of addiction with nihilism, emptiness, and ruin being our final destination. I see this with my love of cars. We call this the “hedonic treadmill.”

7.  We learn on pages 126 and 127 that there’s a gap between our rational intellect and our brain’s hard-wiring or “software.” Sadly, we’re programmed to chase after chimeras (BMWs, wealth, etc.) that don’t make us happy and we can’t even learn from our disappointment but continue to chase chimeras anyway. We are sadly at war with ourselves. We are at war with our Darwin Gene and our Empathy Gene. We need both but too much of one over the other results in ruin.

8.  Some of us are addicted to sadness as it is suggest to Eric Weiner on page 127.

9.  Qataris rely on foreign labor so they feel disconnected from their country. They are dependent on cheap foreign labor and are in a way helpless. Rich but helpless. No rules, no laws, no taxes, no work. Just unhappiness. A life with no boundaries always leads to despair and self-destruction. Ironically, a life with no boundaries is many Americans' definition of freedom. This is a perverted definition. Real freedom is based on boundaries. As a 13-year-old kid, I learned the joy of having a clean room, a condition that didn't materialize until my father issued threats toward me. Life became easier and full of well-being.

10.     We know nothing. We think we’ll be happy from achievements and wealth (Hindu word is maya, which means illusion) and we feel pained by setbacks (Hindu word is mushkala, which means illusory loss). See page 139.

 

Part Two. What We Learn from Qatar: Excessive Wealth Makes Even Decent, Well-Intentioned People Become Unhappy

1.  When we become wealthy, we understandably become distrustful of others who may feel tempted to take advantage of us, to use us for their gain. As a result, we close our circle and we become more and more disconnected from the world. Think of the film Citizen Kane.

2.  This disconnectedness from the world and constant protectiveness makes us feel embattled, which in turn creates a permanent mask of skepticism. Without checks and balances, this skepticism of others’ motives can easily turn to paranoia, an obvious condition of unhappiness.

3.  When we’re filthy rich, people no longer relate to us as people. They relate to us as sycophants. Other people’s compulsion to lavish us with praise and be generally obsequious gives us a false sense of grandiosity. We begin to believe we’re as great as people treat us resulting in an obnoxious, undeserved sense of entitlement. When we're surrounded by sycophants, we live in a bubble of our own unchallenged illusions and as a result we will go crazy.

4.  When we’re filthy rich, it’s tempting to use our money and power to clean up our messes. We become more reckless in our behavior since we know our money can take care of our errant ways. Think of the recklessness and misery of Bill Murray playing Phil Connors in the classic film Groundhog Day. Or we can take a page from the news and look at Justin Bieber.

5.  When we’re filthy rich, we’re compelled by normal human nature to experience “the best” and what we find is that our brains adapt to pleasure and excitement requiring more and more stimulation. The researchers calls this constant adaptation the “hedonic treadmill.” We constantly have to spike our pleasure before we adapt to it and then spike it forever and ever in a an endless cycle with us always losing the pleasure game, resulting in disappointment and frustration. And yes, unhappiness.

6.  Like it or not, wealth is a drug both for the wealthy person and others who are intoxicated by the wealthy person’s aura of living on a superior, elevated plane. People who are infatuated by the This mutual wealthy and kiss their butt are called sycophants or toadies. Intoxication between the wealthy person and his or her admirers creates a sick symbiotic relationship based on fantasy, greed, and envy, components for miserable relationships.

7.  It is human nature when we are rich to hire others to do everything for us. Over time we become helpless cripples dependent on our “help.” This, alas, is yet another cause of our unhappiness.

8.  As human beings, we have a rational brain that knows wealth is dangerous and most often results in unhappiness but we also are hard-wired to pursue wealth no matter what our rational brain tells us. Understanding this conflict in ourselves and seeing our rational intellect being helpless to curb our irrational appetites, again, is another cause of our unhappiness. 

Part Three. Unhappiness in Moldova

1.  Envy: To resent others for having a better situation than yours. The unhappy cannot bear the sight of the happy. I only suffer from half-envy. I wish I could be like some people, but I don't hate them.

2.  The human condition is one of contrast: Hot means nothing without cold. Mozart is enhanced by Barry Manilow. Happy places are more interesting because of unhappy ones. The darkest part of the planet is Moldovia. It is the least happy nation on the planet.

3.  The body language is sour and bitter and this in turn makes people feel sour and bitter.

4.  Natasha says “We have no money for life.” That is her reason, but Weiner doesn’t buy it because he’s visited other countries who in poverty don’t hold that attitude.

5.  The male citizens are skinny; the male cops are fat and thuggish, a bad sign.

6.  They’ve been beaten down into learned helplessness (see other lectures on this topic) The Moldovans say, “This is Moldova.” Or “What can I do?”

7.  Moldovans compare themselves to the richer countries, not the poorer ones. So of course the glass is half empty.

8.  The service industry is rude and this is a self-fulfilling prophecy of misery because you're turning off tourists, among other people.

9.  There is no trust of anything, including their own people, and this results in nihilism.

10.    The people are neither Russian nor Moldovan. They exist in a nether world of no identity or culture. “How can you feel good about yourself if you don’t know who you are?”

11.   Their new “freedom” means nothing without jobs. They cannot afford to eat at McDonald’s.

12.     Corruption and nepotism is rampant.

13.     Men don’t care about their appearance because they’re outnumbered by the woman who wear raccoon makeup.

14.    They are consumed by selfishness: “No este problema mea.” They can’t even recognize selfish altruism, which encourages reciprocity.

15.    The Moldovans are fueled by schadenfreude; “They derive more pleasure from their neighbor’s failure than their own success.”

16.  Scapegoat everything on “Perestroika.” When you scapegoat other source for your problems, your proclaiming your helplessness.

17.     Envy accumulates like toxic waste.

18.      There is no queuing, a sure sign of nihilism, anomie, and chaos.

19.    They trust nothing: doctors under thirty-five, their own friends.

20.     The once cheery American Peace Corps workers are becoming gloomy and depressed.

21.    No one wants to be in Moldova, including Moldovans.

22.    Helping professions score the highest in happiness surveys.

23.      The Moldovans have thrown politeness and civility out the window. They say, “Give me that.” No please. In contrast, Japan emphasizes politeness. A common expression: “Gomen nasai.” I’m sorry.

24.   Freedom has been reduced to a small number of people who have enough money to consume the growing selection of goods.

25.   Moldovans haven’t used the golden rule of positive psychology: hedonic adaptation: No matter how severe our misfortune, we adapt. But this adaptation cannot occur in the absence of culture, living in a shadow of moral rot. They have never learned that social reciprocity results in happiness more than bitter selfishness, a condition they cling to with all their defiant strength. Moldova is a “fabricated nation.” It really does not exist.

26.   Weiner concludes with “lessons gleaned from Moldova’s unhappiness”:

27.    Lesson One: “Not my problem” is a mental illness, a condition of no empathy.

28.    Lesson Two: Poverty is too often used as an excuse for unhappiness. Their reaction to poverty is worse than the poverty.

29.  Lesson Three: A culture that belittles the value of trust and friendship and rewards mean-spiritedness and deceit cannot be happy.

 

Part Four.America Ranks Low on the Happiness Index. Why?

1.  America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world but ranks low on happiness index. (23^rd). Why? Some say we suffer from the “paradox of choice.” The more choices, the more we become anxious about making the “wrong choice”. Also more choices results in inflated expectations.

2.  Abundance leads to restlessness. Again, think of the hedonic treadmill.

3.  While Americans have enjoyed more abundance in general, they also work longer hours and have longer commute times, which result in unhappiness. 

4.   “The More Factor” is in many ways a curse. As we read in McMahon’s blog the Breakthrough Writer, the hunger for more generates a delusional fallacy, what McMahon calls “Either/Or.”

5.    The hunger for More is in many ways instinctual. But as Tim Kasser observes in “Mixed Messages,” these instincts can go haywire, become inflated and actually work against us.

6.   According to Laurence Shames’ essay “The More Factor,” Americans are misguided by the “presumption that America would keep on booming—if not forever, then at least longer than it made sense to worry about.” But for all of our innovation and economic greatness, Laurence Shames laments that our materialistic excess has retarded our moral growth. As he writes. He opines that “Americans have been somewhat backward in adopting values, hopes, ambitions that have to do with things other than more.”

7.  America encourages Darwinian competition, which results in isolation and paranoia. Our appetites for Darwinian competition are evidenced in the onslaught of “reality” TV shows like Survivor.

8.  Darwinian competition has created a nation where pleasure has been reduced to schadenfreude, taking pleasure in other people’s failures.

9.  The American Dream is living apart from the rest in a gated community, insulated with satellite TV, wireless Internet, techno-gadgets that keep us “connected” in the most unreal way. America is a good place to be lonely. People are not as lonely in other countries. Weiner points out that Latino cultures bring their family unity from other countries to America and that they rank higher than other Americans on the happiness index.

10.     American consumerism is a religion that possessed most Americans and makes the shopping mall America’s Holy Temple. Of course, such worship traps consumers in the hedonic treadmill, leading to numbness and ennui. 

 

Part Five. Write a thesis for your essay.

Consider four major fallacies that destroy happiness as your mapping components.

 

One. Pleasure Fallacy; hedonic treadmill

 

Two. Rich Fallacy; the rich lose empathy, isolate themselves, and live in a bubble of sycophants.

 

Three. Service Fallacy; the rich hire service workers to micromanage their lives and as a result they become helpless and over-dependent on the service.

 

Four. Selfish Fallacy; we become blind to law of reciprocity and self-interested altruism.

Primary and Secondary Sources Defined

 

What is morality?

 

Do you have a solid and clear definition of morality for your essay?

 

How do you write a definition of a term that is important to understanding your essay?

 

Writing Definitions according to Purdue Owl.

 

Exploring the complexities of morality, we should consult The Definition of Morality.

 

Definitions can conflict with one another.

 

Morality is simply a matter of self-preversation combined with doing no harm to others.

 

Morality is a value system that puts the virtues, moderation, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility, over the vices, sloth, envy, pride, gluttony, lust, and greed.

 

 

 

 

 

Related articles

Lesson One: The New Solitude from Alone Together by Sherry Turkle

Qataris stake their claim to a place at the top table of global dealmaking

Rolls Royce in Qatar

Lesson #3: Causes of Happiness in Bhutan

 

An A paragraph contains the following: Structurally, it contains a topic sentence, either explicit or implicit; it has supporting concrete details; its supporting details logically follow the other, which give the paragraph coherence; it contains transitions (avoid, if you can, elementary transitions such as first, second, third, and so on), which give the paragraph cohesiveness. Rhetorically speaking, an A paragraph should be written in a passionate, distinctive voice. The language should be precise, lively, and colorful, reflecting the writer’s passion for the subject. 

A successful paragraph has the following: 

1. topic sentence (mini thesis) 

2. supporting details 

3. unity: all the supporting details are relevant to the topic sentence 

4. cohesiveness: all the supporting details logically follow the other with the help of transitions. Advanced writers attempt to use transitions other than the familiar “first . . . second . . . third . . . Finally” 

5. concluding sentence (optional)  

Sample Paragraph  

The innovation of the iPod and its marriage partner, iTunes, have seemingly created Listening Paradise for the music lover. Now you can have thousands of songs at your fingertips and customize your own playlists, make ratings, burn your own CDs and in essence believe that it's you--not the recording artists--who is the “creative genius” for all your music. But in fact, you will most likely face the sad truth that as you amass thousands upon thousands of songs, you will reach a point in which your ability to appreciate music will actually diminish, not deepen, because having tens of thousands of songs and hundreds of playlists will degrade your music listening pleasure. The first thing you’ll notice is that you won’t even remember what songs you have and the treasures that used to give you so much joy become buried under a pile of newer and newer songs that muddle your memory. The second thing that will happen is that in your determination to listen to as much of your music as possible, you will create huge playlists and the music will play all day and night as you multi-task at your computer so that you’re not really focusing on music the way you used to. Your relationship with music has changed drastically to the point that it is now a form of “wallpaper,” a droning in the distance that swaths you with a feeling of security.  But whatever security you gain from cocooning yourself in your music, you will lose from becoming more and more self-conscious about what kind of songs you own because you’ll become aware that you live in a culture in which your identity is judged largely on your playlists and “brand identity” as determined by your music tastes will become more important than actually enjoying music. Finally, when you have hundreds and hundreds of playlists, you will suffer from “choice anxiety.” Fretting over what to play and always worrying that you’re neglecting a huge chunk of your music will become a distraction that compromises your music-listening experience. Thus we are a culture with the technology capable of fitting 40,000 songs on an iPod, but our brains cannot embrace that much music without suffering some kind of permanent meltdown.  

Another Paragraph Example 

A paragraph that explains why Octo-Mom stirs the hostility of so many (transitions underlined) :  

The California woman who relied on the dubious practices of a fertility doctor to give birth to 14 children, has become a national demon who stirs our most primitive fears and hostilities and compels us to gather our pitchforks and torches and to chase her from our midst.  Her demonic reputation exists in part because she has become a metaphor for the malignant parasite whose ravenous, pathological appetite to bear bus loads of children with legal and government sanction stirs the general public’s greatest Malthusian nightmare: Paying the hefty tax tab to cater to the wild irresponsible desire of an emotionally-arrested woman whose sole passions in life are to bear more children than she can take care of and to liken her image to celebrity goddess Angelina Jolie. Her reputation as a monster is reinforced by her very title, Octo-Mom, which suggests a malevolent invader who bears similarities to the pod creatures in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Finally, our resentment is vindicated when it is reported that she and her litter will live in luxury paid for by the generosity of others, thus making us feel like it is the grossly irresponsible in this world who are rewarded while the rest of us who play by the rules having nothing to look forward to in this life except for getting punked.

 

Essay: A Personal Story About How You Became Disenchanted with the Idea of Happiness, Which Ties in to an Alternative Approach to Writing Your Essay

 

        There once was a man in his early twenties. Socially awkward, he had never even been on a date. Instead, he withdrew into his college studies, found companionship in books, and grew an unruly beard. Untouched by human warmth, his demeanor was a bit crazed and unsettling. His eyes were cavernous and penetrating.  

    One day this young man was on Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach and he passed a popular hangout, Patrick Malloy’s. It was crowded inside. The young man pressed his bearded face against the glass and looked with longing at the attractive people. They looked so life-affirming and at ease with self-abandonment, laughing, slapping each other’s backs, kissing one another, and sloshing their beers over their glasses’ rims.   

        In contrast, the young man was a tightly-wound ball of repressed emotions, in turns angry and melancholy. He felt like a man of 85 trapped in the body of a 21-year old.  

      Watching the attractive people enjoying themselves and embracing life with an admirable, insatiable appetite, the young man was convinced he would remain on life’s sidelines, a depressed witness to a life passing him by.  

     Convinced of his own futility and fated to a life of loneliness, he went home, curled up into a ball and cried himself to sleep.  

      We now travel 25 years into the future and focus on this same man, now in his mid-forties. He has a good job. He has developed social skills, he is well groomed, insouciant, and can conceal his cynicism behind a veil of witty repartee. He’s been married, divorced, remarried. He sits in Patrick Malloy’s with his lovely wife and her lovely friends. Beer is sloshing all around him. He doesn’t drink, save a diet Coke since he’s the designated driver. The music is loud and people are shouting over the music. His ears can’t take much more of this. Worse, an unrelenting boredom has set in and he is no longer listening to any of the several conversations blaring around him.  

       He feels it both strange and cruel that earlier in his life he felt excluded from this club of beautiful people and now he is inside its very center, its most inner core, and rather than bathing in the warmth of belonging and popularity he stares at his watch.

       While squirming in his seat with utter boredom, he sees a young man outside the club. The man is bearded with the same cavernous eyes and the same look of despair the middle-aged man remembers seeing in his reflection. The young man, a mirror image of the middle-aged one, presses his face against the window and looks into the eyes of his older doppelgänger. 

        Feeling helpless to give wisdom to the misguided youth, the older aspiring mentor shakes his head as if to say: "The presumed happiness you see in this night club is all in your head, little brother. It's all in your head."

       Indeed, the chasing of happiness is a sure way to NOT find happiness, as well chronicled in Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss. We see that the quest for happiness is doomed to fail because _____________________, __________________,  and ___________________, and that happiness is the natural byproduct of moral cultural conditions, which, we learn from Iceland, Thailand, and others, consists of _____________________, _______________________, __________________, ____________________, and _______________________. 

 

 

Essay Assignment About the Link Between Morality and Happiness:

Support, refute, or complicate the notion that The Geography of Bliss evidences a strong connection between morality and happiness. Use Toulmin or Rogerian model. The essay should be 1,000 words with a Works Cited page of no fewer than three sources. 

 

Linking Happiness and Morality

 

One. Living in a society that promotes social reciprocity results in a happier society.

 

Two. Living a society that promotes self-interested altruism results in a happier society.

 

Three. Living in a society that encourages self-control and discipline results in a happier society (no one is successful without discipline and self-control).

  

Four. Living in a society where love of compassion and disdain for cruelty results in a happier society.

 

Five. Living in a society that promotes social bonds through humor is a happier society.

 

Notice, none of the "happy forces" have anything to do with self-gratification, pleasure, hedonism, luxury, etc.

 

Seeing the Links Between Immorality and Unhappiness in Qatar and Moldova

 

Healthy selfishness, which is self-preservation, becomes excessive and backfires. 

 

Excessive selfishness kills empathy and destroy social cooperation and reciprocity, factors that lead to happiness. 

 

Excessive selfishness leads to pride, which impedes adaptation and change. 

 

Excessive selfishness kills joy of human interaction, sharing, giving, celebrating, etc. 

 

Excessive selfishness creates an entitlement orientation. "Life owes me!" Entitlement is a worm that eats away at us. It is the opposite of Viktor Frankl's message to say, "I owe life something. I need to make myself useful to the world."

 

Excessive selfishness creates unrealistic expectations, which inevitably lead to disappointment and sadness. 

 

Excessive selfishness is an impediment to a higher ideal. 

 

Sample Thesis Templates 

Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss makes the case, however implicitly, that there is a strong link between happiness and morality evidenced by ____________, _____________, ______________, and __________________. 

Eric Weiner’s masterful travel book shows us that we live an immoral life at our own peril, creating our own misery evidenced by _________________, _______________, _________________, and _____________________.

 

The Geography of Bliss teaches us that moral societies create happy societies because moral societies succeed at providing the essential foundation for happiness, which includes ________________, _______________, ________________, and ___________________.

 

In our Professor McMahon’s zeal to interpret The Geography of Bliss as a manual for moral behavior, McMahon has offered us the dogma that there is some link between morality and happiness. However, even if we agree to McMahon’s definitions of happiness and morality, a close examination of his argument reveals it to be grossly flawed evidenced by _________________, ___________________, _________________, and _____________________.

 

McMahon’s dogma that there is a link between happiness and morality collapses under the weight of logical fallacies, flimsy evidence, and inaccurate, twisted interpretations of Weiner’s book.

 

Since I do not believe in morality, I reject McMahon’s notion that there is an essential link between morality and happiness. In fact, the very notion of morality or its lack thereof in Weiner’s book is a sham evidenced by _____________, ___________, ___________, and ________________.

 

Immorality is not the happiness killer in The Geography of Bliss, as McMahon would have us believe. Rather, the happiness killers in Weiner’s book consist of _______________, _________________, ____________, and ___________________.   

Morality is not the Mother of happiness, as McMahon is so earnest to argue. Rather, a close study of Weiner’s book reveals that morality is irrelevant in the creation of happiness. The kind of bliss McMahon wishes we would all possess is not caused by morality but by ________________, ______________, ______________, and __________________.

 

The kind of conventional morality McMahon encourages us to embrace is not for an intellectual like myself. Conventional morality is for the herd, the masses, the peasants, and the sheep. I am no sheep. I am an artist and a philosopher. Following McMahon’s moralistic prescription for happiness will only cause me misery because my conforming to society’s conventional notions of morality will strip me of my individuality, force me to cohort with the bovine masses, pressure me to aspire to mediocrity, and push me into a life of convention that will destroy my spirit and soul.  

 

We Can't Convince Unless We Have Clearly Defined Terms

Define a term that is essential to understanding your essay such as morality and happiness

Define happiness.

Define morality.

Single-sentence definition: term, class, distinguishing characteristics

Example of an Extended Defintition Paragraph

Are You Meta-Fighting with Your Partner? If So, Stop It Immediately

If you’re simply fighting with your girlfriend or wife, you don’t know what real fighting is. The type of fight when you are focused on the original source of your argument is a lightweight argument, one which can be resolved with relative ease. But when you and your partner elevate the fighting to a new level, in which the original subject of the argument deviates into newer, more toxic, more hostile territories, it’s called meta-fighting.

 

Meta-fighting is when you begin to argue about how you are arguing about the argument. You are bickering about style, tone, and methodology. And this argument, this meta-fight, about how you deliver your argument also spawns an argument about how you are scrutinizing and judging the analysis of the style of the argument over a topic that you most likely have forgotten, the original topic being obscured by layers and layers of analysis about the analysis about the analysis about the methodology of your arguing. By this time, the subject behind the original argument is beside the point. It’s as if the original controversy or hot-button was simply a springboard to vent deeper issues about your relationship.

Perhaps the next point is obvious: When you recognize that you are in the middle of a meta-fight, it’s important to stop it as soon as possible because the damage to your relationship can be beyond your understanding and control. So let us be clear. When you catch yourself in the middle of a meta-fight, you need to go into Damage Control Mode. Here’s what you do:

Abruptly stop arguing, clear your throat, and say you don’t feel well. Then disappear into the bathroom for at least a half hour and be resolved not to bring up the fight upon exiting your “cool-off cubicle.” Apologize for “getting carried away” and start cooking a meal, preferably comfort food. Start chopping onions, dicing carrots, peeling potatoes, and in general keep busy and pretend to be absorbed by your new task so that you don’t get sucked back into the meta-fight.

 

If you do not know how to cook, take on a outdoor or indoor project you’ve been putting off. Wash windows, clean the garage, vacuum, anything to distract both of you from the meta-argument.

Be adamant about not getting sucked back into the meta-argument. Remember this: A meta-argument is a black hole, a bottomless pit of pain, hurt, and suffering from which sometimes there is no return. So be warned. If you must fight with you’re partner, that is fine. But no meta-fighting, not ever.

 

Happy cooking.  

 

Ways of Developing Your Distinguishing Characteristics

1. Cause: A chimera is born from unconscious needs that aren't being met in one's life

2. Effect: A chimera always results in obsession that is both elevating and self-destructive

3. Negation: A chimera is NOT a casual hobby. 

4. Argumentation: While some dismiss all chimeras as destructive, I am of the school of thought that says a chimera is a double-edged sword, pushing us to greater heights while at the same time endangering us with its demonic elements. 

5. Analysis: A chimera begins as an innocent flutter of interest but insidiously grows until it consumes us and afflicts us with demonic possession. 

Defining "Redemption"

One. Focus on the word redemption as a universal quality not confined to a specific religion. If you focus too much on a specific religion, your essay will be more of a religious sermon than it will be an exposition about the universal journey we all seek.

 

Two. Consider, for example, the religious term repentance is often can be replaced with the idea of acknowledgment and accepting responsibility for one's actions.

 

Three. Consider these elements of the redemption journey: Descending down into the demonic level of being through denial and concupiscence (insatiable appetites); hitting "rock bottom," a state of despair in which one must make a choice: surrender to self-pity or re-invent oneself in such a way as to redeem oneself of one's past mistakes; starting at the bottom in a state of humility with a vision of a better future; a sense of mastery and self-worth, not based on preying on others but on personal excellence and a desire to pass on that personal excellence to others; a condition of emotional adolescence to an adult. 

 

Example for Defining Happiness: 

When we talk about happiness, we are not referring to pleasure, hedonism, or endorphins (the brain's "happy" chemicals). Rather we are talking about the condition of flourishing in the face of challenges and suffering and the awareness that our flourishing is maximizing our sense of purpose and who we really are.  

Happiness in Bhutan

1.  In Bhutan, Buddhism is seamlessly integrated in the culture in ways that produces happiness. For example, in Buddhism there is nothing greater than compassion and compassion creates happiness.

Compassion is part of a society built on reciprocity.

Compassion is part of a society built on cooperation.

Compassion is a form of self-interested altruism. 

Compassion builds trust. 

 

In contrast, in America compassion is replaced with infantile self-centered, selfish greed so that Walgreen shoppers fight and riot so that the police have to close the store. Or people fight in line at Lowes or swing squeegees at each for cutting in line at a gas station. The cashiers at Costco say they witness fights for parking spaces almost every day (Costco is the inspiration for a young adult dystopian novel).

 

A compassionate society is always happier than a dog-eat-dog society. "I got mine. Get yours."

You can go on YouTube and find dozens of videos of Americans being trampled on Black Friday store sales. 

But let's be clear: Compassion isn't the law; it's deeper than that: It's a cultural norm. Cultural norms, which get inside the soul, always have a stronger influence than laws.

2.  In Bhutan crime is kept at a minimum because the people believe they could be punished during reincarnation, returning to Earth as the very creature they harmed.  They really believe this. They don't just say they believe in it. In America, the religious are often only "religious" one day a week. But in Bhutan they believe in punishment in the after life. Result: Country’s low murder rate is linked to happiness. 

3.  In Bhutan, the people have “realistic expectations” unlike Americans who feel compelled to achieve “great things”?

In contrast, Americans too often have unrealistic expectations resulting from a lack of moral focus. This is something to consider for your mapping components.

Americans have an all or nothing definition of success in which you must be a movie star, the focus of the movie which is your life with everyone's eyes on you. Americans are a bunch of drama queens.

In contrast, Buddhism diminishes human excitement as foolish excitement for illusion. A lot of Americans would say they refuse to accept "realistic expectations," which are for them "low expectations," resulting in mediocrity. 

4.  In Bhutan, the people have a healthy attitude toward the reality of death and they do not deny death. This contributes to their happiness. In contrast, Americans sanitize death. The funeral, with embalming, designer outfit, deluxe coffin (usually $9,000 in today's market) and  is a huge consumer experience that makes a ton of money for the funeral home and insulates the consumer from the reality of death. 

5.  The people of Bhutan revere solitude. But later on we read there is no introspection, “no self-help books.” No one tries to be happy but everyone has a strong degree of happiness. Why does this lead to happiness?

There is a difference between naval-gazing, angst-ridden self-centeredness and solitude. Solitude can entail personal reading (as opposed to doing reading for homework), painting, drawing, writing, any act of creativity. 

6.  They won’t sell timber to rich countries for money; they won’t sell their soul to the devil of greed. They have integrity which results in a clear conscience, a form of happiness.

A few pages later, the author explains how the rising GDP (Iraq, growing prison population, oil spill) doesn’t correspond to a rising happiness index or the Gross National Happiness. He writes that an old person in a care home contributes to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) but an old person cared for by family does not. Who is happier? Jeff Johnson writes about this in the Gross National Happiness and Development compendium. We can conclude that you should not strive for happiness, but strive for integrity and creative solitude. Happiness is the byproduct of those qualities. 

7.  Happiness is a collective endeavor, not an individual one. (author criticizes them for being “too sincere.” What does he mean? Perhaps "too sincere" means lacking a sense of humor and irony?) We read “happiness is relational.” What does that mean? This is the opposite of solipsism, the extreme form of self-centeredness.

8.  GNH (Gross National Happiness), according to Sanjay Penjor, “means knowing your limitations; knowing how much is enough.”

The Greeks had the same idea when they talked about moderation and temperance as being virtues, but in American society, built on consumer spending, we discourage moderation and temperance and encourage hype, extremes, pushing your limits and we come up with atrocities like HomeTown Buffet. The buffet is all about the lie that there are no limitations.  

 

 

McMahon Grammar Exercises: Pronoun Errors 

 

Confusing subject with object

 

Please give the chocolate to Randy and (I, me). 

 

Between you and (I, me), the fat cats have all the cheese while the rest of us fight for the crumbs. 

 

Subject-pronoun agreement

 

A person who doesn't plan ahead finds they cannot go to the big party. 

 

Consistent point of view

 

When one ponders the state of education, we can't help wonder why you are lagging in critical thinking skills. 

Rewrite each sentence below so that you’ve corrected the pronoun errors. 

One. Between you and I, there are too many all-you-can-eat buffets mushrooming over southern California because a person thinks they’re getting a good deal when we can eat endless plates food for a mere ten dollars.

Two. When children grow up eating at buffets, they expand their bellies and sometimes you find you cannot get “full” no matter how much we eat. 

Three. As thousands of children gorged on pastrami at HomeTown Buffet, you could tell we would have to address the needs of a lot of sick children. 

Four. Although I like the idea of eating all I want, you can sense that there is danger in this unlimited eating mentality that can escort us down the path of gluttony and predispose you to diabetes. 

Five. When a customer feels he’s getting all the food they want, you know we can increase your business. 

Six. If a student studies the correct MLA format, you can expect academic success. 

Seven. It’s not easy for instructors to keep their students’ attention for a three-hour lecture. He or she must mix up the class-time with lecture, discussion, and in-class exercises.

Eight. It is good for a student to read the assigned text at least three times. When they do, they develop better reading comprehension. 

Nine. The instructor gave the essays back to Bob and I. 

Ten. We must find meaning to overcome the existential vacuum. Otherwise, you will descend into a rabbit hold of despair and they will find themselves behaving in all manners of self-destruction. 

 

 

 

Iceland: Happiness Is Failure 

1.  In Iceland ambition is tempered by a sense of humor. The God of Ambition, the main God of America, is discussed as a truth we don’t realize until it’s too late: He is a false god. (end of Chapter 4) Iceland values connection with fellow human beings more than money, power and ambition.

2.  Colder climates are happier. Why? There’s the Get-Along-or-Die Theory. In warm climates we can be isolated if we want. In harsh climates, we need each other.

3.  “Interdependence is the mother of affection.”

4.  A society built on reciprocity develops love. In contrast, a lot of college students, moving from another country away from family and friends, live a life of isolation. They take classes alone, go home alone and study. The amount of isolation that afflicts a lot of college students is mind-boggling. 

5.  Iceland is so small, there are no strangers in Iceland. This adds to a key ingredient to happiness: Having a sense of community and belonging.

6.  Iceland shares the pain of inflation. Unemployment is far worse because it’s experiences individually.

7.  Icelanders don’t suffer delusions of grandeur or immortality about their cities. They feel insignificant in the best, humble sense of the word. And this sense of humility results in happiness.

8.  They accept the wonder and harsh doom of nature. As a result, they feel close to nature and this is a spiritual orientation that results in happiness.

9.  Icelanders love their language and their greetings are benevolent such as “Go happy,” vertu saell,” and “come happy,” komdu saell.”

10.   Their language is “egalitarian and utterly free of pretense.” In contrast, America is a niche elitist society where the upper classes, doctors, lawyers, computer nerds, etc., all have their own "speak," which no one else can understand. Doctors and lawyers use language you can't understand so you feel helpless and feeling helpless makes you feel dependent on them and feeling hopelessly dependent on them is good for their business. 

11.  They feel connected to the land and receive creative energy from it. In spiritual terms, this is called Pantheism, the idea that you can experience spirit or God through nature. 

12.   They have a sense of style, which is always connected to glamour. See Virginia Postrel in Atlantic article. Glamour elevates us from the banality of everyday reality. 

13.  Icelanders suppress envy by sharing things, in contrast with the Swiss who hide things.

14.      Failure doesn’t carry a stigma in Iceland. It’s okay to fail with the best intentions. It’s okay to try and fail. This is a nurturing society, not a society of haters. In contrast, failure in America results in shame, stigma, a permanent mark of ignominy and disgrace. 

15.   Naïveté serves them well. There’s a certain innocence, a goodness, about them. They’re not so “sophisticated” in an arrogant stuffy sense of the word.

16.  The collective culture encourages creativity, which allows you to lose yourself in something larger than yourself, called “flow.”

17.    Icelandic people thrive on being sad and happy at the same time, a natural part of the human condition. 

Happiness in Thailand:

 Chapter 7: Thailand: Happiness Is Not Thinking

 

1.  The “sexpat” is not happy. He’s a farang, a foreigner with a lot of money, who is disheveled. “As long as his wallet is in reasonably good shape, the rest of him can fall to pieces.” He’s looked at as pathetic, mush, unhappy. Why? Because his hedonism has pushed him into a condition of moral dissolution.

2.  Thais are happy and one of their beliefs is that too much thinking will make you unhappy: “Thinking is like running. Just because your legs are moving doesn’t mean you’re getting anywhere. You might even be running into a headwind. You might even be running backward.”

3.  Thais do not read self-help books, go to therapy, or talk endlessly about their problems. Their wisdom lets them know that this type of naval-gazing makes your problems worse. You go backward. 

4.  Another saying against thinking: “Happy people have no reason to think; they live rather than question living.”

5.  Conclusion: Thinking about happiness makes us less happy. So reading Weiner’s book, which makes you think about happiness, must be depressing.

6.  There are only 3 ways to increase our happiness: You can increase the amount of good feelings; you can decrease the amount of bad feelings; or you can change the subject. Take a tormented relationship, for example. Thais don’t trust words. To change the subject, they say, “Mai pen lai.” It means “never mind” or “pay not attention.” Wise guys in mafia films say, “Forget about it.” In America, we have a saying, “Water under the bridge” and “Let sleeping dogs lie (stay asleep).” Here are some tormenting questions: How come Person X doesn’t like me after all I did for her? Why is there suffering in the world? How can I enjoy this chocolate cake if just one baby is starving in Ethiopia? How can I focus on my homework when there is the possibility that the sun will explode and destroy our universe as we know it? How can I look forward to going to Heaven when so many people are doomed to spend eternity in Hell?

7.  Thais believe in keeping a “cool heart,” keeping bad feelings inside, but Weiner points out that Thailand has a very high incidence of wives castrating their cheating husbands.

8.  Unlike Americans, Thais are free from the egotism that makes everything so serious. When they trip and fall, it’s funny to everyone, not a huge embarrassment. You can call your fat friend, “hippo,” and it’s cool. Not so in America. 

9.  The Thais hold a higher value of sanuk—happiness—over money and ego.

10.   Thais are solaced that if things don’t work out well in this life, they might be better in the next one.

 Happiness Review

Causes of Happiness in Iceland, Bhutan, and Thailand

One. Cooperation and social reciprocity

Two. Empathy ("we're all in this together" mentality)

Three. Wisdom to understand self-interested altruism

Four. Humor, being able to laugh at the human condition

Five. Moral code of integrity and social reciprocity

Part Four. Another A Example Introduction to Your 

 

Part One. Qatar

1.  Weiner’s big question upon visiting Qatar, the richest per capita country in the world: What happens to your soul when you indulge in excess, craven luxury? You hit the hedonic treadmill; your pleasure sensors acclimate to stimulation so you need greater and greater stimulation until you short-circuit. See page 100. You might see the film A Simple Plan.

2.  Can all their wealth lead to the good life and happiness and Weiner, relying Betrand Russell, defines it on page 110 as connecting with something larger than yourself? The answer is no because self-indulgence disconnects you from the outside. Self-indulgence results in solipsism, which is the opposite of connected happiness. Self-indulgence kills empathy, which kills connection to human race.

3.  Qataris are the nouveau riche and as such they possess arrogance and insecurity. When we become suddenly rich, we become a parvenu, a person who is insecure with his new role. He never feels he measures up, so he over-compensates. See page 102.

4.  Wealth makes us unhappy because we instinctively use wealth to isolate and insulate ourselves from the outside world whom we see as vultures eager to steal our treasures. Happiness is fear and loathing of the human race; it is connection with others. Wealthy people tend to be unconnected. See page 114. I’m reminded of Citizen Kane.

5.  Qataris have no taxation or representation so they feel disconnected from their own society. See pages 118 and 119.

6.  Weiner equates Qataris’ sudden wealth to winning the lottery. Winning the lottery historically is connected with unhappiness and ruin. See pages 122-125: We adapt to pleasure so that we have to spike the pleasure and then we have adapt to pleasure so that we have to spike the pleasure again. It’s like a cycle of addiction with nihilism, emptiness, and ruin being our final destination. I see this with my love of cars. We call this the “hedonic treadmill.”

7.  We learn on pages 126 and 127 that there’s a gap between our rational intellect and our brain’s hard-wiring or “software.” Sadly, we’re programmed to chase after chimeras (BMWs, wealth, etc.) that don’t make us happy and we can’t even learn from our disappointment but continue to chase chimeras anyway. We are sadly at war with ourselves. We are at war with our Darwin Gene and our Empathy Gene. We need both but too much of one over the other results in ruin.

8.  Some of us are addicted to sadness as it is suggest to Eric Weiner on page 127.

9.  Qataris rely on foreign labor so they feel disconnected from their country. They are dependent on cheap foreign labor and are in a way helpless. Rich but helpless. No rules, no laws, no taxes, no work. Just unhappiness. A life with no boundaries always leads to despair and self-destruction. Ironically, a life with no boundaries is many Americans' definition of freedom. This is a perverted definition. Real freedom is based on boundaries. As a 13-year-old kid, I learned the joy of having a clean room, a condition that didn't materialize until my father issued threats toward me. Life became easier and full of well-being.

10.     We know nothing. We think we’ll be happy from achievements and wealth (Hindu word is maya, which means illusion) and we feel pained by setbacks (Hindu word is mushkala, which means illusory loss). See page 139.

 

Part Two. What We Learn from Qatar: Excessive Wealth Makes Even Decent, Well-Intentioned People Become Unhappy

1.  When we become wealthy, we understandably become distrustful of others who may feel tempted to take advantage of us, to use us for their gain. As a result, we close our circle and we become more and more disconnected from the world. Think of the film Citizen Kane.

2.  This disconnectedness from the world and constant protectiveness makes us feel embattled, which in turn creates a permanent mask of skepticism. Without checks and balances, this skepticism of others’ motives can easily turn to paranoia, an obvious condition of unhappiness.

3.  When we’re filthy rich, people no longer relate to us as people. They relate to us as sycophants. Other people’s compulsion to lavish us with praise and be generally obsequious gives us a false sense of grandiosity. We begin to believe we’re as great as people treat us resulting in an obnoxious, undeserved sense of entitlement. When we're surrounded by sycophants, we live in a bubble of our own unchallenged illusions and as a result we will go crazy.

4.  When we’re filthy rich, it’s tempting to use our money and power to clean up our messes. We become more reckless in our behavior since we know our money can take care of our errant ways. Think of the recklessness and misery of Bill Murray playing Phil Connors in the classic film Groundhog Day. Or we can take a page from the news and look at Justin Bieber.

5.  When we’re filthy rich, we’re compelled by normal human nature to experience “the best” and what we find is that our brains adapt to pleasure and excitement requiring more and more stimulation. The researchers calls this constant adaptation the “hedonic treadmill.” We constantly have to spike our pleasure before we adapt to it and then spike it forever and ever in a an endless cycle with us always losing the pleasure game, resulting in disappointment and frustration. And yes, unhappiness.

6.  Like it or not, wealth is a drug both for the wealthy person and others who are intoxicated by the wealthy person’s aura of living on a superior, elevated plane. People who are infatuated by the This mutual wealthy and kiss their butt are called sycophants or toadies. Intoxication between the wealthy person and his or her admirers creates a sick symbiotic relationship based on fantasy, greed, and envy, components for miserable relationships.

7.  It is human nature when we are rich to hire others to do everything for us. Over time we become helpless cripples dependent on our “help.” This, alas, is yet another cause of our unhappiness.

8.  As human beings, we have a rational brain that knows wealth is dangerous and most often results in unhappiness but we also are hard-wired to pursue wealth no matter what our rational brain tells us. Understanding this conflict in ourselves and seeing our rational intellect being helpless to curb our irrational appetites, again, is another cause of our unhappiness. 

 

 

Part Three. Unhappiness in Moldova

 

1.  Envy: To resent others for having a better situation than yours. The unhappy cannot bear the sight of the happy. I only suffer from half-envy. I wish I could be like some people, but I don't hate them.

2.  The human condition is one of contrast: Hot means nothing without cold. Mozart is enhanced by Barry Manilow. Happy places are more interesting because of unhappy ones. The darkest part of the planet is Moldovia. It is the least happy nation on the planet.

3.  The body language is sour and bitter and this in turn makes people feel sour and bitter.

4.  Natasha says “We have no money for life.” That is her reason, but Weiner doesn’t buy it because he’s visited other countries who in poverty don’t hold that attitude.

5.  The male citizens are skinny; the male cops are fat and thuggish, a bad sign.

6.  They’ve been beaten down into learned helplessness (see other lectures on this topic) The Moldovans say, “This is Moldova.” Or “What can I do?”

7.  Moldovans compare themselves to the richer countries, not the poorer ones. So of course the glass is half empty.

8.  The service industry is rude and this is a self-fulfilling prophecy of misery because you're turning off tourists, among other people.

9.  There is no trust of anything, including their own people, and this results in nihilism.

10.    The people are neither Russian nor Moldovan. They exist in a nether world of no identity or culture. “How can you feel good about yourself if you don’t know who you are?”

11.   Their new “freedom” means nothing without jobs. They cannot afford to eat at McDonald’s.

12.     Corruption and nepotism is rampant.

13.     Men don’t care about their appearance because they’re outnumbered by the woman who wear raccoon makeup.

14.    They are consumed by selfishness: “No este problema mea.” They can’t even recognize selfish altruism, which encourages reciprocity.

15.    The Moldovans are fueled by schadenfreude; “They derive more pleasure from their neighbor’s failure than their own success.”

16.  Scapegoat everything on “Perestroika.” When you scapegoat other source for your problems, your proclaiming your helplessness.

17.     Envy accumulates like toxic waste.

18.      There is no queuing, a sure sign of nihilism, anomie, and chaos.

19.    They trust nothing: doctors under thirty-five, their own friends.

20.     The once cheery American Peace Corps workers are becoming gloomy and depressed.

21.    No one wants to be in Moldova, including Moldovans.

22.    Helping professions score the highest in happiness surveys.

23.      The Moldovans have thrown politeness and civility out the window. They say, “Give me that.” No please. In contrast, Japan emphasizes politeness. A common expression: “Gomen nasai.” I’m sorry.

24.   Freedom has been reduced to a small number of people who have enough money to consume the growing selection of goods.

25.   Moldovans haven’t used the golden rule of positive psychology: hedonic adaptation: No matter how severe our misfortune, we adapt. But this adaptation cannot occur in the absence of culture, living in a shadow of moral rot. They have never learned that social reciprocity results in happiness more than bitter selfishness, a condition they cling to with all their defiant strength. Moldova is a “fabricated nation.” It really does not exist.

26.   Weiner concludes with “lessons gleaned from Moldova’s unhappiness”:

27.    Lesson One: “Not my problem” is a mental illness, a condition of no empathy.

28.    Lesson Two: Poverty is too often used as an excuse for unhappiness. Their reaction to poverty is worse than the poverty.

29.  Lesson Three: A culture that belittles the value of trust and friendship and rewards mean-spiritedness and deceit cannot be happy.

 

Part Four.America Ranks Low on the Happiness Index. Why?

1.  America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world but ranks low on happiness index. (23^rd). Why? Some say we suffer from the “paradox of choice.” The more choices, the more we become anxious about making the “wrong choice”. Also more choices results in inflated expectations.

2.  Abundance leads to restlessness. Again, think of the hedonic treadmill.

3.  While Americans have enjoyed more abundance in general, they also work longer hours and have longer commute times, which result in unhappiness. 

4.   “The More Factor” is in many ways a curse. As we read in McMahon’s blog the Breakthrough Writer, the hunger for more generates a delusional fallacy, what McMahon calls “Either/Or.”

5.    The hunger for More is in many ways instinctual. But as Tim Kasser observes in “Mixed Messages,” these instincts can go haywire, become inflated and actually work against us.

6.   According to Laurence Shames’ essay “The More Factor,” Americans are misguided by the “presumption that America wouldkeep on booming—if not forever, then at least longer than it made sense to worry about.” But for all of our innovation and economic greatness, Laurence Shames laments that our materialistic excess has retarded our moral growth. As he writes. He opines that “Americans have been somewhat backward in adopting values, hopes, ambitions that have to do with things other than more.”

7.  America encourages Darwinian competition, which results in isolation and paranoia. Our appetites for Darwinian competition are evidenced in the onslaught of “reality” TV shows like Survivor.

8.  Darwinian competition has created a nation where pleasure has been reduced to schadenfreude, taking pleasure in other people’s failures.

9.  The American Dream is living apart from the rest in a gated community, insulated with satellite TV, wireless Internet, techno-gadgets that keep us “connected” in the most unreal way. America is a good place to be lonely. People are not as lonely in other countries. Weiner points out that Latino cultures bring their family unity from other countries to America and that they rank higher than other Americans on the happiness index.

10.     American consumerism is a religion that possessed most Americans and makes the shopping mall America’s Holy Temple. Of course, such worship traps consumers in the hedonic treadmill, leading to numbness and ennui.

 

  

 

 

Lesson on Logic and Logical Fallacies (adapted from Chapter 5 of Practical Argument, Second Edition)

Logic comes from the Greek word logos, meaning, word, thought, principle, or reason. Logic is concerned with the principles of correct reasoning.

Deductive reasoning starts with general premises and ends in specific conclusions. This process is expressed in a syllogism: major premise, minor premise, and conclusion.

Major Premise: All bald men should wear extra sunscreen on their bald head.

Minor Premise: Mr. X is a bald man.

Conclusion: Therefore, Mr. X should apply extra sunscreen.

A sound syllogism, one that is valid and true, must follow logically from the facts and be based on premises that are based on facts.

Major Premise: All state universities must accommodate disabled students.

Minor Premise: UCLA is a state university.

Conclusion: Therefore, UCLA must accommodate disabled students.

A syllogism can be valid without being true as we see in this example from Robert Cormier’s novel The Chocolate War:

Bailey earns straight A’s.

Straight A’s are a sign of perfection.

But only God is perfect.

Can Bailey be God? Of course not.

Therefore, Bailey is a cheater and a liar.

In the above example it’s not true that the perfection of God is equivalent to the perfection of a straight-A student (faulty comparison, a logical fallacy). So while the syllogism is valid, following logically from one point to the next, it’s based on a deception or a falsehood; therefore, it is not true.

Syllogism with an Illogical Middle Term Is Invalid

Flawed logic occurs when the middle term has the same term in the major and minor premise but not in the conclusion.

Major Premise: All dogs are mammals.

Minor Premise: Some mammals are porpoises.

Conclusion: Therefore, some porpoises are dogs.

Syllogism with a Key Term Whose Meaning Shifts Cannot be Valid

Major Premise: Only man is capable of analytical reasoning.

Minor Premise: Anna is not a man.

Conclusion: Therefore, Anna is not capable of analytical reasoning.

The key term shift is “man,” which refers to “mankind,” not the male gender.

 

Syllogism with a Negative Premise

If either premise in a syllogism is negative, then the conclusion must also be negative. The following syllogism is not valid:

Major Premise: Only the Toyota Prius can go in the fast-track lane.

Minor Premise: The BMW 4 series is not a Toyota Prius.

Conclusion: Therefore, the BMW can drive in the fast-track lane.

If both premises are negative, the syllogism cannot have a valid conclusion:

Major Premise: The Toyota Prius cannot be denied entrance into the fast-track lane.

Minor Premise: The BMW 4 series is not a Toyota Prius.

Conclusion: Therefore, the BMW cannot be denied entrance into the fast-track lane.

Enthymemes

An enthymeme is a syllogism with one or two parts of its argument—usually, the major premise—missing.

Robert has lied, so he cannot be trusted.

We’re missing the major premise:

Major Premise: People who lie cannot be trusted.

Minor Premise: Robert has lied.

Conclusion: Therefore, Robert cannot be trusted.

When writers or speakers use enthymemes, they are sometimes trying to hide the flaw of the first premise:

Major Premise: All countries governed by dictators should be invaded.

Minor Premise: North Korea is a country governed by a dictator.

Conclusion: Therefore, North Korea should be invaded.

The premise that all countries governed by dictators should be invaded is a gross generalization and can easily be shot down under close scrutiny.

Inductive Reasoning

Inductive reasoning begins with specific observations or evidence and moves to a general conclusion.

My Volvo was always in the shop. My neighbor’s Mini Cooper and BMW are always in the shop. My other neighbor’s Audi is in the shop.

Now my wife and I own a Honda and Nissan and those cars are never in the shop.

European cars cost more to maintain than Japanese cars and the empirical evidence and data support my claim.

Recognizing Logical Fallacies

Begging the Question

Begging the question assumes that a statement is self-evident when it actually requires proof.

Major Premise: Fulfilling all my major desires is the only way I can be happy.

Minor Premise: I can’t afford when of my greatest desires in life, a Lexus GS350.

Conclusion: Therefore, I can never be happy.

Circular Reasoning

Circular reasoning occurs when we support a statement by restating it in different terms.

Stealing is wrong because it is illegal.

Admitting women into the men’s club is wrong because it’s an invalid policy.

Your essay is woeful because of its egregious construction.

Your boyfriend is hideous because of his heinous characteristics.

I have to sell my car because I’m ready to sell it.

I can’t spend time with my kids because it’s too time consuming.

I need to spend more money on my presents than my family’s presents because I need bigger and better presents.

I’m a great father because I’m the best father my children have ever had.

Weak Analogy or Faulty Comparison

Analogies are never perfect but they can be powerful. The question is do they have a degree of validity to make them worth the effort.

A toxic relationship is like a cancer that gets worse and worse (fine).

Sugar is high-octane fuel to use before your workout (weak because there is nothing high-octane about a substance that causes you to crash and converts into fat and creates other problems)

Free education is a great flame and the masses are moths flying into the flames of destruction. (horribly false analogy)

Ad Hominem Fallacy (Personal Attack)

“Who are you to be a marriage counselor? You’ve been divorced six times?”

A lot of people give great advice and present sound arguments even if they don’t apply their principles to their lives, so we should focus on the argument, not personal attack.

“So you believe in universal health care, do you? I suppose you’re a communist and you hate America as well.”

Making someone you disagree with an American-hating communist is invalid and doesn’t address the actual argument.

“What do you mean you don’t believe in marriage? What are you, a crazed nihilist, an unrepentant anarchist, an immoral misanthrope, a craven miscreant?”

Straw Man Fallacy

You twist and misconstrue your opponent’s argument to make it look weaker than it is when you refute it. Instead of attacking the real issue, you aim for a weaker issue based on your deliberate misinterpretation of your opponent’s argument.

“Those who are against universal health care are heartless. They obviously don’t care if innocent children die.”

Hasty Generalization (Jumping to a Conclusion)

“I’ve had three English instructors who are middle-aged bald men. Therefore, all English instructors are middle-aged bald men.”

“I’ve met three Americans with false British accents and they were all annoying. Therefore, all Americans, such as Madonna, who contrive British accents are annoying.” Perhaps some Americans do so ironically and as a result are more funny than annoying.

Either/Or Fallacy

There are only two choices to an issue is an over simplification and an either/or fallacy.

“Either you be my girlfriend or you don’t like real men.”

“Either you be my boyfriend or you’re not a real American.”

“Either you play football for me or you’re not a real man.”

“Either you’re for us or against us.” (The enemy of our enemy is our friend is every day foreign policy.)

“Either you agree with me about increasing the minimum wage, or you’re okay with letting children starve to death.”

“Either you get a 4.0 and get admitted into USC, or you’re only half a man.”

Equivocation

Equivocation occurs when you deliberately twist the meaning of something in order to justify your position.

“You told me the used car you just sold me was in ‘good working condition.’”

“I said ‘good,’ not perfect.”

The seller is equivocating.

“I told you to be in bed by ten.”

“I thought you meant be home by ten.”

“You told me you were going to pay me the money you owe me on Friday.”

“I didn’t know you meant the whole sum.”

“You told me you were going to take me out on my birthday.”

“Technically speaking, the picnic I made for us in the backyard was a form of ‘going out.’”

Red Herring Fallacy

This fallacy is to throw a distraction in your opponent’s face because you know a distraction may help you win the argument.

“Barack Obama wants us to support him but his father was a Muslim. How can we trust the President on the war against terrorism when he has terrorist ties?”

“You said you were going to pay me my thousand dollars today. Where is it?”

“Dear friend, I’ve been diagnosed with a very serious medical condition. Can we talk about our money issue some other time?”

Slippery Slope Fallacy

We go down a rabbit hole of exaggerated consequences to make our point sound convincing.

“If we allow gay marriage, we’ll have to allow people to marry gorillas.”

“If we allow gay marriage, my marriage to my wife will be disrespected and dishonored.”

Appeal to Authority

Using a celebrity to promote an energy drink doesn’t make this drink effective in increasing performance.

Listening to an actor play a doctor on TV doesn’t make the pharmaceutical he’s promoting safe or effective.

Tradition Fallacy

“We’ve never allowed women into our country club. Why should we start now?”

“Women have always served men. That’s the way it’s been and that’s the way it always should be.”

Misuse of Statistics

Using stats to show causality when it’s a condition of correlation or omitting other facts.

“Ninety-nine percent of people who take this remedy see their cold go away in ten days.” (Colds go away on their own).

“Violent crime from home intruders goes down twenty percent in home equipped with guns.” (more people in those homes die of accidental shootings or suicides)

Post Hoc, Confusing Causality with Correlation

Taking cold medicine makes your cold go away. Really?

The rooster crows and makes the sun go up. Really?

You drink on a Thursday night and on Friday morning you get an A on your calculus exam. Really?

You stop drinking milk and you feel stronger. Really? (or is it placebo effect?)

Non Sequitur (It Does Not Follow)

The conclusion in an argument is not relevant to the premises.

Megan drives a BMW, so she must be rich.

McMahon understands the difference between a phrase and a dependent clause; therefore, he must be a genius.

Whenever I eat chocolate cake, I feel good. Therefore, chocolate cake must be good for me.

Bandwagon Fallacy

Because everyone believes something, it must be right.

“You can steal a little at work. Everyone else does.”

“In Paris, ninety-nine percent of all husbands have a secret mistress. Therefore adultery is not immoral.”

 

 

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With happiness on the agenda

Lesson #2: Chapter 2: Switzerland: Happiness Is Boredom and the Absence of Envy. Third Revision

A Student Who Disagrees with McMahon About the Alleged Connection Between Happiness and Morality

McMahon has asked us to write an argument in favor for or against the idea that there is an inextricable connection between happiness and morality. I find Professor McMahon’s question evidence that he is a fossil from that musty Dinosaur Age, who has come to class eager to lecture us young folk on the inevitable happiness that will result from a life of virtue and we should heed his wisdom unless we want to fall into the abyss of self-indulgence and moral dissolution.

In fact, though, to preach to the young generation about the link between happiness and morality is to be grossly out of touch with the struggles we young people face, for we are a people who must struggle with more basic human life questions than luxuriate in the inquiries of happiness and morality. We must focus, not on happiness and morality, but on Darwinian survival in a world where college costs are two thousand percent higher than when McMahon went to college. We are a people who must face the prospect of getting out of college mired in college debts of tens of thousands of dollars with job prospects that are mostly the kind that don’t require a college degree at all and that are so under-paying as to provide feeble fare to pay off our colossal debts.

Our generation is not a people concerned with happiness and morality. Rather we are a people focused on inevitable sacrifice of our future funds for the slim hope of getting a decent job; we are a people focused on living in an economy that makes home buying impossible but also doubles the insult by making rentals more expensive than home ownership; we are a people whose earnings and tax revenues are not accruing for our benefit but for baby boomers like McMahon who will enjoy their lavish retirements on our hard-fought dollars. In other words, discussions about happiness and morality make for entertaining diversions for middle-aged suburbanites like McMahon and his ilk; however, these intellectual forays for college students are both absurd and insulting. Next writing assignment, please.

Definition Through Negation: What Happiness Is Not

1. Gloating

2. Vindication

3. Hedonism

4. Spite (the best revenge is happiness)

5. Schadenfreude, taking pleasure in the failure and misery of others

6. Machismo bluster (fist pumping)

7. Dionysian ecstasy

8. Excessive wealth (insulation, paranoia, solipsism, insanity)

9. Self-indulgence

10. Self-contented mediocrity and satisfaction with the status quo

11. Blissful ignorance

12. Intellectual pride, believing you're a genius surrounded by a "confederacy of dunces"

Defining Your Terms

Aristotle and the Pursuit of Happiness

Outline of Aristotle's Terms Like Happiness

McMahon’s Happiness Test 

(only discuss if there wasn't time to do this in Lesson 1)

1. Are you a nihilist, that is to say, do you believe that happiness and meaning are impossible? Rodney Dangerfield, centripetal, centrifugal motion, movies rely on centrifugal narrative.
2. Do you believe in meaning (there is a connection between people who have meaning and who say they are happy) and if so what is your meaning?
3. Is your happiness the byproduct of having meaning or something else such as vanity, wealth, popularity?
4.  Is your life full of false or real necessities?
5. Do you have a sense of belonging? Explain.
6. Are your pursuits the result of inner choices or are you bowing down to parental and societal pressure and in essence being a conformist?
7. Do you have a passion that takes you out of yourself or are you constantly self-centered?
8. Do you respond to suffering and loss with courage and dignity or are you a sniveling whiner?
9. Are you waiting around for people to love you? Here's the news: No one will EVER love you. You have to get off your duff and love others first. Only then will they love you. 
10. You can't be enthralled by your personal problems, believing your problems are special and unique. If you can't see that your problems are the same as everyone else's and thus are universal, you're doomed to be a miserable narcissist.

 

Happiness in Switzerland  

 1.  The Swiss rank high on the HI. They rank higher than their neighbors, the French and the Italians. They are more reserved, less volatile. Less volatility always contributes to more happiness. Volatility is a form of emotional drama and the inevitable end of emotional drama is the great crash. Your emotions burn out and you've got nowhere to go but down.  

2.  Some words used to describe the Swiss: Punctual, efficient, wealthy, clean, humorless, laconic, circumspect, civil, clean (some of the cleanest toilets in the world), austere. Taciturn (quiet), reticent (reserved), demure (shy), insouciant (doing something difficult without a fuss with a nonchalant flair). This is called the quality of insouciance.   

3.  One cause of Swiss happiness: They quell the impulse for envy. This means there are rules: No bragging, especially about how much money you make. Flashing your money in Switzerland is a sign of poverty. One trait is frowned upon in Swiss culture: braggadocio, the compulsion for self-aggrandizement, flapping your wings like the alpha condor and letting the world know you're the Apex Predator. That's an American trait.   

4.  The Swiss are even keeled. Eric Weiner calls this boredom. But research supports the Swiss: Better to live in the middle range than to have highs and lows. Volatility does not lead to happiness. Having a steely reserve is far better in the long-run. My daughter Natalie is willful, stubborn, and prone to grouchiness but overall she is emotionally steady. Her sister Julia has higher outbursts of joy but she also has more ear-crushing hissy fits. My wife and I live in fear of  Julia's tantrums. 

5.  In the seventeenth century in Basel, there was a prohibition against public laughter. Now there is no need for such a law because the people have internalized the desire to repress their emotions and this has led to increased happiness. Again, this is very un-American. Americans are for huge emotional displays to the point of exhibitionism of their emotional dramas on reality TV shows. 

6.  For the Swiss, joy comes from nature, the Pastoral, the Alps. For Americans, joy comes from gadgets.  

7.  Slovenly hedonists, those who seek self-indulgent pleasures, would prefer Denmark; anal-retentive prudes would prefer Switzerland. I know which country I would prefer. I would feel more comfortable living in a culture that helps me impede my indulgent behavior. That would be Switzerland. 

8.  The Swiss are fond of rules: For example, it’s illegal to flush your toilet after 10 P.M. 

9.  Switzerland has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. One possible reason: Being around happy people makes our own unhappiness even more unbearable. 

10.  The Swiss have a high degree of trust for one another. 

11.  The Swiss have a lot of patience. And they are affluent.  

12.  The Swiss consume high quantities of high-quality chocolate and there is a connection between chocolate and happy brain chemicals.

What is envy and why is it dangerous? 

Envy is the resentment and bitterness we have when we perceive that others have a better situation than ours.

Or perhaps we could define envy this way:

Envy is when we're addicted to the belief that others have better, more exciting, more fulfilling lives than our own because, firstly, we want to believe that such a better life exists and, secondly, feeling we suffer more than others gives us ample opportunity for indulging in the narcissistic deliciousness of self-pity.  

The causes of envy are the following: 

1. a sense of entitlement; we see others bathing in the glory of their sick materialistic muscle flexing like the TV show Cribs and we feel resentful if we can't have the same things.

2.  the Darwinian competition gene; it's in our DNA to dominate others. That's why we like to be the first car at a stop light and we will swerve into the empty lane even at a red light. This is why fights break out at Costco and Christmas sales. 

3.  narcissism, which compels us to seek more glory and attention than others 

4. immaturity; having nothing to define ourselves other than our things.  

5. empty life, void of love, friendship, and meaningful work 

6. Also some cultures breed envy more than others. A culture, like the United States’, that encourages bragging, ostentation, and bling will stir envy. A culture like Switzerland’s, that encourages modesty and privacy will discourage envy. 

The effects of envy are the following: 

1. growing obsession with those we perceive to enjoy life more than us resulting in our conniving plots to accelerate their demise 

2. all-consuming bitterness, which leads to self-loathing 

3.  self-pity 

4. in extreme cases criminality. “I’m gonna get mine” becomes the impetus for doing "whatever it takes." 

Twelve Common Fallacies or Misguided Notions About Happiness  

1.  Happiness Quest Fallacy: Happiness can be attained by searching for it. In fact, the search for happiness is usually a self-centered, selfish enterprise and is therefore doomed to create even more unhappiness. Most people who seek gurus, psychotherapists, life coaches, self-help books will inevitably find their lives in more ruin and despair than before. 

2.  Dominance Fallacy: Happiness can be achieved through Darwinian dominance over others, such as making yourself better looking than others and accruing “better” things, will make you happy. In fact, exercising your impulse for Darwinian dominance, focusing on self-aggrandizement and ostentation, and turning your life into one big boasting session, and animating all your talk with “look-what-I-got” braggadocio makes you obnoxious and therefore lonely and loneliness is a clear indicator for unhappiness. 

3.  Chimera Fallacy: Most of your cravings and longings are for what you believe will make you happy are not focused on reality at all but on a chimera, an idealized phantasmagoric representation of life that entices and tantalizes you, but at the same time always eludes your acquisition. In other words, you are often in love with the idea of life more than life itself. You are more in love with the idea of certain car, or the idea of marriage, the idea of home ownership, or the “perfect” body than the realities, which in comparison are always banal, corrupt, grotesque version of the ideal that animates your imagination. Related to the Chimera Fallacy is the Pulchritudinous Fallacy, which states you can not be happy and worthy of love until your body is stunning, beautiful, perfect and embodies the word pulchritude. 

4.  Perfection Fallacy (perfection is a chimera, see above): The fallacy of perfection says you cannot be happy unless you have the perfect body, the perfect car, the perfect job, the perfect spouse, the perfect house, the perfect wardrobe, etc. No perfection can be obtained and the process of trying to attain this perfection makes your anal-retentive (or is it the other way around?) and therefore obnoxious and repellant. Further, this perfection quest makes you afraid to live because you fear subjecting your perfect things to real life will ruin them. Thus you cover your furniture in plastic and keep your cars garaged. Your house is more like a mausoleums or museum than it is a real house. Your life is a stage to others and yourself. 

5.  Pulchritudinous Fallacy: I won’t be happy unless people love me and no one will love me unless I am the embodiment of pulchritude, exquisite, rarified beauty. Please see Jon Hamm in episode of 30 Rock in which he plays someone of pulchritude and tell me if he’s happy. 

6.  Hedonistic Fallacy: The fallacy of hedonism states you cannot be happy unless you are always augmenting your pleasure. To live is to experience pleasure, or so says the hedonist, until he finds that his pleasure quest becomes an obsession and an addiction and that his numbness to stimulation compels him to inflate his hedonistic stimulators to greater and more dangerous levels. The final outcome of hedonism is always nihilism, the sense that life means nothing, addiction, emptiness, numbness, and boredom. 

7.  Effortless Fallacy. This fallacy says you cannot be happy unless your life is completely absent of conflict. You no longer have problems, conflicts or crises to deal with. Life with all its responsibilities can be such an inconvenience, after all, and therefore you cannot be happy until you relieve yourselves of these inconveniences. Of course, in doing so we retreat from life itself and regress back to the Womb, the state of Unconscious Slumber (through drugs, alcohol, TV?) and find that we have become spiritually dead. 

8.  Narcissistic Fallacy: You cannot be happy unless you persuade the whole world that you’re not only right about things but that your lifestyle (the way you eat, dress, your musical tastes, etc) is so superior to everyone else’s that the whole world should conform to your ways or at the very least aspire to be like you. 

9.  Spiteful Fallacy: You cannot be happy unless you have exacted revenge. Someone has wronged you and you cannot find satisfaction in your soul until you spite this offender. Your desire to spite the person is so obsessive that you’re willing to “bite your nose to spite their face.” Your spite will blacken your heart and eventually kill you. 

10.  Vindication Fallacy: You cannot be happy unless you prove to your  ex boyfriend or ex girlfriend that you are “a winner” and “were the one” and that they “blew it” by dumping you. Or you must prove to a parent or an authority figure that they were egregiously mistaken to predict that you would fail in life. Your whole existence is centered around going back to your ex or your parent and rubbing their nose in your “success.” Of course, you’re acting like a petty egotist and petty egotism evidences woeful unhappiness. 

11.  Intellectual Fallacy: This chimera (see above) states that you cannot be happy until you’re worthy of others’ admiration and love through intellectual prowess. Through your extensive research, you become the “highest authority” on some subject or other or you are simply plain smart and you therefore deserve the admiration, love, and respect of others. You may feel that your happiness is contingent on a PhD or the publication of a book or a guest spot on CNN or some such nonsense. In fact, intellectual pride will only make you obnoxious, lonely, and therefore unhappy. 

12.  Melancholy Fallacy: You can’t be “deep” and “soulful” unless you’re sad, melancholy, constantly afflicted with Weltschmerz (sadness for the world). This fallacy speaks to a certain type of self-aggrandizement which compels you to take yourself too seriously and as such see yourself as “deeper” than others. 

 Important Chapter Notes: 

Most important chapters for unhappiness are the following: 

Chapter 6. Moldova 

Chapter 4. Qatar 

Most important chapters for happiness are the following: 

5. Iceland 

7. Thailand 

3. Bhutan 

2. Switzerland

 

Example of an "A" Introduction 

I was sixteen in the summer of 1978. The past few months had been tough. My parents separated, and eventually divorced, and my grandmother had just died of leukemia at the age of sixty-four. It was decided I’d spend the summer with my grandfather in San Pedro. He was working for his friend, Forbes, in Carson. Forbes owned a machine shop and my grandfather and I would load and deliver parts in a flatbed truck to industrial centers and ports around Los Angeles. I hated the work. Long back-busting days starting at six and ending around four after which I’d drag myself to the YMCA to workout. I’d come home and go straight to sleep, knowing the monotony would be repeated all over again.

I remember one night in particular as I tossed and turned on the pull-out couch, I thought to myself: “So this is what’s it’s going to be like after I get out of school. A full-time job. Misery day in and day out. And for what? So I can go home, catch a workout, steal a little dinner before bedtime, and then go to sleep so I’ll have enough energy to drag myself through the same drudgery the next day? And for what? Nothing, that’s what. Life is shit.” In my mind, all jobs were the same, more or less. You had to show up, you had responsibilities, and you were essentially doing something you didn’t want to do. So at the age of sixteen I had found the truth of existence: Life is shit.

And here I am many years later trying to teach The Geography of Bliss, while tossing pearls of wisdom to my students so that they can find happiness, but I am hardly worthy of teaching a book about happiness because at my very core I am, and always have been, a cynic and a nihilist. Even more disturbing, I am a married man with twin girls. A man entrenched in such a cynical attitude is not a pleasant personality for his wife and two daughters to wake up to every day. What’s the cure for such an attitude? Hopefully, in addition to teaching the students, I can learn something myself about the wisdom of the world's happiest cultures, a wisdom that rejects the fallacies of happiness. These fallacies include ___________, ______________, ______________, and __________________. 

 

  

Lesson for Rhetorical Analysis (Chapter 4 from Practical Argument, Second Edition)

Rhetoric refers to “how various elements work together to form a convincing and persuasive argument” (90).

“When you write a rhetorical analysis, you examine the strategies a writer employs to achieve his or her purpose. In the process, you explain how these strategies work together to create an effective (or ineffective) argument.”

To write a rhetorical analysis, you must consider the following:

The argument’s rhetorical situation

The writer’s means of persuasion

The writer’s rhetorical strategies

The rhetorical situation is the writer, the writer’s purpose, the writer’s audience, the topic, and the context.

We analyze the rhetorical situation by doing the following:

Read the title’s subtitle, if there is one.

Look at the essay’s headnote for information about the writer, the issue being discussed, and the essay structure.

Look for clues within the essay such as words or phrases that provide information about the writer’s preconceptions. Historical or cultural references can indicate what ideas or information the writer expects readers to have.

Do a Web search to get information about the writer.

Example of How the Rhetorical Situation Gives Us Greater Understanding About the Text

I came across a book about the alleged limitations of alternative energy only to find that the author is paid by the oil industry to write his books.

I came across a book by an author who writes about nutrition and I learned that his findings were contradicted by new research, which the writer did not address because the research refuted his book’s main premise and the publisher had already paid him a .75 million-dollar advance.

I came across a book that refuted the health claims of veganism only to find that the author blamed her severe health problems on a twenty-year vegan diet. This last example could hurt or help the argument depending on how the argument is documented. Was the author showing a strong causal relationship between her illness and her vegan diet? Or was her connection correlational?

When we examine the writer, we ask the following:

What is the writer’s background? Does he work for a think tank that is of a particular political persuasion? Is he being paid by a lobbyist or corporation to regurgitate their opinions?

How does the writer’s background affect the argument’s content?

What preconceptions about the subject does the writer seem to have?

When we analyze the writer’s purpose, we ask the following:

Does the writer state his or her purpose directly or is the purpose implied?

Is the writer’s purpose simply to convince or to encourage action?

Does the writer rely primarily on logic or on emotion?

Does the writer have a hidden agenda?

How does the author use logos, pathos, and ethos to put the argument together?

When we analyze the writer’s audience, we ask the following:

Who is the writer’s intended audience?

Does the writer see the audience as informed or uninformed?

Does the writer see the audience as hostile, friendly, or neutral?

What values does the writer think the audience holds?

On what points do the writer and the audience agree? On what points do they disagree?

 

Consider the Author’s Stylistic Techniques

Simile: A simile is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things using the word like or as.

Example: “We must not educate the masses because education is like a great flame and the hordes of people are like moths that will fly into the flames at their own peril.”

In the above example “like a great flame” is a simile.

“Gorging on plate after plate of chicken fried steak at HomeTown Buffet, I felt like Jonah lost in the belly of a giant, dyspeptic whale on the verge of spitting me back into the throng of angry people.”

Metaphor: A metaphor is a comparison in which two dissimilar things are compared without the word like or as. “We must educate the masses to protect them from the disease of ignorance.”

Allusion: An allusion (not to be confused with illusion) is a reference within a work to a person, literary or biblical text, or historical event in order to enlarge the context of the situation being written about.

“Even though I am not a religious man, I would agree with Jesus who said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to Heaven, which is why rich people are in general against the minimum wage and the social and economic justice a healthy minimum wage exacts upon our society.”

Parallelism: Parallelism is the use of similar grammatical structures to emphasize related ideas and make passages easier to follow.

“Failure to get your college education will make you languish in the abyss of ignorance, weep in the chasm of unemployment, and wallow in the crater of self-abnegation.”

Repetition: Intentional repetition involves repeating a word or phrase for emphasis, clarity, or emotional impact (pathos).

“Are you able to accept the blows of not having a college education? Are you able to accept the shock of a low-paying job? Are you able to accept the disgrace of living on life’s margins?”

Rhetorical questions: A rhetorical question is a question that is asked to encourage readers to reflect on an issue, not to elicit a reply.

“How can you remain on the outside of college when all that remains is for you to walk through those open gates? How can you let an opportunity as golden as a college education pass you by when the consequences are so devastating?”

 Support a Claim in an Argument Essay

Claim, Data, and Warrant

Warrant Handbook

Using Claims and Warrants Part of Toulmin Argument

Common topics for Toulmin Argument

Learn to Identify the Elements of Argument in an Essay by Using Critical Thinking Skills

To read critically, we have to do the following:

One. Comprehend the author's purpose and meaning, which is expressed in the claim or thesis

Two. Examine the evidence, if any, that is used

Three. Find emotional appeals, if any, that are used

Four. Identify analogies and comparisons and analyze their legitimacy

Five. Look at the topic sentences to see how the author is building his or her claim

Six. Look for the appeals the author uses be they logic (logos), emotions (pathos), or authority (ethos).

Seven. Is the author's argument diminished by logical fallacies?

Eight. Do you recognize any bias in the essay that diminishes the author's argument?

Nine. Do we bring any prejudice that may compromise our ability to evaluate the argument fairly?

Grammar Review (what should have been covered in 1A)

Dependent and Independent Clauses

 

Gerunds and Other Phrases

 

Clause and Phrase Quiz

 

Another Clause and Phrase Quiz

 

McMahon Grammar Exercise: Identifying Phrases, Independent Clauses, and Dependent Clauses

Identify the group of words in bold type as phrase, independent clause, or dependent clause.

One. Toward the monster’s palace, we see a white marble fountain jettisoning chocolate fudge all over the other giants.

Two. Before going to school, Gerard likes to make sure he’s packed his chocolate chip cookies and bagels.

Three. Because Jack’s love of eating pizza every night cannot be stopped, he finds his cardio workouts to be rather worthless.

Four. Maria finds the Lexus preferable to the BMW because of the Lexus’ lower repair costs.

Five. Greg does not drive at night because he suffers from poor nocturnal eyesight.

Six. Whenever Greg drives past HomeTown Buffet, he is overcome with depression and nausea.

Seven. People who eat at Cinnabon, according to Louis C.K., always look miserable over their poor life decisions.

Eight. After eating at Cinnabon and HomeTown Buffet, Gary has to eat a bottle of antacids.

Nine. Towards the end of the date, Gary decided to ask Maria if she’d care for another visit to HomeTown Buffet.

Ten. Whenever Maria is in the presence of a gluttonous gentleman, she withdraws into her shell.

Eleven. Greg watched Maria recoil into her shell while biting her nails.

Twelve. Greg watched Maria recoil into her private universe while she bit her nails.

Thirteen. Eating at all-you-can-eat buffets will expand the circumference of your waistline.

Fourteen. Larding your essay with grammatical errors will result in a low grade.

Fifteen. My favorite pastime is larding my essay with grammatical errors.

Sixteen. Larding my body with chocolate chunk peanut butter cookies followed by several gallons of milk, I wondered if I should skip dinner that evening.

Seventeen. After contemplating the benefits of going on a variation of the Paleo diet, I decided I was at peace being a fat man with a strong resemblance to the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

Eighteen. In the 1970s few people would consider eating bugs as their main source of protein although today world-wide food shortages have compelled a far greater percentage of the human race to entertain this unpleasant possibility.

Nineteen. Because of increased shortages in worldwide animal protein, more and more people are looking to crickets, grasshoppers, and grubs as possible complete protein amino acid alternatives.

Twenty. The percentage of people getting married in recent years has significantly declined as an economic malaise has deflated confidence in the viability of sustaining a long-term marriage.

Twenty-one. Before you decide to marry someone, consider two things: your temperament and your economic prospects.

Twenty-two. To understand the pitfalls of getting married prematurely is to embark on the road to greater wisdom.

Twenty-three. To know me is to love me.

Twenty-four. To languish in the malignant juices of self-pity after breaking up with your girlfriend is to fall down the rabbit hole of moral dissolution and narcissism.

Twenty-five. Having considered the inevitable disappointment of being rich, I decided not to rob a bank.

Twenty-six. Watching TV on a sticky vinyl sofa all day, I noticed I was developing bedsores.

Twenty-seven. While I watched TV for twenty consecutive hours, I began to wonder if life was passing me by.

Twenty-eight. Under the bridge where a swarm of mosquitos gathered, the giant belched.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson #1 Geography of Bliss Lesson: Netherlands

 

Lesson #1: Essay Assignment, Introduction and Chapter 1: Netherlands

 

Sample essay question from last semester:

George Washington famously wrote, “Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.” Develop a thesis that argues that The Geography of Bliss contains implicit, sometimes explicit, links between happiness and moral development and likewise links between misery and moral decay. In other words, there is a correlation between happiness and moral development.

 

 Typed Essay Assignment

Support, refute, or complicate the notion that The Geography of Bliss evidences a strong connection between morality and happiness. Use Toulmin or Rogerian model. The essay should be 1,000 words with a Works Cited page of no fewer than three sources.

For your first typed essay, you will be asked to use no fewer than 3 sources and show the ability to use signal phrases and in-text quotations for your MLA Works Cited page.

 

 

 

Some Mythologies of Happiness

Psychological fallacies

Some Common Fallacies About Happiness We'll Explore

1. You can't try to be happy because happiness is the byproduct of a meaningful, purpose-filled life.  If your "purpose" is to have happy, meaning a life of pleasure and vanity, that shallow purpose will doom you to misery.

2. Related to the above, you must have a mature definition of happiness. If you seek to be happy and by that you mean ego gratification, power, drunken giggling, teenage sensuality fantasies, hedonistic pleasure and material wealth, you'll find yourself on a treadmill that leads to despair. A mature definition is based on connection with others and self-interested altruism.

3. Happiness cannot be found in isolation. You need to connect to others.It's a sad fact. Other people are hell. We can't live with them, but we can't live without them. Rich people tend to be unhappy because they're isolated and they're surrounded by sycophants and suffer from The Sycophant Effect.

4. The search for happiness is intrinsically a selfish, immature impulse and therefore doomed to fail from the very start.Look back at Rule #1.

5. Getting a "free ride" will never make you happy. Instead, you will rely on the source of your income, become an emotional cripple, and suffer from learned helplessness. And yet many of us fantasize about getting a "free ride."

6. Even though all of us, or most of us, know intellectually that money is not a source of happiness, most of us say, "Screw it" and go for the money anyway, committing ourselves to a life of greed, avarice, and rapacity and thus sealing ourselves into a life of unhappiness.

7. Happiness should never be looked at as an absolute. Rather it is relative to our specific situation. For example, if you're starving a cup of lima beans is a source of joy. If you're rich, a cup of lima beans is not a source of joy.

8. If happiness can be found at all, it cannot materialize unless we have, as Freud said, love and work.

9. We need a massive re-evaluation of our lives. Often times when we think we're miserable, we're actually working toward being happy; and when we think we're happy, we're actually working toward being miserable. Or put another way: When we think we're falling in life, we're really rising; and when we think we're rising, we're actually falling.

This means you suffer from some massive failure, humiliation, or rejection that forces you to re-evaluate who you are and in the process you change your life, for better or worse, forever.

A girl dumps you, gets a new boyfriend and brags that her life is better. She looks better, she has a better job, the air that she breathes is better, food tastes better. Everything is better AFTER YOU, her time of misery. Then she marries this dude. Then she divorces him. So everything she said, even though she herself believed it, was BS and you wanted to kill yourself. You have been humiliated, but now you realize people talk a lot of BS and now you're slow to believe things; you're skeptical. Now whenever anyone says something, about how bad or good you are, your response is "Is that so?"

10. Some people have lower standards for happiness than others. The dumber you are, the easier it is to be happy. The smarter you are, the more difficult it is. Dumb people lack the imagination to see the possibility of a "better world" to aspire to; in contrast, the smart person can imagine this "better world" and the longing for this improved existence, this understanding that such an existence has not materialized, leads to unhappiness.

Dumb people are ignorant and ignorance breeds bliss.

In contrast, smart people think a lot and the more you think, the more unhappy you will be. Over-thinking leads to unhappiness.

Dumb people don't suffer from over-thinking so they tend to be happier than smart people.

11. Know where happy people go. Don't go to Angry People Places like clubs where fights ensue. The bar of anger is too low because clubbers tend to be immature. A shoulder clip could result in death.

Different cultures in America have different attitude toward anger. I'm from San Francisco where a shoulder clip would result in ice. My friend is from New Jersey where a shoulder clip is "disrespect."

12. Don't confuse real happiness with a dopamine buzz. Show the students the concentric circles of dopamine pleasure. Show the inner circle, the golden nugget, where things get dangerous with food, cars, watches, alcohol, etc.

A dopamine buzz is your experience but it's inside the prison of yourself.  Happiness, we read in Iceland and other chapters, is connecting with others.

13. The more you think about your life, especially where you're heading and "what it all means," the more miserable you will become. All my life I have been pensive, which means I think a lot.

Writing an Effective Introduction

 

One. Should transition to your thesis statement.

Two. Should establish your passion for your subject.

Three. Should show your ability to connect abstract ideas to real life situations.

Four. Should pique your reader's interest.

Five. Should show someone in an extreme situation.

 

Example of an "A" Introduction

I was sixteen in the summer of 1978. The past few months had been tough. My parents separated, and eventually divorced, and my grandmother had just died of leukemia at the age of sixty-four. It was decided I’d spend the summer with my grandfather in San Pedro. He was working for his friend, Forbes, in Carson. Forbes owned a machine shop and my grandfather and I would load and deliver parts in a flatbed truck to industrial centers and ports around Los Angeles. I hated the work. Long back-busting days starting at six and ending around four after which I’d drag myself to the YMCA to workout. I’d come home and go straight to sleep, knowing the monotony would be repeated all over again. I remember one night in particular as I tossed and turned on the pull-out couch, I thought to myself: “So this is what’s it’s going to be like after I get out of school. A full-time job. Misery day in and day out. And for what? So I can go home, catch a workout, steal a little dinner before bedtime, and then go to sleep so I’ll have enough energy to drag myself through the same drudgery the next day? And for what? Nothing, that’s what. Life is shit.” In my mind, all jobs were the same, more or less. You had to show up, you had responsibilities, and you were essentially doing something you didn’t want to do. So at the age of sixteen I had found the truth of existence: Life is shit.

And here I am many years later trying to teach The Geography of Bliss, while tossing pearls of wisdom to my students so that they can find happiness, but I am hardly worthy of teaching a book about happiness because at my very core I am, and always have been, a cynic and a nihilist. Even more disturbing, I am a married man with twin girls. A man entrenched in such a cynical attitude is not a pleasant personality for his wife and two daughters to wake up to every day. What’s the cure for such an attitude? Hopefully, in addition to teaching the students, I can learn something myself about the wisdom of the world's happiest cultures, a wisdom that rejects the fallacies of happiness. These fallacies include ___________, ______________, ______________, and __________________. 

 

Happiness Test

 

1. Are you a nihilist, that is to say, do you believe that happiness and meaning are impossible? Rodney Dangerfield, centripetal, centrifugal motion, movies rely on centrifugal narrative.
2. Do you believe in meaning (there is a connection between people who have meaning and who say they are happy) and if so what is your meaning?
3. Is your happiness the byproduct of having meaning or something else such as vanity, wealth, popularity?
4.  Is your life full of false or real necessities?
5. Do you have a sense of belonging? Explain.
6. Are your pursuits the result of inner choices or are you bowing down to parental and societal pressure and in essence being a conformist?
7. Do you have a passion that takes you out of yourself or are you constantly self-centered?
8. Do you respond to suffering and loss with courage and dignity or are you a sniveling whiner?
9. Are you waiting around for people to love you? Here's the news: No one will EVER love you. You have to get off your duff and love others first. Only then will they love you. 
10. You can't be enthralled by your personal problems, believing they're special and unique. If you can't see that your problems are everyone else's and thus are universal, you're doomed to be a miserable narcissist. 

 

 Study Questions from Chapter One. 

1.  Why is happiness a moral imperative?

We’re so programmed to have the drive to“be happy,” whatever that means, and we suffer “the unhappiness of not being happy,” says Darrin McMahon. We seem to be hardwired with the nagging sense that “something isn’t quite right” and we want to make things right.

Sometimes our efforts to make us happy are misguided and backfire. Like we obsess over things we don't really need and once we get it we don't even like it. The writer Jim Harrison put it this way: "We piss away our lives on nonsense."

That is a serious danger.  It seems, then, that our attempts to get rid of the nagging sense that things are not right makes things MORE WRONG. That's the nature of the human beast. For example, a rich woman in Argentina died of heat exhaustion while showing off her body-length mink coat in the bloom of summer. 

2.  What is solipsism and why can’t we define happiness in terms of solipsism?

Happiness is not solipsism or something “inside.” Solipsism is an extreme form of self-centeredness in which you are the only universe. A universe of one. Happiness is the intersection between the inside and the outside; hence the geographical and cultural location is a huge factor. “You can’t have what’s in here unless you have what is out there.” Solipsism is the idea of happiness born from the juvenile and the adolescent who thinks, "I will retire on an island with a crate of Corona and lots of whatever."

For Weiner, happiness isn't found in solitude but in culture, family, etc. 

3.  Why does the author travel the world in search of happiness?

Because one idea of happiness is about the search for Paradise on Earth. Happiness is not just on the inside. It’s a function of place. The cultural values influence the degree of happiness. The more selfish a culture, we learn, the less happy that culture is. 

4.  What is the paradox of seeking happiness according to Eric Hoffer?

The search for happiness leads to unhappiness. And we might add that Viktor Frankl writes in Man’s Search for Meaning that it is absurd to look for happiness. Happiness is the natural byproduct of a meaningful life. In other words, people who are engaged with their work and the love of their life are not centered on the self (remember solipsism) and they experience a certain degree of liberation. 

5.  Is hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure as the highest good, a legitimate way to find happiness? Or put it this way: Is pleasure the same as happiness?

You might want to watch an episode of The Twilight Zone in which a robber dies and thinks he goes to heaven, a place that indulges all his fleshly caprices.

You might also consider Tennessee Williams after he became famous and lived in a luxury hotel. Hedonism always dissolves into solipsism. 

You will find that Weiner did not find one culture that was happy based on the principle of wealth and pleasure. 

6.  Must hedonism (the pursuit of pleasure) always end in concupiscence, the blind pursuit of pleasure leading to insatiable desires, or can we be moderate in our hedonistic drive?

Some people are more capable of moderation than others. Some of us are more prone to addictive, obsessive, excessive behavior and relate to food, alcohol, TV, to name a few examples, in an all or nothing fashion. Hedonism always traps us on the hedonic treadmill. We adapt to pleasure and increase the spike but adapt to it again and again. The end result in numbing. 

7.  Can and should we measure happiness with brain activity?

At the end of the chapter, Weiner shows the absurdity of this and the lack of humanity. You could dip your head into a "happy box," increase your brain's happy chemicals, and not be happy in any real sense, just a chemical one. Why? Because happiness is about connection with others, with Life, with Spirit. 

8.  What are the shortcomings of using interviews and surveys to measure people’s happiness?

People lie, they are confused and can’t answer accurately, or they are self-deceived. See page 12.

9.  How would Schopenhauer define happiness?

(not in book) The absence of misery and suffering.

10.  What’s a better definition of happiness, pleasure or flourishing?

We become numb to pleasure; therefore, pleasure disappoints us. Flourishing means to blossom in an area we're meant to flourish in. We find belonging and purpose and those two things give us a deeper happiness. 

A better approach to happiness is to forget about happiness and focus on flourishing. We must flourish in life.  How do we flourish? What is the connection, if any, between flourishing and virtue? To flourish is to focus on a meaningful passion. One of the great benefits of being focused on a meaningful passion is that you can forget yourself and in turn forget the foolish quest for happiness, which invariably leads to unhappiness. The short definition of flourishing means to find work that is meaningful to you as opposed to being a passive consumer of "happiness." Freud knew this. He said the only thing you can do to mitigate the inherent insanity and misery of life is to find love and work. 

11.     What is Darwinian happiness?

(not in book) The pleasure and wellbeing of knowing that we look better, feel better, and act smarter than others, resulting in our making more money, living longer, and having better things. Consider the studies that show we prefer relative good looks and wealth for ourselves more than absolute good looks and wealth. For example, we'd reject a salary of 300K a year if EVERYONE made 300K. Rather, we'd take a salary of 60K a year if EVERYONE ELSE only made 20K a year. 

12.  What are some universal guidelines for happiness?

See page 14: Extroverts happier than introverts.

Married people happier than single.

People with college degrees are happier than those without. People with advanced degrees are LESS happy than those with just a BA.

Homogeneous societies like Denmark and Iceland are more happy than heterogeneous societies. I question this. Maybe people are happy with their insulated world but such cultures are too limiting. For example, I’ve been exposed to a lot of diverse food in LA. I couldn’t move to some homogenous society where food diversity is lacking. I’d be miserable.

Income is not a predictor for happiness except in extreme poverty.

13.  What is a striking contradiction about happiness?

Many of the world’s happiest countries have the highest suicide rates. Perhaps countries that offer the highest potential for happiness create a standard that makes depressed people feel their unhappiness even greater.

14.  How do countries fare in happiness rankings?

Many African nations are at the bottom of the Happiness Index but not Ghana, which is in the middle. Former Soviet Union republics are at the bottom of the Happiness Index, including Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Moldova. Fiji, Bahamas, and Tahiti are in the middle of the Happiness Index.

15.   What is Chapter One’s central idea?

The Experience Machine, which asks the question: Is hedonism true happiness? If you could plug your brain into the Machine and experience nonstop pure pleasure, would you? Would this be happiness and if not what are the fallacies of such thinking? What would you be missing out on?

Life’s richness is far beyond pleasure. Pleasure is an achievement, not a consumer passive experience. You would no longer have the possibility of unhappiness. 

 

Happiness as Flourishing or Thriving

1.  Finding a noble passion outside yourself and free yourself from the private hell of self-centeredness.

2.  Finding a passion that makes demands on your intellect and imagination so you’re always pushing yourself and never capitulating to stagnation and complacency.

3.  Developing the discipline to pursue your passion.

4.  Cultivating a passion that gives you both distinction and belonging to your community.

5.  Cultivating a passion that earns you a livelihood, that is money to live.

6.  Cultivating a passion that gives back to the community. Studies show that people with “helping” professions rank the happiest. Nurses are at the top. Bankers are at the bottom.

 

Part Five. The Consequences of Not Thriving

1.  You’ll feebly seek to fill the void through addiction and hedonism. As such you will be the eternal adolescent with no understanding of what it means to grow up and flourish. Sadly, you'll become like Snooky or her band of lost souls from Jersey Shore. 

2.  You’ll try to distract yourself from not thriving or flourishing by watching lots of TV, compulsively going on the Internet and text-messaging people—all of these activities are directed by anxious, desperate energy.

3.  You’ll suffer from lethargy, depression, and acedia (lost in a fog from having no focus)

4.  You’ll seek other people who aren’t flourishing because of course misery needs company. The problem is you and your associates (I can’t use the word “friends”) will reinforce each other’s behavior.

5.  You’ll eventually succumb to nihilism, the belief that life is all B.S. and means nothing, so it doesn’t matter what you do. Of course, this is a pathetic rationalization for having never flourished.

6.  Perhaps you’ll make money but in the absence of flourishing you’ll find meaning through Darwinian fantasies of domination over others. 

 

Depending on your approach to Essay 1, your thesis could be analytical, breaking down the causes and effects, of morality or its lack thereof, on happiness, or argumentative, making the claim that there is, or not, a strong connection between morality and happiness.

These distinctions are made clear in this Purdue Owl link.

 

Analytical or Cause and Effect Thesis

There are several compelling reasons that unhappy married couples are at high risk for severe health problems and a high mortality rate.

Once you develop a strong relationship with your smartphone and enjoy easy access to social media, your relationship with others will change radically, mostly for the worst.

Argumentative Thesis

Because marriage is such a difficult enterprise, there should be mandatory one-year marriage counseling before a couple can be eligible for a marriage license.

You would be well served to shut down your smartphone at least once a week and limit your social media time to a half-hour a day.

The common definition of altruism is that it is kindness and charity toward others with no expectation of getting anything in return. This definition is a false one because in fact altruism, exacting kindness and compassion on others, comes with expectations of self-interest. First, having compassion for others delivers us from the hell of self-centeredness, creates a social contract of reciprocity (I help you and you help me), and delivers higher levels of happiness based on empirical evidence (countries high in altruism are happy like Iceland while countries with no altruism at all are abjectly miserable such as Moldova).

 

Four Pillars of Argument Lesson (from Practical Argument, second edition)

 

Types of Argument

Informal argument is a quarrel, or a spin or BS on a subject; or there is propaganda. In contrast, formal or academic argument takes a stand, presents evidence, and uses logic to convince an audience of the writer’s position or claim. 

In a formal argument, we are taking a stand on which intelligent people can disagree, so we don’t “prove” anything; at best we persuade or convince people that our position is the best of all the positions available.

 

Therefore, in formal argument the topic has compelling evidence on both sides. 

The thesis or claim, the main point of our essay, must therefore be debatable. There must be substantial evidence and logic to support opposing views and it is our task to weigh the evidence and come to a claim that sides with one position over another. Our position may not be absolute; it may be a matter of degree and based on contingency.

 

For example, I may write an argumentative essay designed to assert America’s First Amendment rights for free speech, but my support of the First Amendment is not absolute. I would argue that there are cases where people can cross the line. Groups that spread racial hatred should not be able to gather in a public space. Nor should groups committed to abusing children be able to spread their newsletters and other information to each other. While I believe in the First Amendment, I’m saying there is a line that cannot be crossed. 

We cannot write a thesis that is a statement of fact. For example, online college classes are becoming more and more available is a fact, not an argument.

 

We cannot write a thesis that is an expression of personal taste or preference. If we prefer working out at home rather than the gym, our preference is beyond dispute. However, if we make the case that there are advantages to home exercise that make gym memberships a bad idea, we have entered the realm of argumentation. 

It is an over simplification to reduce all arguments to just two sides.
 

Should torture be banned? It’s not an either/or question. The ban depends on the circumstances described and the definition of torture. And then there is the matter of who decides who gets tortured and who does the torturing? There are so many questions, qualifications, edicts, provisos, clauses, condition, etc., that it is impossible to make a general for/against stand on this topic. 

Why Argumentation Is Relevant

You make arguments for daily life problems all the time:

Should I go on Diet X or is this diet just another futile fad like all the other diets I’ve gone on?

Should I buy a new car or is my old car fine but I’m looking for attention and a way to alleviate my boredom, so I’m looking for the drama of a colossal purchase, which will be the source of conversations with others? In other words, am I looking for false connection through my rampant consumerism?

Should I break up with my girlfriend to give me more time to study and give me the “alone time” I need, or continue navigating that precarious balance between the demands of my job, my academic load, and my capricious, rapacious, overbearing, manipulative, emotionally needy girlfriend? (here the answer is embedded in the question)

Should I upgrade my phone to the latest generation to get all the new apps or am I just jealous that all my friends are upgrading and I fear they’ll leave me out of their social circle if I’m languishing with an outdated smartphone?

Should I go to Cal State and graduate with 20K debt or go to that prestigious private college that gives my résumé more punch on one hand but leaves me with over 100K in debt on the other?

Do I really want to get married under the age of thirty or am I just jealous of all the expensive presents my brother got after he got married?

Whether you are defining an argument for your personal life or for an academic paper, you are using the same skills: critical analysis, defining the problem, weighing different types of evidence against each other; learning to respond to a problem intellectually rather than emotionally; learning to identify possible fallacies and biases in your thinking that might lead you down the wrong path, etc. 

We live in a win-lose culture that emphasizes the glory of winning and the shame of defeat. In politics, we speak of winning or losing behind our political leaders and their political agendas. But this position is doltish, barbaric, and often self-destructive. 

Many times, we argue or I should say we should argue because we want to reach a common understanding. “Sometimes the goal of an argument is to identify a problem and suggest solutions that could satisfy those who hold a number of different positions on an issue” (8) Sometimes the solution for a problem is to make a compromise. For example, let's say students want more organic food in the college cafeteria but the price is triple for these organic foods and only one percent of the student body can afford these organic foods. Perhaps a compromise is to provide less processed, sugar-laden foods with fresh fruits and vegetables, which are not organic but at least provide more healthy choices. 

Your aim is not to win or lose in your argument but be effective in your ability to persuade. Persuasion refers to how a speaker or writer influences an audience to adopt a belief or to follow a course of action.

According to Aristotle, there are three means of persuasion that a speaker or writer can use to persuade his audience:

The appeal of reason and logic: logos

The appeal of emotions: pathos

The appeal of authority: ethos 

Smoking will compromise your immune system and make you more at risk for cancer; therefore, logic, or logos, dictates that you should quit smoking.

If you die of cancer, you will be abandoning your family when they need you most; therefore an emotional appeal, or pathos, dictates that you quit smoking.

The surgeon general has warned you of the hazards of smoking; therefore the credibility of an authority or expert dictates that you quit smoking. If the writer lacks authority or credibility, he is often well served to draw upon the authority of someone else to support his argument.

The Rhetorical Triangle Connects All the Persuasive Methods

Logos, reason and logic, focuses on the text or the substance of the argument.

Ethos, the credibility or expertise from the writer, focuses on the writer.

Pathos, the emotional appeal, focuses on the emotional reaction of the audience.

The Elements of Argument

Thesis Statement (single sentence that states your position or claim)

Evidence (usually about 75% of your body paragraphs)

Refutation of opposing arguments or objections to your claim (usually about 25% of your body paragraphs)

Concluding statement (dramatic restatement of your thesis, which often also shows the broader implications of your important message).

Thesis

Thesis is one sentence that states your position about an issue.

Thesis example: Increasing the minimum wage to eighteen dollars an hour, contrary to “expert” economists, will boost the economy.

The above assertion is an effective thesis because it is debatable; it has at least two sides.

Thesis: We should increase the minimum wage to boost the economy.

Antithesis: Increasing the minimum wage will slow down the economy.

Evidence

Evidence is the material you use to make your thesis persuasive: facts, observations, expert opinion, examples, statistics, reasons, logic, and refutation.

Refutation

Your argument is only as strong as your understanding of your opponents and your ability to refute your opponents’ objections.

If while examining your opponents’ objections, you find their side is more compelling, you have to CHANGE YOUR SIDE AND YOUR THESIS because you must have integrity when you write. There is no shame in this. Changing your position through research and studying both sides is natural.

Conclusion

Your concluding statement reinforces your thesis and emphasizes the emotional appeal of your argument.

Learn to Identify the Elements of Argument in an Essay by Using Critical Thinking Skills

To read critically, we have to do the following:

One. Comprehend the author's purpose and meaning, which is expressed in the claim or thesis

Two. Examine the evidence, if any, that is used

Three. Find emotional appeals, if any, that are used

Four. Identify analogies and comparisons and analyze their legitimacy

Five. Look at the topic sentences to see how the author is building his or her claim

Six. Look for the appeals the author uses be they logic (logos), emotions (pathos), or authority (ethos).

Seven. Is the author's argument diminished by logical fallacies?

Eight. Do you recognize any bias in the essay that diminishes the author's argument?

Nine. Do we bring any prejudice that may compromise our ability to evaluate the argument fairly?

Grammar Review (what should have been covered in 1A)

Dependent and Independent Clauses

 

Gerunds and Other Phrases

 

Clause and Phrase Quiz

 

Another Clause and Phrase Quiz

 

McMahon Grammar Exercise: Identifying Phrases, Independent Clauses, and Dependent Clauses

Identify the group of words in bold type as phrase, independent clause, or dependent clause.

One. Toward the monster’s palace, we see a white marble fountain jettisoning chocolate fudge all over the other giants.

Two. Before going to school, Gerard likes to make sure he’s packed his chocolate chip cookies and bagels.

Three. Because Jack’s love of eating pizza every night cannot be stopped, he finds his cardio workouts to be rather worthless.

Four. Maria finds the Lexus preferable to the BMW because of the Lexus’ lower repair costs.

Five. Greg does not drive at night because he suffers from poor nocturnal eyesight.

Six. Whenever Greg drives past HomeTown Buffet, he is overcome with depression and nausea.

Seven. People who eat at Cinnabon, according to Louis C.K., always look miserable over their poor life decisions.

Eight. After eating at Cinnabon and HomeTown Buffet, Gary has to eat a bottle of antacids.

Nine. Towards the end of the date, Gary decided to ask Maria if she’d care for another visit to HomeTown Buffet.

Ten. Whenever Maria is in the presence of a gluttonous gentleman, she withdraws into her shell.

Eleven. Greg watched Maria recoil into her shell while biting her nails.

Twelve. Greg watched Maria recoil into her private universe while she bit her nails.

Thirteen. Eating at all-you-can-eat buffets will expand the circumference of your waistline.

Fourteen. Larding your essay with grammatical errors will result in a low grade.

Fifteen. My favorite pastime is larding my essay with grammatical errors.

Sixteen. Larding my body with chocolate chunk peanut butter cookies followed by several gallons of milk, I wondered if I should skip dinner that evening.

Seventeen. After contemplating the benefits of going on a variation of the Paleo diet, I decided I was at peace being a fat man with a strong resemblance to the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

Eighteen. In the 1970s few people would consider eating bugs as their main source of protein although today world-wide food shortages have compelled a far greater percentage of the human race to entertain this unpleasant possibility.

Nineteen. Because of increased shortages in worldwide animal protein, more and more people are looking to crickets, grasshoppers, and grubs as possible complete protein amino acid alternatives.

Twenty. The percentage of people getting married in recent years has significantly declined as an economic malaise has deflated confidence in the viability of sustaining a long-term marriage.

Twenty-one. Before you decide to marry someone, consider two things: your temperament and your economic prospects.

Twenty-two. To understand the pitfalls of getting married prematurely is to embark on the road to greater wisdom.

Twenty-three. To know me is to love me.

Twenty-four. To languish in the malignant juices of self-pity after breaking up with your girlfriend is to fall down the rabbit hole of moral dissolution and narcissism.

Twenty-five. Having considered the inevitable disappointment of being rich, I decided not to rob a bank.

Twenty-six. Watching TV on a sticky vinyl sofa all day, I noticed I was developing bedsores.

Twenty-seven. While I watched TV for twenty consecutive hours, I began to wonder if life was passing me by.

Twenty-eight. Under the bridge where a swarm of mosquitos gathered, the giant belched.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson #4 for Summer and Winter Semester: Unhappiness in Qatar and Moldova, and America

Part One. Qatar

1.  Weiner’s big question upon visiting Qatar, the richest per capita country in the world: What happens to your soul when you indulge in excess, craven luxury? See page 100.

2.  Can all their wealth lead to the good life and happiness and Weiner, relying Betrand Russell, defines it on page 110 as connecting with something larger than yourself? The answer is no because self-indulgence disconnects you from the outside. Self-indulgence results in solipsism, which is the opposite of connected happiness.

3.  Qataris are the nouveau riche and as such they possess arrogance and insecurity. See page 102.

4.  Wealth makes us unhappy because we instinctively use wealth to isolate and insulate ourselves from the outside world. Happiness is connection with others. Wealthy people tend to be unconnected. See page 114. I’m reminded of Citizen Kane.

5.  Qataris have no taxation or representation so they feel disconnected from their own society. See pages 118 and 119.

6.  Weiner equates Qataris’ sudden wealth to winning the lottery. Winning the lottery historically is connected with unhappiness and ruin. See pages 122-125: We adapt to pleasure so that we have to spike the pleasure and then we have adapt to pleasure so that we have to spike the pleasure again. It’s like a cycle of addiction with nihilism, emptiness, and ruin being our final destination. I see this with my love of cars. We call this the “hedonic treadmill.”

7.  We learn on pages 126 and 127 that there’s a gap between our rational intellect and our brain’s hard-wiring or “software.” Sadly, we’re programmed to chase after chimeras (BMWs, wealth, etc.) that don’t make us happy and we can’t even learn from our disappointment but continue to chase chimeras anyway.

8.  Some of us are addicted to sadness as it is suggest to Eric Weiner on page 127.

9.  Qataris rely on foreign labor so they feel disconnected from their country. They are dependent on cheap foreign labor and are in a way helpless. Rich but helpless. No rules, no laws, no taxes, no work. Just unhappiness.

10.               We know nothing. We think we’ll be happy from achievements and wealth (Hindu word is maya, which means illusion) and we feel pained by setbacks (Hindu word is mushkala, which means illusory loss). See page 139.

Part Two. What We Learn from Qatar: Excessive Wealth Makes Even Decent, Well-Intentioned People Become Unhappy

1.  When we become wealthy, we understandably become distrustful of others who may feel tempted to take advantage of us, to use us for their gain. As a result, we close our circle and we become more and more disconnected from the world. Think of the film Citizen Kane.

2.  This disconnectedness from the world and constant protectiveness makes us feel embattled, which in turn creates a permanent mask of skepticism. Without checks and balances, this skepticism of others’ motives can easily turn to paranoia, an obvious condition of unhappiness.

3.  When we’re filthy rich, people no longer relate to us as people. They relate to us as sycophants. Other people’s compulsion to lavish us with praise and be generally obsequious gives us a false sense of grandiosity. We begin to believe we’re as great as people treat us resulting in an obnoxious, undeserved sense of entitlement.

4.  When we’re filthy rich, it’s tempting to use our money and power to clean up our messes. We become more reckless in our behavior since we know our money can take care of our errant ways. Think of the recklessness and misery of Bill Murray playing Phil Connors in the classic film Groundhog Day.

5.  When we’re filthy rich, we’re compelled by normal human nature to experience “the best” and what we find is that our brains adapt to pleasure and excitement requiring more and more stimulation. The researchers calls this constant adaptation the “hedonic treadmill.” We constantly have to spike our pleasure before we adapt to it and then spike it forever and ever in a an endless cycle with us always losing the pleasure game, resulting in disappointment and frustration. And yes, unhappiness.

6.  Like it or not, wealth is a drug both for the wealthy person and others who are intoxicated by the wealthy person’s aura of living on a superior, elevated plane. This mutual intoxication between the wealthy person and his or her admirers creates a sick symbiotic relationship based on fantasy, greed, and envy, components for miserable relationships.

7.  It is human nature when we are rich to hire others to do everything for us. Over time we become helpless cripples dependent on our “help.” This, alas, is yet another cause of our unhappiness.

8.  As human beings, we have a rational brain that knows wealth is dangerous and most often results in unhappiness but we also are hard-wired to pursue wealth no matter what our rational brain tells us. Understanding this conflict in ourselves and seeing our rational intellect being helpless to curb our irrational appetites, again, is another cause of our unhappiness. 

 

Part Three. Unhappiness in Moldova

 

1.  Envy: To resent others for having a better situation than yours. The unhappy cannot bear the sight of the happy.

2.  The human condition is one of contrast: Hot means nothing without cold. Mozart is enhanced by Barry Manilow. Happy places are more interesting because of unhappy ones. The darkest part of the planet is Moldovia. It is the least happy nation on the planet.

3.  The body language is sour and bitter and this in turn makes people feel sour and bitter.

4.  Natasha says “We have no money for life.” That is her reason, but Weiner doesn’t buy it because he’s visited other countries who in poverty don’t hold that attitude.

5.  The male citizens are skinny; the male cops are fat and thuggish, a bad sign.

6.  They’ve been beaten down into learned helplessness (see other lectures on this topic) The Moldovans say, “This is Moldova.” Or “What can I do?”

7.  Moldovans compare themselves to the richer countries, not the poorer ones. So of course the glass is half empty.

8.  The service industry is rude and this is a self-fulfilling prophecy of misery.

9.  There is no trust of anything, including their own people, and this results in nihilism.

10.               The people are neither Russian nor Moldovan. They exist in a nether world of no identity or culture. “How can you feel good about yourself if you don’t know who you are?”

11.               Their new “freedom” means nothing without jobs. They cannot afford to eat at McDonald’s.

12.               Corruption and nepotism is rampant.

13.               Men don’t care about their appearance because they’re outnumbered by the woman who wear raccoon makeup.

14.               They are consumed by selfishness: “No este problema mea.” They can’t even recognize selfish altruism, which encourages reciprocity.

15.               The Moldovans are fueled by schadenfreude; “They derive more pleasure from their neighbor’s failure than their own success.”

16.               Scapegoat everything on “Perestroika.” When you scapegoat other source for your problems, your proclaiming your helplessness.

17.               Envy accumulates like toxic waste.

18.               There is no queuing, a sure sign of nihilism, anomie, and chaos.

19.               They trust nothing: doctors under thirty-five, their own friends.

20.               The once cheery American Peace Corps workers are becoming gloomy and depressed.

21.               No one wants to be in Moldova, including Moldovans.

22.               Helping professions score the highest in happiness surveys.

23.               The Moldovans have thrown politeness and civility out the window. They say, “Give me that.” No please. In contrast, Japan emphasizes politeness. A common expression: “Gomen nasai.” I’m sorry.

24.               Freedom has been reduced to a small number of people who have enough money to consume the growing selection of goods.

25.               Moldovans haven’t used the golden rule of positive psychology: hedonic adaptation: No matter how severe our misfortune, we adapt. But this adaptation cannot occur in the absence of culture, living in a shadow. Moldova is a “fabricated nation.” It really does not exist.

26.               Weiner concludes with “lessons gleaned from Moldova’s unhappiness”:

27.               Lesson One: “Not my problem” is a mental illness, a condition of no empathy.

28.               Lesson Two: Poverty is too often used as an excuse for unhappiness. Their reaction to poverty is worse than the poverty.

29.               Lesson Three: A culture that belittles the value of trust and friendship and rewards mean-spiritedness and deceit cannot be happy.

Part Four.America Ranks Low on the Happiness Index. Why?

1.  America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world but ranks low on happiness index. (23^rd). Why? Some say we suffer from the “paradox of choice.” The more choices, the more we become anxious about making the “wrong choice”. Also more choices results in inflated expectations.

2.  Abundance leads to restlessness. Again, think of the hedonic treadmill.

3.  While Americans have enjoyed more abundance in general, they also work longer hours and have longer commute times, which result in unhappiness. 

4.   “The More Factor” is in many ways a curse. As we read in McMahon’s blog the Breakthrough Writer, the hunger for more generates a delusional fallacy, what McMahon calls “Either/Or.”

5.    The hunger for More is in many ways instinctual. But as Tim Kasser observes in “Mixed Messages,” these instincts can go haywire, become inflated and actually work against us.

6.   According to Laurence Shames’ essay “The More Factor,” Americans are misguided by the “presumption that America wouldkeep on booming—if not forever, then at least longer than it made sense to worry about.” But for all of our innovation and economic greatness, Laurence Shames laments that our materialistic excess has retarded our moral growth. As he writes. He opines that “Americans have been somewhat backward in adopting values, hopes, ambitions that have to do with things other thanmore.”

7.  America encourages Darwinian competition, which results in isolation and paranoia. Our appetites for Darwinian competition are evidenced in the onslaught of “reality” TV shows like Survivor.

8.  Darwinian competition has created a nation where pleasure has been reduced to schadenfreude, taking pleasure in other people’s failures.

9.  The American Dream is living apart from the rest in a gated community, insulated with satellite TV, wireless Internet, techno-gadgets that keep us “connected” in the most unreal way. America is a good place to be lonely. People are not as lonely in other countries. Weiner points out that Latino cultures bring their family unity from other countries to America and that they rank higher than other Americans on the happiness index.

10.               American consumerism is a religion that possessed most Americans and makes the shopping mall America’s Holy Temple. Of course, such worship traps consumers in the hedonic treadmill, leading to numbness and ennui.  

 

Part Five. Journal Entry:

In a page, profile someone you know who is profoundly unhappy and analyze the causes of this unhappiness in the context of today’s lecture. 

Part Six. Simplified Essay Outline:

In one long paragraph, write about a time you or someone you know was disenchanted with the idea of happiness (See Journal Entry in Lesson #3). Then in your thesis paragraph (paragraph 2) argue the 4 major fallacies that impede us from attaining happiness as described in the book (paragraphs 3-6) and the 4 conditions conducive to happiness (paragraphs7-10). Finally, in your conclusion write about someone you know who has virtues that make happiness a natural byproduct of that person's life (11th paragraph). 

Simplified Way to Write Essay for Geography of Bliss: Eleven-Paragraph Format

In one long paragraph, write about a time you or someone you know was disenchanted with the idea of happiness (See Journal Entry in Lesson #3). Then in your thesis paragraph (paragraph 2) argue the 4 major fallacies that impede us from attaining happiness as described in the book (paragraphs 3-6) and the 4 conditions conducive to happiness (paragraphs7-10). Finally, in your conclusion write about someone you know who has virtues that make happiness a natural byproduct of that person's life (11th paragraph). 

Lesson #3: Causes of Happiness in Bhutan, Iceland, and Thailand (Second Revision)

 

Part One. Bhutan

1.  In Bhutan, Buddhism is seamlessly integrated in the culture in ways that produces happiness. For example in Buddhism, there is nothing greater than compassion and compassion creates happiness. In contrast, in America Walgreen shoppers fight and riot so that the police have to close the store. Or people fight in line at Lowes or swing squeegees at each for cutting in line at a gas station. The cashiers at Costco say they witness fights for parking spaces almost every day. 

2.  In Bhutan crime is kept at a minimum because the people believe they could be punished during reincarnation, returning to Earth as the very creature they harmed.  Result: Country’s low murder rate linked to happiness. 

3.  In Bhutan, the people have “realistic expectations” unlike Americans who feel compelled to achieve “great things”? Buddhism diminishes human excitement as foolish excitement for illusion. A lot of Americans would say they refuse to accept "realistic expectations," which are for them "low expectations," resulting in mediocrity. 

4.  In Bhutan, the people have a healthy attitude toward the reality of death and they do not deny death. This contributes to their happiness. In contrast, Americans sanitize death. The funeral, with embalming, designer outfit, deluxe coffin (usually $9,000 in today's market) and  is a huge consumer experience that makes a ton of money for the funeral home and insulates the consumer from the reality of death. 

5.  The people of Bhutan revere solitude. But later on we read there is no introspection, “no self-help books.” No one tries to be happy but everyone has a strong degree of happiness. Why does this lead to happiness? There is a difference between naval-gazing self-centeredness and solitude. Solitude can entail personal reading (as opposed to doing reading for homework), painting, drawing, writing, any act of creativity. 

6.  They won’t sell timber to rich countries for money; they won’t sell their soul to the devil of greed. They have integrity which results in a clear conscience, a form of happiness. A few pages later, the author explains how the rising GDP (Iraq, growing prison population, oil spill) doesn’t correspond to a rising happiness index or the Gross National Happiness. He writes that an old person in a care home contributes to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) but an old person cared for by family does not. Who is happier? Jeff Johnson writes about this in the Gross National Happiness and Development compendium. We can conclude that you should not strive for happiness, but strive for integrity and creative solitude. Happiness is the byproduct of those qualities. 

7.  Happiness is a collective endeavor, not an individual one. (author criticizes them for being “too sincere.” What does he mean? Perhaps "too sincere" means lacking a sense of humor and irony?) We read “happiness is relational.” What does that mean? This is the opposite of solipsism.

8.  GNH (Gross National Happiness), according to Sanjay Penjor, “means knowing your limitations; knowing how much is enough.” The Greeks had the same idea when they talked about moderation and temperance as being virtues, but in American society, built on consumer spending, we discourage moderation and temperance and encourage hype, extremes, pushing your limits. 

 

Part Two. Iceland: Happiness Is Failure

 

1.  In Iceland ambition is tempered by a sense of humor. The God of Ambition, the main God of America, is discussed as a truth we don’t realize until it’s too late: He is a false god. (end of Chapter 4)

2.  Colder climates are happier. Why? There’s the Get-Along-or-Die Theory. In warm climates we can be isolated if we want. In harsh climates, we need each other.

3.  “Interdependence is the mother of affection.”

4.  A society built on reciprocity develops love. In contrast, a lot of college students, moving from another country away from family and friends, live a life of isolation. They take classes alone, go home alone and study. The amount of isolation that afflicts a lot of college students is mind-boggling. 

5.  Iceland is so small, there are no strangers in Iceland. This adds to a key ingredient to happiness: Having a sense of community and belonging.

6.  Iceland shares the pain of inflation. Unemployment is far worse because it’s experiences individually.

7.  Icelanders don’t suffer delusions of grandeur or immortality about their cities. They feel insignificant in the best, humble sense of the word. And this sense of humility results in happiness.

8.  They accept the wonder and harsh doom of nature. As a result, they feel close to nature and this is a spiritual orientation that results in happiness.

9.  Icelanders love their language and their greetings are benevolent such as “Go happy,” vertu saell,” and “come happy,” komdu saell.”

10.               Their language is “egalitarian and utterly free of pretense.” In contrast, America is a niche elitist society where the upper classes, doctors, lawyers, computer nerds, etc., all have their own "speak," which no one else can understand. Doctors and lawyers use language you can't understand so you feel helpless and feeling helpless makes you feel dependent on them and feeling hopelessly dependent on them is good for their business. 

11.               They feel connected to the land and receive creative energy from it. In spiritual terms, this is called Pantheism, the idea that you can experience spirit or God through nature. 

12.               They have a sense of style, which is always connected to glamour. See Virginia Postrel in Atlantic article. Glamour elevates us from the banality of everyday reality. 

13.               Icelanders suppress envy by sharing things, in contrast with the Swiss who hide things.

14.               Failure doesn’t carry a stigma in Iceland. It’s okay to fail with the best intentions. It’s okay to try and fail. This is a nurturing society, not a society of haters. In contrast, failure in America results in shame, stigma, a permanent mark of ignominy and disgrace. 

15.               Naïveté serves them well. There’s a certain innocence, a goodness, about them. They’re not so “sophisticated” in an arrogant stuffy sense of the word.

16.               The collective culture encourages creativity, which allows you to lose yourself in something larger than yourself, called “flow.”

17.               Icelandic people thrive on being sad and happy at the same time, a natural part of the human condition.

 

Part Three. Happiness in Thailand:Chapter 7: Thailand: Happiness Is Not Thinking

 

1.  The “sexpat” is not happy. He’s a farang, a foreigner with a lot of money, who is disheveled. “As long as his wallet is in reasonably good shape, the rest of him can fall to pieces.” He’s looked at as pathetic, mush, unhappy.

2.  Thais are happy and one of their beliefs is that too much thinking will make you unhappy: “Thinking is like running. Just because your legs are moving doesn’t mean you’re getting anywhere. You might even be running into a headwind. You might even be running backward.”

3.  Thais do not read self-help books, go to therapy, or talk endlessly about their problems. Their wisdom lets them know that this type of naval-gazing makes your problems worse. You go backward. 

4.  Another saying against thinking: “Happy people have no reason to think; they live rather than question living.”

5.  Conclusion: Thinking about happiness makes us less happy. So reading Weiner’s book, which makes you think about happiness, must be depressing.

6.  There are only 3 ways to increase our happiness: You can increase the amount of good feelings; you can decrease the amount of bad feelings; or you can change the subject. Take a tormented relationship, for example. Thais don’t trust words. To change the subject, they say, “Mai pen lai.” It means “never mind” or “pay not attention.” Wise guys in mafia films say, “Forget about it.” In America, we have a saying, “Water under the bridge” and “Let sleeping dogs lie (stay asleep).” Here are some tormenting questions: How come Person X doesn’t like me after all I did for her? Why is there suffering in the world? How can I enjoy this chocolate cake if just one baby is starving in Ethiopia? How can I focus on my homework when there is the possibility that the sun will explode and destroy our universe as we know it? How can I look forward to going to Heaven when so many people are doomed to spend eternity in Hell?

7.  Thais believe in keeping a “cool heart,” keeping bad feelings inside, but Weiner points out that Thailand has a very high incidence of wives castrating their cheating husbands.

8.  Unlike Americans, Thais are free from the egotism that makes everything so serious. When they trip and fall, it’s funny to everyone, not a huge embarrassment. You can call your fat friend, “hippo,” and it’s cool. Not so in America. 

9.  The Thais hold a higher value of sanuk—happiness—over money and ego.

10.               Thais are solaced that if things don’t work out well in this life, they might be better in the next one.

Part Four. Alternative Introduction to Your Essay: A Personal Story About How You Became Disenchanted with the Idea of Happiness, Which Ties in to an Alternative Approach to Writing Your Essay

        There once was a man in his early twenties. Socially awkward, he had never even been on a date. Instead, he withdrew into his college studies, found companionship in books, and grew an unruly beard. Untouched by human warmth, his demeanor was a bit crazed and unsettling. His eyes were cavernous and penetrating. 

    One day this young man was on Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach and he passed a popular hangout, Patrick Malloy’s. It was crowded inside. The young man pressed his bearded face against the glass and looked with longing at the attractive people. They looked so life-affirming and at ease with self-abandonment, laughing, slapping each other’s backs, kissing one another, and sloshing their beers over their glasses’ rims.  

        In contrast, the young man was a tightly-wound ball of repressed emotions, in turns angry and melancholy. He felt like a man of 85 trapped in the body of a 21-year old. 

      Watching the attractive people enjoying themselves and embracing life with an admirable, insatiable appetite, the young man was convinced he would remain on life’s sidelines, a depressed witness to a life passing him by. 

     Convinced of his own futility and fated to a life of loneliness, he went home, curled up into a ball and cried himself to sleep. 

      We now travel 25 years into the future and focus on this same man, now in his mid-forties. He has a good job. He has developed social skills, he is well groomed, insouciant, and can conceal his cynicism behind a veil of witty repartee. He’s been married, divorced, remarried. He sits in Patrick Malloy’s with his lovely wife and her lovely friends. Beer is sloshing all around him. He doesn’t drink, save a diet Coke since he’s the designated driver. The music is loud and people are shouting over the music. His ears can’t take much more of this. Worse, an unrelenting boredom has set in and he is no longer listening to any of the several conversations blaring around him. 

       He feels it both strange and cruel that earlier in his life he felt excluded from this club of beautiful people and now he is inside its very center, its most inner core, and rather than bathing in the warmth of belonging and popularity he stares at his watch.

       While squirming in his seat with utter boredom, he sees a young man outside the club. The man is bearded with the same cavernous eyes and the same look of despair the middle-aged man remembers seeing in his reflection. The young man, a mirror image of the middle-aged one, presses his face against the window and looks into the eyes of his older doppelgänger. 

        Feeling helpless to give wisdom to the misguided youth, the older aspiring mentor shakes his head as if to say: "The presumed happiness you see in this night club is all in your head, little brother. It's all in your head."

       Indeed, the chasing of happiness is a sure way to NOT find happiness, as well chronicled in Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss. We see that the quest for happiness is doomed to fail because _____________________, __________________,  and ___________________, and that happiness is the natural byproduct of certain cultural conditions, which, we learn from Iceland, Thailand, and others, consist of _____________________, _______________________, __________________, ____________________, and _______________________. 

 

Part Five. Journal Entry:

Think of the happiest person you know and write down 5 qualities that this person has that you think create happiness. Or, regarding today's alternative introduction, write about a time you were disenchanted with the idea of happiness. 

Part Six. Simplified Way to Write Essay for Geography of Bliss: Eleven-Paragraph Format

In one long paragraph, write about a time you or someone you know was disenchanted with the idea of happiness (See Journal Entry in Lesson #3). Then in your thesis paragraph (paragraph 2) argue the 4 major fallacies that impede us from attaining happiness as described in the book (paragraphs 3-6) and the 4 conditions conducive to happiness (paragraphs7-10). Finally, in your conclusion write about someone you know who has virtues that make happiness a natural byproduct of that person's life (11th paragraph). 

Lesson #2: Chapter 2: Switzerland: Happiness Is Boredom and the Absence of Envy. Why Envy Is Inimical to Happiness. The Causes of Envy and the Effects (Revised)

 

Part One. Some Facts About Switzerland

 

1.  The Swiss rank high on the HI. They rank higher than their neighbors, the French and the Italians. They are more reserved, less volatile. Less volatility always contributes to more happiness. 

2.  Some words used to describe the Swiss: Punctual, efficient, wealthy, clean, humorless, laconic, circumspect, civil, clean (some of the cleanest toilets in the world), austere. Taciturn (quiet), reticent (reserved), demure (shy), insouciant (doing something difficult without a fuss with a nonchalant flair). This is called the quality of insouciance. 

3.  One cause of Swiss happiness: They quell the impulse for envy. This means there are rules: No bragging, especially about how much money you make. Flashing your money in Switzerland is a sign of poverty. One trait is frowned upon in Swiss culture: braggadocio, the compulsion for self-aggrandizement, flapping your wings like the alpha condor and letting the world know you're the Apex Predator. That's an American trait. 

4.  The Swiss are even keeled. Eric Weiner calls this boredom. But research supports the Swiss: Better to live in the middle range than to have highs and lows. Volatility does not lead to happiness. Having a steely reserve is far better in the long-run. 

5.  In the seventeenth century in Basel, there was a prohibition against public laughter. Now there is no need for such a law because the people have internalized the desire to repress their emotions and this has led to increased happiness. Again, this is very un-American. Americans are for huge emotional displays to the point of exhibitionism of their emotional dramas on reality TV shows.

6.  For the Swiss, joy comes from nature, the Pastoral, the Alps. For Americans, joy comes from gadgets. 

7.  Slovenly hedonists would prefer Denmark; anal-retentive prudes would prefer Switzerland. I know which country I would prefer. I would feel more comfortable living in a culture that helps me impede my indulgent behavior. That would be Switzerland.

8.  The Swiss are fond of rules: For example, it’s illegal to flush your toilet after 10 P.M.

9.  Switzerland has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. One possible reason: Being around happy people makes our own unhappiness even more unbearable.

10.               The Swiss have a high degree of trust for one another.

11.               The Swiss have a lot of patience. And they are affluent.

12.               The Swiss consume high quantities of high-quality chocolate and there is a connection between chocolate and happy brain chemicals.

 

Part Two. What is envy and why is it dangerous?

Envy is the resentment and bitterness we have when we perceive that others have a better situation than ours.

The causes of envy are a sense of entitlement, the Darwinian competition gene, narcissism, immaturity, and an empty life, which compels us to gawk at the lives of others. Also some cultures breed envy more than others. A culture, like the United States’, that encourages bragging, ostentation, and bling will stir envy. A culture like Switzerland’s, that encourages modesty and privacy will discourage envy.

The effects of envy are obsession, all-consuming bitterness, self-pity, and in extreme cases criminality. “I’m gonna get mine.”

Part Three. Twelve Common Fallacies or Misguided Notions About Happiness

 

1.  Happiness Quest Fallacy: Happiness can be attained by searching for it. In fact, the search for happiness is usually a self-centered, selfish enterprise and is therefore doomed to create even more unhappiness. Most people who seek gurus, psychotherapists, life coaches, self-help books will inevitably find their lives in more ruin and despair than before.

2.  Dominance Fallacy: Happiness can be achieved through Darwinian dominance over others, such as making yourself better looking than others and accruing “better” things, will make you happy. In fact, exercising your impulse for Darwinian dominance, focusing on self-aggrandizement and ostentation, and turning your life into one big boasting session, and animating all your talk with “look-what-I-got” braggadocio makes you obnoxious and therefore lonely and loneliness is a clear indicator for unhappiness.

3.  Chimera Fallacy: Most of your cravings and longings are for what you believe will make you happy are not focused on reality at all but on a chimera, an idealized phantasmagoric representation of life that entices and tantalizes you, but at the same time always eludes your acquisition. In other words, you are often in love with the idea of life more than life itself. You are more in love with the idea of certain car, or the idea of marriage, the idea of home ownership, or the “perfect” body than the realities, which in comparison are always banal, corrupt, grotesque version of the ideal that animates your imagination. Related to the Chimera Fallacy is the Pulchritudinous Fallacy, which states you can not be happy and worthy of love until your body is stunning, beautiful, perfect and embodies the word pulchritude.

4.  Perfection Fallacy (perfection is a chimera, see above): The fallacy of perfection says you cannot be happy unless you have the perfect body, the perfect car, the perfect job, the perfect spouse, the perfect house, the perfect wardrobe, etc. No perfection can be obtained and the process of trying to attain this perfection makes your anal-retentive (or is it the other way around?) and therefore obnoxious and repellant. Further, this perfection quest makes you afraid to live because you fear subjecting your perfect things to real life will ruin them. Thus you cover your furniture in plastic and keep your cars garaged. Your house is more like a mausoleums or museum than it is a real house. Your life is a stage to others and yourself.

5.  Pulchritudinous Fallacy: I won’t be happy unless people love me and no one will love me unless I am the embodiment of pulchritude, exquisite, rarified beauty. Please see Jon Hamm in episode of 30 Rock in which he plays someone of pulchritude and tell me if he’s happy.

6.  Hedonistic Fallacy: The fallacy of hedonism states you cannot be happy unless you are always augmenting your pleasure. To live is to experience pleasure, or so says the hedonist, until he finds that his pleasure quest becomes an obsession and an addiction and that his numbness to stimulation compels him to inflate his hedonistic stimulators to greater and more dangerous levels. The final outcome of hedonism is always nihilism, the sense that life means nothing, addiction, emptiness, numbness, and boredom.

7.  Effortless Fallacy. This fallacy says you cannot be happy unless your life is completely absent of conflict. You no longer have problems, conflicts or crises to deal with. Life with all its responsibilities can be such an inconvenience, after all, and therefore you cannot be happy until you relieve yourselves of these inconveniences. Of course, in doing so we retreat from life itself and regress back to the Womb, the state of Unconscious Slumber (through drugs, alcohol, TV?) and find that we have become spiritually dead.

8.  Narcissistic Fallacy: You cannot be happy unless you persuade the whole world that you’re not only right about things but that your lifestyle (the way you eat, dress, your musical tastes, etc) is so superior to everyone else’s that the whole world should conform to your ways or at the very least aspire to be like you.

9.  Spiteful Fallacy: You cannot be happy unless you have exacted revenge. Someone has wronged you and you cannot find satisfaction in your soul until you spite this offender. Your desire to spite the person is so obsessive that you’re willing to “bite your nose to spite their face.” Your spite will blacken your heart and eventually kill you.

10.               Vindication Fallacy: You cannot be happy unless you prove to your  ex boyfriend or ex girlfriend that you are “a winner” and “were the one” and that they “blew it” by dumping you. Or you must prove to a parent or an authority figure that they were egregiously mistaken to predict that you would fail in life. Your whole existence is centered around going back to your ex or your parent and rubbing their nose in your “success.” Of course, you’re acting like a petty egotist and petty egotism evidences woeful unhappiness.

11.               Intellectual Fallacy: This chimera (see above) states that you cannot be happy until you’re worthy of others’ admiration and love through intellectual prowess. Through your extensive research, you become the “highest authority” on some subject or other or you are simply plain smart and you therefore deserve the admiration, love, and respect of others. You may feel that your happiness is contingent on a PhD or the publication of a book or a guest spot on CNN or some such nonsense. In fact, intellectual pride will only make you obnoxious, lonely, and therefore unhappy.

12.               Melancholy Fallacy: You can’t be “deep” and “soulful” unless you’re sad, melancholy, constantly afflicted with Weltschmerz (sadness for the world). This fallacy speaks to a certain type of self-aggrandizement which compels you to take yourself too seriously and as such see yourself as “deeper” than others.

Part Four. Journal Entry

Write about 3 happiness fallacies you or someone you know has.  We'll share them in class.