FW: [Buddha-l] Re: Republicans are Happier?

[jkirk]

jkirk schreef:
> Yes--they/we think too much. Prapanca is our curse. 
> JK
>
> =========
>
> "Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know."
> Ernest Hemingway ("The Garden of Eden", chapter 11) Curt Steinmetz __
>
=======
>   
I have always wondered if there is not a strong cultural bias. In cultures
where the sufferings of human existence are considered to be obvious or
calling oneself lucky is considered challenging the gods or fate, there
would be less respondents calling themselves happy than in a culture where
an unhappy person is considered a loser.

Erik
========================
Interesting idea--sounds plausible to me. How would one go about studying
this without using questionnaires and all that......could one probe folk
literature in, say, a comparison of 4 cultures for signs of if not
happiness, how about contentment? One would need also to check the lexicon
in each culture for terms and then test them for content by seeing how they
are used. 
I just watched a Vietnamese film, _Buffalo Boy_. In it the English subtitles
refer to asking God and the merciful Buddha for help or protection. Or
there's reference to the God of the Waters.  I wonder about the Viet term(s)
that got translated as God. Does this language have a term for happiness, or
contentment? My bet is on the latter. But I don't know.
In this film one sees little of what "we" would call happiness--in two
places we see it,  but it's not labeled as such when a grown young man, Kim,
and his co-herder's little kid are playing, and later when the mother who's
husband was kidnapped by a gang brings the same little boy to Kim to raise
because "he needs a father." Kim, laughing, sweeps the kid into his arms.
But the mother takes off, so Kim is still bereft of a woman. As the
teachings say, happiness is fleeting. 
In fact, think of our western literature over time--people are not always
happy in it, happiness is contingent and fleeting except in trashy
happy-ever-after novels, so perhaps it's primarily a commercial idea that
underlies a survey asking people what makes them happy!
Joanna


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