UN Calls for Happiness

[Limited Edition]

The United Nations are discussing moving away from the unlimited growth model in a finite world. They are proposing that we embrace happiness and well being as a new economic paradigm instead.

The UN Embraces the Economics of Happiness
Leaders from around the world want well-being?not gross national product?to guide our economic decisions.
by Laura Musikanski


Imagine you open the paper tomorrow, and the headlines are not about the ?sluggish economy,? but our nation?s quality of life. You turn to the business section, and find not just information about a certain company?s profitability, but also about its impact on community health and employee well-being.

Imagine, in short, a world where the metric that guides our decisions is not money, but happiness.

That is the future that 650 political, academic, and civic leaders from around the world came together to promote on April 2, 2012. Encouraged by the government of Bhutan, the United Nations held a High Level Meeting for Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm. The meeting marks the launch of a global movement to shift our focus away from measuring and promoting economic growth as a goal in its own right, and toward the goal of measuring?and increasing?human happiness and quality of life.
Not just for dreamers

Some may say these 650 world leaders are dreamers, but they are the sort that can make dreams come true. The meeting began with an address by Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley of Bhutan, where the government tracks the nation?s ?Gross National Happiness?:

The time has come for global action to build a new world economic system that is no longer based on the illusion that limitless growth is possible on our precious and finite planet or that endless material gain promotes well-being. Instead, it will be a system that promotes harmony and respect for nature and for each other; that respects our ancient wisdom traditions and protects our most vulnerable people as our own family, and that gives us time to live and enjoy our lives and to appreciate rather than destroy our world. It will be an economic system, in short, that is fully sustainable and that is rooted in true, abiding well-being and happiness.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon cited Aristotle and Buddha in calling for the replacement of our current economic system with one based on happiness, well-being, and compassion. ?Social, economic, and environmental well-being are indivisible? he said.

President Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica followed with a keynote speech that provided an explanation of why her country is one of the worlds most eco-friendly and happy nations, despite its relative poverty. Decades ago, Costa Rica eliminated its army, prioritizing spending on a strong education program, support for social security, and the protection of national parks that spur tourism.

From Finland to France, Israel to India, speakers of parliament, ministers of the environment, and other high-level officials followed with brief speeches about the need for a new economic paradigm to replace the current economy. The afternoon featured Vandana Shiva, Martin Seligman, John Helliwell, Lord Richard Layard, Jeffrey Sachs and other luminaries.

Helliwell, Layard and Sachs introduced the World Happiness Report, a study they prepared for the conference. The report found that money and economic growth have a relatively weak correlation to happiness; happiness is much more strongly associated with things like community engagement, having lots of friends, doing work you love, and feeling a sense of trust in others. Altruism, too, is essential; a world that makes equity, care, and compassion more possible will be a happier world. As the authors write:

The realities of poverty, anxiety, environmental degradation, and unhappiness in the midst of great plenty should not be regarded as mere curiosities. They require our urgent attention, and especially so at this juncture in human history. ?if we act wisely, we can protect the Earth while raising quality of life broadly around the world. We can do this by adopting lifestyles and technologies that improve happiness (or life satisfaction) while reducing human damage to the environment.

Over the next two days, more than 200 people stayed to participate in working groups to discuss turning global happiness metrics into a reality. They presented their recommendations on the third day. These included plans for an inclusive movement, forging communication material for all audiences, collaborative development of the metrics for happiness, the formation of a UN happiness commission, and the inclusion of happiness and well-being as a UN Millennium Development Goal.

The meeting ended with a presentation by Susan Andrews, who is developing a metric for measuring well-being in Brazil. Brazilian youth, she explained, had been trained to conduct happiness surveys and taught to practice altruism and compassion. Neighbors had at first rejected the youth, but later embraced their efforts to measure the happiness of their community. The project culminated in the creation of community-based activities that are changing neighborhoods for the better.
Progress in the United States

Noticeably absent from the meeting were high-level officials from the United States. But that does not mean that nothing is happening here.

Read the rest of the article here http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness...s-of-happiness

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[sandy]

Is this where the new "Happy Pill" gets introduced ???

[pillaroflight]

Thanks Limited Edition, but I really don't trust the UN. Sounds good--and i am sure there are some well meaning people there, still. My mother was a young idealistic early worker on the very first UN Charter. She and so many others were incapable of fathoming the true evil that was afoot. She only wanted world peace and that is what she thought was the purpose........

But this:

The time has come for global action to build a new world economic system

This is the #1 NWO goal right now! I say it's a trick.

Here is just one article:

How bad does the UN have to get?

By Daniel Hannan

Here's a nice dilemma for Lefties. What if UN peacekeepers in the Congo turn out to have been encouraging elephant poaching? Would they continue to give the organisation their unconditional support?

Elephant poaching in Africa: sanctioned by the UN?

The UN gets away with an extraordinary amount. Because it is thought to embody a lofty ideal, many liberal-minded people are prepared to overlook what it actually does. Never mind that it betrayed the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. Never mind that its officials were illicitly running oil-for-food scams with Saddam. Never mind that it ordered its local commander not to seize the arms caches that were about to be used for the Rwandan genocide. Never mind that its officials have now been accused of selling arms to the Congolese militias. At least it means well.

I've argued before that, for many Lefties, intentions seem to matter more than outcomes. But how bad do the outcomes have to be before intentions are no longer an excuse? What has to happen before people face up to the real UN (or EU or IOC or whatever) instead of fantasising about some abstract one?

Appropriately enough, the kind of people who are most unthinkingly pro-UN tend also to be the ones most opposed to the ivory trade. Intentions over outcomes, you see. In truth, the ban on ivory sales has been calamitous, both for Africans and elephants. Experience shows that it is far more effective to declare elephants the property of the people who own the land they roam, thus giving locals an incentive to treat them as a renewable resource. But, once again, Lefties are less interested in concrete results than in showing what nice people they are: hence the calamitous CITES ban.

What happens, though, when the two positions collide? When idealistic support for the UN (however harmful it is in practice) clashes with idealistic support for not hunting elephants

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/da...N_have_to_get/

Alex Jones: 'UN a Nazi movement'


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDqRNLHSAMQ

warning: RT--avert your eyes Zookie!

[Limited Edition]

Is this where the new "Happy Pill" gets introduced ???

It sounds like the UN is doing a PR announcement, but the banner slogan says
?No jobs, no money, be happy.?

I really don't trust the UN. Sounds good--.

I don?t trust the UN either. They are supposed to be the keepers of global security and human rights, but I find them rather impotent in that department. They usually seem to be more involved in the cruelties of international ruthless relations than trying to thwart them, so not only do I question their intentions, I also question their relevance.

My mother was a young idealistic early worker on the very first UN Charter. She and so many others were incapable of fathoming the true evil that was afoot. She only wanted world peace and that is what she thought was the purpose........

I would love to hear your story someday, Pillar. Perhaps on the Netizen show?

[alienHunter]

Impotent yes, because the U.S. has worked against their efforts to fulfill their contract...This is a pattern established when the neoconservatives began implementing their fascist agenda.

It does sound quite like the introduction of the happy pill but it makes sense. It is a start to changing the consensus reality that is destroying humanity. Obviously, it has to have a more practical and concrete fruition but at least it is recognizing that the current paradigm of perpetual growth is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to ruin. Other philosophers have long considered the alternative means to do this and one of note is M. King Hubbert. He proposed an approach that was way off the beaten track and in my opinion very much worth considering.

It sounds like the UN is doing a PR announcement, but the banner slogan says
“No jobs, no money, be happy.”





I don’t trust the UN either. They are supposed to be the keepers of global security and human rights, but I find them rather impotent in that department. They usually seem to be more involved in the cruelties of international ruthless relations than trying to thwart them, so not only do I question their intentions, I also question their relevance.




I would love to hear your story someday, Pillar. Perhaps on the Netizen show?

[alienHunter]

Evil is easy to instigate and implant, in fact, it doesn't need either impetus to appear. All it needs is an outside entity to thwart its intent and the internal frustration begins to morph what might be a very benevolent and constructive organism into one that begins to not 'care'. The lack of concern if left to its own devices will continue to follow the natural course of physical reality. It will foment, age, and then begin to rot. It is, if what the above threads suggested are true, apparently what has occurred within the United Nations. The U.S. has steadily thwarted the efforts of the UN for at least 30 years and in that lies the true evil story of where we have gone as a world society.

[Limited Edition]

All it needs is an outside entity to thwart its intent and the internal frustration begins to morph what might be a very benevolent and constructive organism into one that begins to not 'care'.

NATO?

The lack of concern if left to its own devices will continue to follow the natural course of physical reality.

Or hopelessness?

[alienHunter]

maybe...maybe, indeed.

NATO?




Or hopelessness?

[Luke]

Cmon.

Don't worry be happy does not get to you?

alfred_e_neuman.jpg

/sarc

If you have not noticed, every time things appear to be FUBAR-ed, politicians worry about metrics.

they worry about GDP, they worry about interest rates, unemployment rate and the like.

Those things sound important, but those who spend some time to get to know how they are calculated, know that those things are so massaged, that the very notion of their connection to real things is laughable. If say US would measure unemployment way normal human interprets it, the rate would be all over 20% .. but it appears as close 9 or so. Magic of mathematics. Same thing with GDP, that counts every dollar spent by government, bot those taxed away from citizenry and those taken in by debt. So, politicians can take in debt and it shows as gain in statistic. Marvellous, we need more!

But of course, those things need to appear to have any connection with reality - which is inconvenient. Inconvenient in same way as gold-convertibility clause on U.S debt. citizens could not own it, which was good. But as soon France demanded gold not paper.. Tricky Dicky decided even this farce is too much, and closed the window.

Traditionally, happiness runs very high in some countries.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Planet_Index
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_national_happiness

800px-Happy_Planet.PNG

Map showing countries shaded by their position in the Happy Planet Index (2006). The highest-ranked countries are bright green; the lowest are brown

libera_lego_03.jpg


Fun from times past :
1.jpg
And those missing fun from old times
Pochod_Moskwa_2001.jpg

Greetings from the (former) happiest barrack in soviet block.

I bet some morons think it is bright idea. As with everything Empire sells. Panem et circenses. Dance with Stars and Beer. Same thing.

[Limited Edition]

Most of the rhetoric coming from the UN these days is just a name change...not a game change.

I bet some morons think it is bright idea. As with everything Empire sells.

[alienHunter]

Hey Luke,

you had me until the last statement...I don't think I'm a moron but I do think it's a bright idea...in fact, it's the only idea that will ever have an impact on the way we conduct our daily lives. (until we ascend into the heavens that is, which will happen when the heavens fall from the sky.) And guess what...that IS gonna happen.

Cmon.

Don't worry be happy does not get to you?

alfred_e_neuman.jpg

/sarc

If you have not noticed, every time things appear to be FUBAR-ed, politicians worry about metrics.

they worry about GDP, they worry about interest rates, unemployment rate and the like.

Those things sound important, but those who spend some time to get to know how they are calculated, know that those things are so massaged, that the very notion of their connection to real things is laughable. If say US would measure unemployment way normal human interprets it, the rate would be all over 20% .. but it appears as close 9 or so. Magic of mathematics. Same thing with GDP, that counts every dollar spent by government, bot those taxed away from citizenry and those taken in by debt. So, politicians can take in debt and it shows as gain in statistic. Marvellous, we need more!

But of course, those things need to appear to have any connection with reality - which is inconvenient. Inconvenient in same way as gold-convertibility clause on U.S debt. citizens could not own it, which was good. But as soon France demanded gold not paper.. Tricky Dicky decided even this farce is too much, and closed the window.

Traditionally, happiness runs very high in some countries.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Planet_Index
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_national_happiness

800px-Happy_Planet.PNG


libera_lego_03.jpg


Fun from times past :
1.jpg
And those missing fun from old times
Pochod_Moskwa_2001.jpg

Greetings from the (former) happiest barrack in soviet block.

I bet some morons think it is bright idea. As with everything Empire sells. Panem et circenses. Dance with Stars and Beer. Same thing.

[BeYonder]

THE UN is a pre-curse-r to one-world government
Satanic United Nations Symbolism - YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bihccfayq6Y

[Luke]

Hey Luke,

you had me until the last statement...I don't think I'm a moron but I do think it's a bright idea...in fact, it's the only idea that will ever have an impact on the way we conduct our daily lives. (until we ascend into the heavens that is, which will happen when the heavens fall from the sky.) And guess what...that IS gonna happen.

You are telling the pollster that you are very happy IF you have bayonet at your back or if you know that pollster records who you are and will report it to the secret service branch. If you look at the map, you'll see that inevitably "happiest " populations are those running under some kind of regime, while those who are living in places where they need not to worry about being shot or removed are pretty much median- because normal life tend to balance things.

Also, the fact that country that sponsors the lunacy is fresh-out from absolute monarchy shows what kind of mentality is behind the idea: statist and collectivist.

So yes, I think anyone supporting that "happiness value" is moron. OR useful idiot. Clean and present danger to free man.

[reaver]

Ah who doesn't love a happy nightmare?

[pillaroflight]

I would love to hear your story someday, Pillar. Perhaps on the Netizen show?

Thanks, LE, but not much of a story. She was a secretary there, and only briefly. But she really believed she was involved in a wonderful endeavor--thought the UN was wonderful until she died. My "liberal" and highly educated sister is so proud of Mom's involvement she mentioned it in Mom's obituary........

It's such a classic case of action-reaction-solution. That generation was ripe for the concept of a world governing body that would provide WORLD PEACE. They didn't succeed with the League of Nations after WWI, so they had another war to accomplish their goal, creating the desire for a world government solution. But you guys already know all that.

I found this interesting article:

The Illuminati Agenda
(Best Historical Overview Yet-
Transcript of 1967 Recording)

The question of how and why the United Nations is the crux of the great conspiracy to destroy the sovereignty of the United States and the enslavement of the American people within a U.N. one-world dictatorship is a complete and unknown mystery to the vast majority of the American people.

The reason for this unawareness of the frightening danger to our country and to the entire free world is simple. The masterminds behind this great conspiracy have absolute control of all of our mass communications media, especially television, the radio, the press, and Hollywood.

We all know that our State Department, the Pentagon, and the White House have brazenly proclaimed that they have the right and the power to manage the news, to tell us not the truth but what they want us to believe.

They have seized that power on orders from their masters of the great conspiracy and the objective is to brainwash the people into accepting the phony peace bait to transform the United States into an enslaved unit of the United Nations' one-world government.

http://educate-yourself.org/nwo/illu...et8jun02.shtml

[alienHunter]

I'm aware of the story...but I certainly don't know it. Doesn't it seem funny to you that most of the damage we see at least in the western world is perpetrated by conservatives and then somehow the 'real truth' is revealed and it turns out the liberal agenda was at fault. That is the veil that covers our eyes that so many are afraid to lift. It's not a matter of being aware or not, it's a matter of refusing to confront one's own worldview and thereby risking its total destruction. It's a natural instinct.

Do you discount your highly educated sister's viewpoint? High education counts for nothing?

Thanks, LE, but not much of a story. She was a secretary there, and only briefly. But she really believed she was involved in a wonderful endeavor--thought the UN was wonderful until she died. My "liberal" and highly educated sister is so proud of Mom's involvement she mentioned it in Mom's obituary........



It's such a classic case of action-reaction-solution. That generation was ripe for the concept of a world governing body that would provide WORLD PEACE. They didn't succeed with the League of Nations after WWI, so they had another war to accomplish their goal, creating the desire for a world government solution. But you guys already know all that.

I found this interesting article:

The Illuminati Agenda
(Best Historical Overview Yet-
Transcript of 1967 Recording)



http://educate-yourself.org/nwo/illu...et8jun02.shtml

[alienHunter]

I'll go straight to the heart then Luke...that is why you're so unhappy.

You are telling the pollster that you are very happy IF you have bayonet at your back or if you know that pollster records who you are and will report it to the secret service branch. If you look at the map, you'll see that inevitably "happiest " populations are those running under some kind of regime, while those who are living in places where they need not to worry about being shot or removed are pretty much median- because normal life tend to balance things.

Also, the fact that country that sponsors the lunacy is fresh-out from absolute monarchy shows what kind of mentality is behind the idea: statist and collectivist.

So yes, I think anyone supporting that "happiness value" is moron. OR useful idiot. Clean and present danger to free man.

[Khaleesi]

I'm aware of the story...but I certainly don't know it. Doesn't it seem funny to you that most of the damage we see at least in the western world is perpetrated by conservatives and then somehow the 'real truth' is revealed and it turns out the liberal agenda was at fault. That is the veil that covers our eyes that so many are afraid to lift. It's not a matter of being aware or not, it's a matter of refusing to confront one's own worldview and thereby risking its total destruction. It's a natural instinct.

Do you discount your highly educated sister's viewpoint? High education counts for nothing?

I stopped viewing the world as 'conservative' and 'liberal' some time ago. This is used as a tool to divide. The flip side of the same coin. 'Republicans' and 'Democrats' sit in the backroom and make deals and in public they bash each other for show. It's a game. They play the game. The public is divided and fights each other instead of dealing with the real issues.

[alienHunter]

i'll give you a maybe on that one...and if it turns out to be fully true, I will have learned a great, great deal.

I stopped viewing the world as 'conservative' and 'liberal' some time ago. This is used as a tool to divide. The flip side of the same coin. 'Repulicans' and 'Democrats' sit in the backroom and make deals and in public they bash each other for show. It's a game. They play the game. The public is divided and fights each other instead of dealing with the real issues.

[pillaroflight]

Do you discount your highly educated sister's viewpoint? High education counts for nothing?

Well, she is totally compartmentalized and limited in her knowledge. She reads the NYT from cover to cover daily and thinks she knows everything that is going on. She's a fancy-shmancy professor at an Ivy League university, but her knowledge only encompasses her field of expertise and what she has read in the NYT.

Honestly, if I was as busy as she is with her career and maintaining a 6 figure income, I wouldn't have time to research what is really going on either. I have had the ability to do the research precisely because of my lack of success in those departments.

Formal education truly seems meaningless--after seeing my daughter move to DC and get a Master's Degree at Georgetown University......she really believes the whole government story hook line and sinker. It is sad. For example, she actually said that she doesn't think privacy is guaranteed in the 4th amendment, that American citizens don't have the right to have an expectation of privacy.

So to answer your question, AH--I do not think "education" is worth a hill of beans. The more formally educated a person becomes, the more brainwashed.

sorry to derail--just answering AH's question

[alienHunter]

ok, far be it from me to invalidate your experience...