They look happy enough to me.
Posted on 02/03/2005 6:37:45 AM PST by franksolich
Healthy, wealthy and sad
A new study finds that Norwegians, despite their beautiful natural surroundings, oil fortune and having the country ranked as the best place in the world to live, are the saddest people in the Nordic region.
"We have everything and that is basically all we have. The meaning of life is to do difficult things," professor Thomas Hylland Eriksen told newspaper Dagsavisen. That is his explanation for Norway, regularly rated the best place in the world to live and one of the planet's richest nations, only finishing 14th in a study of world happiness.
"We don't have what is needed to be happy. We need something to aspire to, a project, a hope. Look at children, they can build the most complicated things. But when they are finished they tear them down, it isn't interesting any more. It was getting there that was fun, Eriksen said.
On a scale of 1-10, where one is deep depression and 10 dizzying happiness, Norwegians manage a score of 7.4 on the World Database of Happiness, a major scientific comparison of the state of cheer in 90 countries.
Stiig Broby, head of the Association of Danish Interests in Norway, has been puzzled by his nine years of living in Norway.
"Norway is one of the world's most prosperous nations. One should also be one of the most satisfied. Everyone complains about schools, the health system and Oslo Transit," Broby told Dagsavisen.
Researcher Ottar Hellevik believes that the steadily rising standard of living undermines contentment by stimulating a desire to have even more. "More people look upon material things as the source of happiness. But that joy is short-lived, so it becomes an endless race, full of frustrations," Hellevik said.
They look happy enough to me.
"Ping" for the "Norway ping list."
The purpose of the "Norway ping list" is to provoke comments and remarks and illumination from those Norwegians among us on Free Republic.
There ARE some Norwegians who hang around Free Republic, but who hesitate to enlighten us, probably for one of two reasons; (a) they are not familiar with American sorts of humor, and are afraid they will upset Free Republicans and (b) they know English only as a second language, and so are hesitant to express anything, for fear their English might be ridiculed.
Well, no Free Republican has ever been known to commit an act of violence against another Free Republican, so no worry there. And as for "good" English as compared with "bad" English, one rarely meets an American who uses proper English anyway, so Norwegians fit in rather well here.
Well, judging from my own family Norwegians are a pretty morose lot even when they're Americans!
Spoken like a true marxist.
I was under the impression that the standard of living in Scandinavia isn't as high as we have been lead to believe.
I think it is because they are also officious, pompous and arrogant and they know it, and know that every one else knows it. That would certainly lead to depression and national drunkenness.
Well, sir, if the scale is 1-10, with 1 being utterly sad and 10 being dizzily happy, and Norwegians rate a 7.4, that does not seem a bad score at all, to me.
You want a melancholy place, try the democraticunderground; now, that's a whole lot of sad people, especially on November 3, January 6, January 20, January 31, and February 2. An utter cesspool of wretched miserable people.
But 7.4 does not seem "low" to me.
Never had the pleasure of meeting authentic Norwegians, sir; this state (Nebraska) is full of Scandinavians, but 99% of them are Danish, and they have always seemed pretty normal (in both happiness and sadness) to me.
Based on my former in-laws, I could say the same thing about American-born Swedes.
That is a good question, madam, and I am curious.
About half the news reports emanating from Scandinavia the past, say 20, years, comment how the standard of living has fallen (from the "glory years" of socialism during the 1960s), and the other half of the news reports insist, no, it is rising.
I thought Norwegians were gay.
Shalom.
But don't confuse Norwegians with the Swedes (the ones still in Sweden, not the ones here), sir.
Actually, the Norwegians are doing quite well - giant socialistic welfare systems are easy when you're the third largest oil exporter in the world. Nevertheless, it was a pretty dopey thing for the guy to say.
Perhaps they are upset that their ancestors who migrated to North America chose Minnesota instead of, say, Florida.
A visit to the relatives from Norway to Minnesota probably doesn't feel like much of a getaway.
"SOB, it is freezing cold everywhere we go in the world? What about those pictures of beaches and suntans we see on state TV's travel channel?!?"
I met a Norwegian girl's rock band here in Seattle back in 2000. Interesting group of young ladies. Rumor is they got busted for narcotics in Mexico a week later. I'd imagine the Mexican authorities sold them to N.Koreans or Soddy Arabians.
Hell, 7.4 sounds better than Norfolk.
You got that right, sir.
I've lived all over the place, but Norfolk, Nebraska (actually a small place outside, but nearby) has to be one of the most peculiar places I've ever lived.
Near as I can make out, though, the predominant minority (since there is no clear-cut majority) around here is of Swiss derivation (not German, but Swiss), and of course Switzerland is another matter entirely.
This might have something (or a lot) to do with their problem:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-12-15-marriage_x.htm
(Read the whole thing.) One excerpt: "Even though there are state churches in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, few people go. . ."
Proverbs 16:20 . . . and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.
They have high suicide rates due to low sunlight levels. That's probably the source of the higher than normal moroseness too.
That was my unspoken assertion, sir.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know what Europeans think of us, as people weirdly believing in some sort of "fairy tale" of God and religion.
Man does not live by bread alone, and I am flummoxed about the lack of religiosity among Norwegians, because surely Norwegians, of all people, should understand that; man does not live by bread alone.
Damn, I am glad we believe in God, even if it makes us seem "weird" to contemporary Europeans.
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