{"id":10191,"date":"2019-07-11T05:00:49","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T09:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justrightmedia.org\/blog\/?p=10191"},"modified":"2019-07-13T07:30:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-13T11:30:34","slug":"613-a-measure-of-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/archives\/10191","title":{"rendered":"613 &#8211; A measure of happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/613-Happiness-168x100.jpg\" alt=\"Happiness\" width=\"168\" height=\"100\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-10193\" \/><audio controls preload=\"none\"><source src=\"\/\/www.justrightmedia.org\/BROADCASTS\/20190711-justRIGHT-613-aMEASUREofHAPPINESS.mp3\" type=\"audio\/mpeg\"><\/audio><\/p>\n<p>On the heels of a 2019 Leger Survey measuring Canada\u2019s \u201c<strong>Happiness Index<\/strong>,\u201d pollsters revealed that while most Canadians regard themselves as being \u2018happy,\u2019 apparently <strong>Ontarians are Canada\u2019s most \u2018miserable\u2019 people<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>There has been much attention given over the years to the whole theme of happiness, how to measure it, and how to assess various national levels of happiness \u2013 as if such a measurement has some objective significance, meaning, or application.  Does it?  Is happiness even a \u2018thing\u2019?<\/p>\n<p>In popular usage, it is clear that the word \u2018happiness\u2019 is used in differing contexts: from describing a day-to-day mood evaluation to an evaluation of life\u2019s satisfaction.<\/p>\n<p>Most dictionaries define \u2018happiness\u2019 in terms related to \u201cthe enjoyment of pleasure without pain,\u201d &#8211; a very limited focus indeed if used as the sole standard of national \u2018happiness\u2019 measurement surveys.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>At the other end of the scale is a description of \u2018happiness\u2019 as offered by philosopher\/novelist Ayn Rand:  \u201c<strong>Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one\u2019s values.<\/strong>\u201d  In this view, psychological pain or pleasure can be the punishment or reward related to the failure or achievement of those values.<\/p>\n<p>How differing individuals view and experience their personal level of happiness (or the lack of it) reveals a consistency that should not be surprising: happiness has always been associated with freedom, and with good reason.<\/p>\n<p>After all, it is only in a free society that most are able to pursue a measure of happiness that&#8217;s Just Right for them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/\/www.justrightmedia.org\/blog\/613-topics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/www.justrightmedia.org\/images\/buttons\/topics.gif\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/\/www.justrightmedia.org\/blog\/613-clips-credits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/www.justrightmedia.org\/images\/buttons\/clips_and_credits.gif\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the heels of a 2019 Leger Survey measuring Canada\u2019s \u201cHappiness Index,\u201d pollsters revealed that while most Canadians regard themselves as being \u2018happy,\u2019 apparently Ontarians are Canada\u2019s most \u2018miserable\u2019 people. There has been much attention given over the years to the whole theme of happiness, how to measure it, and how to assess various national <a href='https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/archives\/10191' class='excerpt-more'>[Continue Reading]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,596,28,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audio","category-ideas","category-latest","category-reason","issues-happiness","personalities-ayn-rand","category-12-id","category-596-id","category-28-id","category-4-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10191"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10196,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10191\/revisions\/10196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justrightmedia.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}