4 ms·

I wonder what the feeling of the people in e.g. China or Russia is right now regarding peace. Is it hopelessness? Nationalism? Fatalism? Foolish thinking, but

I wonder what the feeling of the people in e.g. China or Russia is right now regarding peace. Is it hopelessness? Nationalism? Fatalism? Foolish thinking, but I was hoping as a species we were past petty wars.

GalenErso 4y ago
A recent Ipsos survey showed that China was the country with the highest proportion of happy people, at 91%.[1] A 2020 survey by Harvard researchers showed similar results. [2] People living in autocracies are far less dissatisfied with their systems of government as democracy minded Westerners like myself might assume. [1] https://www.ipsos.com/en/global-happiness-six-points-last-year-73-now-say-they-are-happy https://www.ipsos.com/en/global-happiness-six-points-last-ye... [2] https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-sur...
- bouncycastle 4y ago
  Of course you are going to say that you are happy, you don't want to provoke your local autocracy...
  - ClumsyPilot 4y ago
    in Russia very few people will say they are hapoy. The might nit elaborate why
- charlieyu1 4y ago
  Doubtful about this. World Happiness Report 2023 has China at rank 64. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report
  - Leary 4y ago
    The studies had different methodologies and questions. The Ipsos one asked respondents: "Taking all things together, would you say you are: very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not happy at all?" The World Happiness Report asks the respondents: "think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10 and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale." Unsurprisingly, the two offers very different conclusions.
malkia 4y ago
Growing up in Bulgaria, in the 80s, live was easy and happy. Why? You did not have to think much about your future, finish high-school (required), get to university (free) or find a decent technical job. No complicated taxes, loans. Not much choice at the store - 2 kinds of everything - 2 kinds of beers, cheese, salami (well kind of). You look around - almost everyone is like you, maybe 2x less, maybe 2x more salary, some x10 - but you don't see them. Everyone was like a well sized job running in k8s or nomad :) - because the goverment was like that. It's much easier to compertmenalize such people... Now we are not "jobs" or "tasks" or "peons", we are people. So there was oppression, but it was hidden. People would joke, but then people might tell other people to the "secret service police". As a kid, I had pretty good childhood! But still not sure if I had to be an adult during that period how I would've felt.
- ethbr0 4y ago
  Out of curiosity, when there are a limited number of choices, did people still have favorites? And argue that "theirs" was better? Or were they so segmented or different that competition was not a thing?
  - malkia 4y ago
    I think there were, but in general to things that you wanted to get access (food, events, schools, buying a car) - it was more done with connections, and knowing the "right" people and doing favors (to return favors). Money wasn't (maybe) that important for these. For example, we had the CORECOM store (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corecom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corecom) - which was really a place for all truck drivers, air-pilots or whoever had to work outside of Bulgaria, especially outside the Eastern Block to come back and exchange their """filthy""" currency with products that you can't get anywhere else. It was really hard to get a Kinder Surpsise Egg for example (only to be found at the Corecom). Even if you had the bulgarian levas, it was not possibly (easily) to exchange these for dollars in order to buy them. You had to know the people that might've brought some from outside (Then again, this is from my memory as a kid). So PEZ, Kinder Surprise Eggs, or anything listed (and much more) on the wikipedia page above was DEAR to all of us kids. I do remember the day where I went to the local bakery (some years after the communist regime went down) for normal bulgarian pastry (these are still yummy), and saw so many kinder surprise eggs available for anyone to buy with levas. It was no longer that great :) lol. Ok, here is a weird one - empty cans from coke, pepsi were prized collections. We would use these empty cans to put our pencils or just to demonstrate we got something from the west. The (free) Neckermann magazine was "required" in every home - you got to glimpse into furniture, clothing, and just to stroll through the enourmous volume of the latest (this year, last year - doesn't matter). I also vividly remember when the french magazine store opened, and I've got PIF Hercule comics (without knowing french), and some of the greates PC games magazines (great graphics). So hard to tell. Probably people had preferences - there were several, if not dozen types of Russian-made and other cars: Lada, Zaz, Moskvich - surely some prefer one vs the other. But this joke was not so far off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I9AdLnjP0M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I9AdLnjP0M You had to wait sometimes years to get your car, refridgerator, etc. anyway :) - I guess TLDR was - WE WERE OBLIVIOUS - We had some "fake" glimpse into what the western world was, without really knowing what it was (it was also distorted through our own media). But again, as a kid - I had such good time!
theGnuMe 4y ago
All of the above, same as any country.

GalenErso 4y ago

A recent Ipsos survey showed that China was the country with the highest proportion of happy people, at 91%.[1] A 2020 survey by Harvard researchers showed similar results. [2] People living in autocracies are far less dissatisfied with their systems of government as democracy minded Westerners like myself might assume. [1] https://www.ipsos.com/en/global-happiness-six-points-last-year-73-now-say-they-are-happy https://www.ipsos.com/en/global-happiness-six-points-last-ye... [2] https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-sur...

bouncycastle 4y ago
Of course you are going to say that you are happy, you don't want to provoke your local autocracy...
- ClumsyPilot 4y ago
  in Russia very few people will say they are hapoy. The might nit elaborate why
charlieyu1 4y ago
Doubtful about this. World Happiness Report 2023 has China at rank 64. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report
- Leary 4y ago
  The studies had different methodologies and questions. The Ipsos one asked respondents: "Taking all things together, would you say you are: very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not happy at all?" The World Happiness Report asks the respondents: "think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10 and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale." Unsurprisingly, the two offers very different conclusions.

malkia 4y ago

Growing up in Bulgaria, in the 80s, live was easy and happy. Why? You did not have to think much about your future, finish high-school (required), get to university (free) or find a decent technical job. No complicated taxes, loans. Not much choice at the store - 2 kinds of everything - 2 kinds of beers, cheese, salami (well kind of). You look around - almost everyone is like you, maybe 2x less, maybe 2x more salary, some x10 - but you don't see them. Everyone was like a well sized job running in k8s or nomad :) - because the goverment was like that. It's much easier to compertmenalize such people... Now we are not "jobs" or "tasks" or "peons", we are people. So there was oppression, but it was hidden. People would joke, but then people might tell other people to the "secret service police". As a kid, I had pretty good childhood! But still not sure if I had to be an adult during that period how I would've felt.

ethbr0 4y ago
Out of curiosity, when there are a limited number of choices, did people still have favorites? And argue that "theirs" was better? Or were they so segmented or different that competition was not a thing?
- malkia 4y ago
  I think there were, but in general to things that you wanted to get access (food, events, schools, buying a car) - it was more done with connections, and knowing the "right" people and doing favors (to return favors). Money wasn't (maybe) that important for these. For example, we had the CORECOM store (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corecom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corecom) - which was really a place for all truck drivers, air-pilots or whoever had to work outside of Bulgaria, especially outside the Eastern Block to come back and exchange their """filthy""" currency with products that you can't get anywhere else. It was really hard to get a Kinder Surpsise Egg for example (only to be found at the Corecom). Even if you had the bulgarian levas, it was not possibly (easily) to exchange these for dollars in order to buy them. You had to know the people that might've brought some from outside (Then again, this is from my memory as a kid). So PEZ, Kinder Surprise Eggs, or anything listed (and much more) on the wikipedia page above was DEAR to all of us kids. I do remember the day where I went to the local bakery (some years after the communist regime went down) for normal bulgarian pastry (these are still yummy), and saw so many kinder surprise eggs available for anyone to buy with levas. It was no longer that great :) lol. Ok, here is a weird one - empty cans from coke, pepsi were prized collections. We would use these empty cans to put our pencils or just to demonstrate we got something from the west. The (free) Neckermann magazine was "required" in every home - you got to glimpse into furniture, clothing, and just to stroll through the enourmous volume of the latest (this year, last year - doesn't matter). I also vividly remember when the french magazine store opened, and I've got PIF Hercule comics (without knowing french), and some of the greates PC games magazines (great graphics). So hard to tell. Probably people had preferences - there were several, if not dozen types of Russian-made and other cars: Lada, Zaz, Moskvich - surely some prefer one vs the other. But this joke was not so far off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I9AdLnjP0M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I9AdLnjP0M You had to wait sometimes years to get your car, refridgerator, etc. anyway :) - I guess TLDR was - WE WERE OBLIVIOUS - We had some "fake" glimpse into what the western world was, without really knowing what it was (it was also distorted through our own media). But again, as a kid - I had such good time!

theGnuMe 4y ago

All of the above, same as any country.