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Peoples minds work on such a strong relative level.. You can be upper-middle-class in California and kill yourself from depression. You can live in a slum and w
by rjprins 18y ago
Peoples minds work on such a strong relative level..
You can be upper-middle-class in California and kill yourself from depression.
You can live in a slum and work all day and be happy (Theoretically that is, if they weren't constantly reminded by a skyline, TV, commercials and rich tourists of their relative position. In fact, commercials are designed to lower your happiness, as they essentially try to show that life can be better.)
Not only happiness, but truth is relative for people. Exploring boundaries (like travelling) is the only way to be able to better position and evaluate standpoints on any subject.
The minds natural tendency to zoom in must be countered, consciously and regularly. For us, (I assume the people in Dharavi are not reading this) this can also definately be source of happiness and a way to set your focus on the right kind of things in your life.
- vinutheraj 18y agoI have always been intrigued by this facet of humankind, that people who are so poor can live life so happily, thinking about the small things in life. Maybe its about choices, the more choices and freedom we have, the more we miss the things we could have been, or could have done ?!
- whughes 18y agoMaking generalizations about rich and poor is very dangerous. It may well be cultural, and many areas which are poor happen to have that cultural attribute. Perhaps it is also related to media exposure. I doubt that happiness is directly related to wealth or lack of wealth. Obviously there are many happy middle-class people and many sad poor people.
- selva 18y agoAn insightful talk by Dan Gilbert on this http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_...
- g__g 18y agoPeoples minds work on such a strong relative level.. You can be upper-middle-class in California and kill yourself from depression. You can live in a slum and work all day and be happy (Theoretically that is, if they weren't constantly reminded by a skyline, TV, commercials and rich tourists of their relative position. In fact, commercials are designed to lower your happiness, as they essentially try to show that life can be better.) Yes you can live a depressed life in California and you can also live and work in a slum and be happy. But I don't quite agree with the point that constant reminders of a skyline, TV etc in anyways dampen their spirit or make them less happy, on the contrary I think it motivates them. The relative differences show these people what they can be or want to be. I know of slums in other Indian cities as well, not many of them can boast about "running an industry" or the number of television sets as compared to dharavi(the one in Mumbai). What is evident is that in the more developed and prosperous cities, the happiness quotient of people in slums is generally higher as compared to slums in other less-developed cities. That being said, I am not suggesting that prosperous cities lead to better slums. In fact there isn't a larger difference between the rich and poor anywhere in the world than there is in Mumbai. Poverty needs to be tackled and there are a lot of NGO's working towards this. All I'm trying to say is that the relative difference these people see around them does not make them feel less happier, it's a reality they live with and aspire to reach.