The dawn of a new year is an opportunity to make resolutions. In the past I tended to compile a list that became failures to beat myself up about the following year. Now I adopt a kinder approach of reviewing the past year’s highs and lows and to look forward at the coming year.
Looking forward, 2015 will be an ‘interesting’ year politically with the Westminster elections on the horizon. Yesterday the ‘three main parties’ (as defined by the British press) launched their electoral campaigns and without exception this was a universal attack on opponents. The public will need strength from somewhere to endure months of torture as politicians relish batting accusation and counterclaim between each other in ping-pongesque fashion.
Perhaps our Politicians could take a more positive leaf out of our neighbours, the Danes’, book. Apparently the Danes are the happiest nation in the world with their contentment attributed to factors such as:
- High levels of trust
- High levels of social security (unemployment benefit is pegged to 80% of previous salary for two years)
- High GDP (not always the best measure of success)
- Free university education
- Progressive attitudes to gay rights
- Progressive ‘work-life balance’. I particularly like this one – ‘presenteeism’ (i.e. working long hours) is viewed, not as a sign of commitment but as inefficiency
- Egalitarianism
- Sexual equality
Nowhere is perfect and I’m sure there are holes to be picked but I like their idea that happiness is a process rather than a permanent state. Happiness is not random; it is achieved by celebrating the small pleasures of life and incorporating them into daily life.
Politically I would like to see prospective parliamentary candidates be brave enough to say ‘enough is enough’ to the imbalance that is threatening our democracy our planet and ourselves. Henry Mintzberg is about to publish a book that expands on this thought. Basically capitalism and socialism are both failed ideologies. Henceforth we need to embrace the ‘plural sector’ – the ‘third sector’, ‘civil society’, ‘not-for profit’ or whatever label is given to them. It’s rather attractive to think that it might be possible for ‘us’ to collaborate rather than leave everything to ‘them’ to sort out (badly).
Further reading:
http://unsdsn.org/resources/publications/world-happiness-report-2013/
The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country gan Helen Russell – to be published by Icon on January 8th
Rebalancing Society: Radical Renewal Beyond Left, Right, and Center by Henry Mintzberg http://www.mintzberg.org/blog/rebalancing
Dweud fy nweud II Having my say 