One of these rare and fortunate opportunities to post a guest contribution has arisen again. A very dear and inspiring person to me, Hoyt Anderson, wrote a paper on The Pursuit of Happiness. As part of his paper he reviewed The Geography of Bliss, a book authored by National Public Radio's (NPR) veteran foreign correspondent Eric Weiner. For the book, Weiner roamed the globe to find out how happiness looks outside home. For his paper Hoyt Anderson captured the highlights of Weiner's view of how happiness is lived in Switzerland. Despite the differences between Switzerland and Germany a couple of the notions talked about reminded me of German culture: the reluctance to talk about money, the cleanliness in the cities, the maybe sometimes slow humor and love or rules.
SWITZERLAND – Happiness is Boredom
The Swiss occupy a place near the pinnacle of Ruut Veenhoven’s happiness pyramid. The stereotype is true. Switzerland is efficient and punctual, also wealthy and with hardly any unemployment and the air is clean. The streets are nearly spotless and the chocolate is plentiful and delicious. But happy? “I saw no joy on the faces of the Swiss. Only quiet satisfaction tinged with just a trace of smugness." He quotes a female reporter from New York as complaining that “the Swiss are culturally constipated and stingy with information”. They are reluctant to speak out lest it be considered insulting since it assumes ignorance on the part of the other person. But his New York friend finds many aspects of Swiss life endearing -- the civil mindedness for instance. “The way you’ll be riding the bus and there will be this teen-age boy with a Mohawk and combat boots, looking like trouble, who will politely offer his seat to an older woman.”
So, what is the source of the Swiss happiness? Cleanliness says one of Weiner’s Swiss friends. “Have you seen our public toilets? “ At first he thinks the man is joking, but quickly rules that out. “The Swiss do not joke. About anything. Ever.” Everything works. There are no potholes in Swiss roads. Switzerland is a highly functional society and, while this may not be a source of joy or happiness, it eliminates a lot of the reasons to be unhappy.
The Swiss go to great lengths not to provoke envy in others. The Swiss know instinctively that envy is the great enemy of happiness. One of Weiner’s Swiss friends explains:”Our attitude is, don’t shine the spotlight too brightly on yourself or you might get shot”. The Swiss don’t like to talk about money. They know that money, more than anything else, triggers envy. A rich Swiss person doesn’t show off his money because he doesn’t have to. Everyone knows he’s rich.
“The Swiss are as fond of rules as the Dutch are of marijuana and prostitution.“ In many parts of Switzerland you can’t mow your lawn or shake your carpets on Sunday. You can’t hang laundry from your balcony on any day. You can’t flush your toilet after 10 P.M. Weiner relates the story of a British woman who enjoyed a couple of beers and some laughs in her apartment with friends and found a note on her door the next morning saying “No laughing after midnight”.
The Swiss live attenuated lives. ”They hum along, satisfied, never dipping below a certain floor, but never touching the ceiling either. Happiness researchers have found that, from a statistical point of view, the Swiss are on to something. Better to live in this middle range than to constantly swing between great highs and terrible lows.”
To sum up : “The Swiss are a humorless, uptight nation. Everything works, usually, and envy is squelched, but at a cost: You’re always being watched, monitored, judged.” Where’s the bliss? It’s simple. Nature. The Swiss have a very deep connection to nature. You can’t understand the Swiss without visiting the Alps. The naturalist E.O. Wilson gives a name to the warm fuzzy feeling one experiences when connected to nature: biophilia –- the innately emotional affiliation of human beings to other living organisms. Wilson sees this connection to nature as rooted in our evolutionary past. The biophilia hypothesis also explains why we find natural settings so peaceful. It appeals to a much more base and human proclivity: selfishness. It says, in effect, protect the environment because it will make you happy.
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