Canceling things
Apr. 18th, 2026 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutI’ve been canceling things. Mostly relatively recently signed up for things, but there was a whole revision of the cable/internet/voip thing not too long ago (very happy with that!).
There’s some stuff I’m hoping to blog about. Notably: physical book discourse, but also how we talk about inflation, and measurements of where we are as a country. I REALLY want to write about how values driven political positions can be at odds with each other functionally and almost always ARE at odds with each other within each individual human being. And by at odds, I mean “unintended / undesirable / unexpected” consequences that absolutely everyone ELSE saw coming as a direct result of me getting what I wanted, type of thing, and which I really hate and which had I seen it coming, I might have made different choices. I’m using “I” language here, and I hope everyone knows what that means.
But enough about the important things. How about something really stupid and trivial, like the World Happiness Report? It popped up in the small print on an infowtf that someone reposted (someone I know IRL and like and respect, so this is 100% not a criticism of that person for reposting), that I will not further summarize here so hopefully no one can ever figure out which infowtf that might have been (by tomorrow, I will have forgotten, which should help).
Anyway. The World Happiness Report has some extremely long history of being problematic, but apparently in recent years the Scandinavian (they say Nordic) countries have been topping the list and currently Finland is in the number 1 spot.
Finland, the country which was had to completely close its land border with Russia for years now.
Finland, the country which has been limiting asylum seekers and deporting at escalating rates.
Finland, the country in NATO other than the US that has the best trained and most experienced military, and which, as the rest of NATO scrambles to figure out how they will sustain the effort against the aggressor to the east in the event the US decides not to any more, has stepped into a probably unwanted place of Probably Has the Best Ideas of Anyone Else in the Eurozone.
By all accounts and long history, Finland is indeed a wonderful country, populated by hardworking, goodhearted folk who have a deep history of democratic institutions and a strong commitment to social equality. They give a lot of thought to how families with newborns are supported and how young folks are educated, to avoid a lot of the problems associated with “modern life” and/or prosperity. Mostly because this whole problem with their long land border isn’t exactly a new one.
I just feel like people should really think hard about what it means to be happy and to say you are happy and that you trust your institutions and whatever else the World Happiness Report is asking about these days. I’m not saying, hey, quit your complaining and Be Happy because all these happy places actually have it kind of tough in a lot of ways. I’m saying, quit fucking idolizing happiness. Value your disgruntled complainy-pants lifestyle for the powerful motivator that it is.
Oh, hey, that actually IS about values driven political positions that are at odds with each other. Ha! Sneaked that one in without even telling myself!
ETA: I don’t think we’re the best country in the world. This is not a competition. I fucking hate competition.
There’s some stuff I’m hoping to blog about. Notably: physical book discourse, but also how we talk about inflation, and measurements of where we are as a country. I REALLY want to write about how values driven political positions can be at odds with each other functionally and almost always ARE at odds with each other within each individual human being. And by at odds, I mean “unintended / undesirable / unexpected” consequences that absolutely everyone ELSE saw coming as a direct result of me getting what I wanted, type of thing, and which I really hate and which had I seen it coming, I might have made different choices. I’m using “I” language here, and I hope everyone knows what that means.
But enough about the important things. How about something really stupid and trivial, like the World Happiness Report? It popped up in the small print on an infowtf that someone reposted (someone I know IRL and like and respect, so this is 100% not a criticism of that person for reposting), that I will not further summarize here so hopefully no one can ever figure out which infowtf that might have been (by tomorrow, I will have forgotten, which should help).
Anyway. The World Happiness Report has some extremely long history of being problematic, but apparently in recent years the Scandinavian (they say Nordic) countries have been topping the list and currently Finland is in the number 1 spot.
Finland, the country which was had to completely close its land border with Russia for years now.
Finland, the country which has been limiting asylum seekers and deporting at escalating rates.
Finland, the country in NATO other than the US that has the best trained and most experienced military, and which, as the rest of NATO scrambles to figure out how they will sustain the effort against the aggressor to the east in the event the US decides not to any more, has stepped into a probably unwanted place of Probably Has the Best Ideas of Anyone Else in the Eurozone.
By all accounts and long history, Finland is indeed a wonderful country, populated by hardworking, goodhearted folk who have a deep history of democratic institutions and a strong commitment to social equality. They give a lot of thought to how families with newborns are supported and how young folks are educated, to avoid a lot of the problems associated with “modern life” and/or prosperity. Mostly because this whole problem with their long land border isn’t exactly a new one.
I just feel like people should really think hard about what it means to be happy and to say you are happy and that you trust your institutions and whatever else the World Happiness Report is asking about these days. I’m not saying, hey, quit your complaining and Be Happy because all these happy places actually have it kind of tough in a lot of ways. I’m saying, quit fucking idolizing happiness. Value your disgruntled complainy-pants lifestyle for the powerful motivator that it is.
Oh, hey, that actually IS about values driven political positions that are at odds with each other. Ha! Sneaked that one in without even telling myself!
ETA: I don’t think we’re the best country in the world. This is not a competition. I fucking hate competition.