Freedom of choice

Happiness…

…is invariably linked to freedom of choice. Linking back to my previous post yesterday to how freedom of choice is but a perception in today’s world, in this post, I’m writing about the direct correlation between freedom of choice, represented by a true democratic government, and the happiness of a country’s citizens. Realistically, the results of such exercises are shaped heavily by the relative wealth of the country’s citizens. At any rate, the study reveals that Denmark is the world’s happiest country.

And in one of the all time most memorable quotes of the century, the political scientist behind the study said, and I quote:

“I strongly suspect that there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness”.

Right.

I also strongly suspect that Bill Gates wakes up every morning and goes “I’m such a lucky sod.”.

At any rate, in all seriousness, freedom of choice is really an illusion, and a perception. If you want to bring it up to a higher level, in some religions, our lives are already scripted out, and there is an element called Fate. In ancient Chinese customs, their belief is that somewhere out there, our entire lives are already charted out in some Book up in the Heavens. In Christianity, it is believed that everything works out according to God’s grand plan. That is why the terms destiny, pre-ordained, etc, even exists in our vocab.

I love that strip where Calvin says to Hobbes that he likes the idea of there being some fate/destiny and how everything is written in the stars, as it is far nicer to believe that one is not really responsible for one’s actions.

Of course, that is manipulating and twisting the concept, but no1 has really been able to, thus far, come up with a coherent and convincing argument that really explains everything properly and I guess until then, we live on faith.

Anyway, yes, we do not really have freedom of choice. Name me 1 thing that you do that is not to some extent shackled by some constraint or other. A more succinct way of describing our existences is that we have freedom of limited options.