Hope you don't mind if I segue off for a moment. The article you cited was written in March of this year, as the pandemic was really cranking up. This paragraph struck me, and gave me sorrow because we are not like this any more in the United States. Instead of cooperative behavior, we have anti-science anti-mask assholes spreading the plague instead of working together to mitigate it... and one at the very top cheering them on.
"And while it seems like a strange time to be evaluating happiness, the editors of the report point out that challenging times can actually increase happiness. “The global pandemic poses great risks for some of the main supports for well-being, most especially health and income,” the editors explain. “As revealed by earlier studies of earthquakes, floods, storms, tsunamis and even economic crises, a high trust society quite naturally looks for and finds co-operative ways to work together to repair the damage and rebuild better lives. This has led sometimes to surprising increases in happiness in the wake of what might otherwise seem to be unmitigated disasters.”
"The reason that people get happier in the fact of disasters? “People are pleasantly surprised by the willingness of their neighbors and their institutions to work in harness to help each other,” the editors write. “This delivers a heightened sense of belonging, and pride in what they have been able to achieve by way of mitigation. These gains are sometimes great enough to compensate for the material losses.”"
I have a number of normally-optimistic friends and family members, as well as myself at times, feeling a lot of depression and despair because of these elements of American society. What happened to us?
