What is happiness? I prefer to go with Aristotle's definition- that it is the thing one does solely for its own sake. So if you follow Socratic dialectic- someone may wish to have a facelift ;why do they wish this? Because it will make them look younger. Why? Because looking younger will make them feel better about themselves in comparison with their peers. Why? Because feeling better about themselves will make them happy. There is nowhere else to go from here- happiness is the end result, the end of the line, the thing one does solely for its own sake.So why in a world with so much advancement is happiness so elusive? For me the nature of this advancement is the problem- in western society we are richer, older, healthier than ever before. We have access to more money, information, resources and people than even our post-war parents. And all of these things give us choice, too much choice, and too much complexity. We have so much choice that we are prevented from making the simple decisions- is feeling younger in comparison to my peer group really necessary for greater self esteem?

The World Values Organisation recently conducted an extensive survey on which countries in the world were the happiest- and how what constitutes happiness changes from country to country.What's the happiest country in the world? NIGERIA. Nigeria has the highest % of its population declaring themselves happy. Now Nigeria is an extremely violent country (Lagos is one of the murder capitals of the world) and poverty affects large swathes of the population, yet they are the happiest people on earth. And they're not alone- 3rd world countries are generally happier than developed countries, in this and other studies (the USA comes 16th, the UK 24th)Throughout this study the recurring theme is that the choice and complexity of 'developed' society does not lead to happiness.
As a postscript to my example of cosmetic surgery above, The Washington Post reports that women who can afford the luxury of breast implants are more than three times as likely to commit suicide. Ceci Connolly writes in The Washington Post that studies in Finland, Sweden and the U.S. all show the same reaction. This isn't true with women who’ve had mastectomies, only with those who enlarge their breasts for cosmetic reasons.
Being able to spend money this way is an incredible luxury, so why does it leave women so depressed? Researchers think that women who want this kind of procedure think it will solve their psychological and dating problems—and then find out it doesn't.
So with greater choice comes greater expectation, and bitterness when this is not fulfilled.
On of the worrying things from the World Values Survey is that old people are happier than young people, even though BOTH groups think that young people are the happiest.
Scientists say that older people forget how happy (or unhappy) they were when they were young, while young people simply assume that they won't be very happy when they're old.
Kids becoming teenagers these days in western society are faced with so many expectations- material, emotional, sexual- combined with ‘choice’ and the apparent attainability of fame and riches without application, that its not surprising they are trepidous about the future. Albert Camus once wrote ‘modern man will be remembered for fornicating and reading the papers’, and that was 50 years before reality TV!

But why do some third world countries appear happier despite being in great need? Enter the Hermit and the Shepherd………….