This is an oldie, but I always wondered:

http://www.hngn.com/articles/43599/20140925/utah-ranks-as-happiest-state-in-america-west-virginia-named-least-joyful.htm

I've always wondered why this finding, in relation to several other things--Utah also has among the highest sexual assaults in the country, anti-depressant use, and suicides.

What gives?

The Utahans reporting their happiness are over-compensating because they are told they are supposed to be happy, so Elohim Dammit they are happy!

Deltas have fun everyday!

Identity.
Feeling a part of something bigger than yourself
Feeling love, of family, friends, like minded tribesmen, kinship with others, all those things religion gave me, which I've not enjoyed ever since.
Now I enjoy kayaking w/ sea lions and orcas, octopus and Bald Eagles in the glorious full spectru of light outside of Plato's Cave, Stepford, USA?
It all makes sense, they're genuinely Happy, but they lead meaningless, shallow, materialistic, fake lives. It's also the perennial leader in plastic surgery, and it has a huge porn problem, biggest EVER in any population, lol
I don't belong anywhere. I'm an Epicurean. The only other Epicurean I know of are all dead, Thomas Jefferson and Epicurus.
The author of the US Constitution and the Father of mom-deterministic atomic theory, Tetrapharmakos, The Four Part Cure, the Golden Rule, the Law of Reciprocity.
300 yrs before Christ.
Christ derived his main commandment from Epicureanism, Taoism, Buddhism, Confuscism.
The ironic thing is, the Mormon Plan if Happiness, leads to mental enslavement. You don't realize it while it's happening it just seems normal, familiar. So you go along to get along.
But for many of us there came a point where our own conscience just wouldn't allow us to continue on maintaining those bogus dangerous doomsday cult worship of a really despicable sexual predator. And sing his praises.
Nah, not CULT behavior.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2015 09:54PM by koriwhore.

That just serves to make the people who are depressed feel even more that there's something wrong with them. They'll be wondering why they're so miserable while everyone else is so happy. Guilt, guilt, guilt.

They should do a poll on which State feels the guiltiest - those who feel that they're not doing everything that they should be doing.

They're lying.

Other Susan

YES! It is a competition/so phony!

There is a weird phenomenon in Utah where young mothers blog about how perfect/happy/awesome/righteous their families are. A Mormon woman around age 30 has an award winning parody blog to mock these ridiculous, inane, juvenile blogs: seriouslysoblessed on blogspot.

She made up a fake name Tiffany something, and fake family where her fake husband just finished law/dental/business/medical school. Vapid, hilarious Mormon slang... goes back to 2012? Some of it is very funny-giving birth, callings...

They could sum up the article: Ignorance is Bliss.

...Mormons must be freakin' ecstatic."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2015 10:44PM by randyj.

It all comes out of a pill bottle in Utah, methinks.

Ron Burr

I'm calling bull shit on that pretend statistic.

saucie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm calling bull shit on that pretend statistic.


Nope, more than one researcher has concluded this.

I'll look more into it though and ask colleagues...one whose been hired to research mental health issues in that state (I know one in particular!)

See what I can find out.

notinkansas Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> saucie Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I'm calling bull shit on that pretend
> statistic.
>
>
> Nope, more than one researcher has concluded
> this.
>
> I'll look more into it though and ask
> colleagues...one whose been hired to research
> mental health issues in that state (I know one in
> particular!)
>
> See what I can find out.

Thanks... that statistic just doesn't sound right to me

since it is also the state that uses the most antidepressants

in the nation. My sister who is a psychologist also lived

in Utah for a while and coming from California, was shocked

at the amount of fucked up people that live there. Just sayin'.

At the end of her time there she became so depressed from just

dealing with all the mental health issues there she was glad

to get out of there and come back to California.

Utah didn't make the top ten for "well-being":

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/20/well-being-states_n_4810248.html


Utah didn't make top ten for this happiness poll in 2013:

http://www.businessinsider.com/happiest-states-in-america-2014-2


Here it's Hawaii at #1:

http://247wallst.com/special-report/2013/02/28/americas-happiest-and-most-miserable-states/2/


Hawaii #1 in 2012 again (note Utah drops from #4 in 2012 to #12 in 2013 -- was it the Essays?)

http://time.com/9465/here-are-the-50-states-ranked-by-how-happy-their-residents-are/



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2015 12:02AM by thingsithink.

If it isn't Hawaii, you have to wonder what people are thinking. I mean, I love it here in California, but I've been to Hawaii.

That sounds more realistic than Utah.

One word: Denial.

So people who lie habitually and see happiness as a reward for righteousness claim they are happy?

Riiiiiiiight.

"You're happy because we goddamn say you are! Now back to the toilets. They don't clean themselves."

(signed)

The Brethren

Most of us were Mormon once. We know full well that Mormons love to put on the appearance of being almost a little too happy. They even have to appear perfect to one another while they're at church or at a Church function.

What goes on behind closed doors can paint a completely different picture though. But they don't want you to see that.

A Mormon would almost feel like a traitor and that they were not towing the line if they admitted to not being happy. Never admit the truth.

They can say it all they like, but the depression statistics and the use of anti-depressants in Utah tell me a very different story. And once being Mormon myself, they're not fooling me, like they could the rest of their country.

It was encouraged that a church member to be 'delightsome' at all times and your thoughts will be referenced to your judgement.

They aren't necessarily lying to anyone, they are acting under the direction of the church.

Just like they "know the church is true"... Because it is drilled into them that if they don't know it is beczuse of them... It is their fault. They auto lie. So when they take these survays... Are you happy? Oh yes mormons are the happiest people and I am a Mormon... Reality of the facts tell us different... It is just a shallow answer to make mormons look good. Cannot make the church look bad.

Go to sacrament meeting and take a good look around. Does that look like a happy bunch of people to you?

Not in the last ward I was in. I never saw such a depressed, anxious, angry, bunch of people. They were pure misery to be around.

It's fairly easy to lie and say how happy you are. That's the downside of using surveys for research. People fib for all sorts of reasons, including to maintain a positive self image, lol.

Coincidentally, it is also the US State with the most Liars for The Lord.

A few years ago for a company picnic, I bought several packages of mini bungee cords. At the picnic, I took a small bungee cord and hooked one end to the right corner of my mouth, wrapped it around the back of my head, and then hooked it to the left corner of my mouth. The result was an effortless (fake) smile with no smile muscles required. I persuaded several others, including my section manager to don their own smile clips for a group photo.

The look is pretty hilarious as you might imagine. The smile looks totally fake and contrived - totally unnatural - and obviously a facade.

The context for me creating "Smile Clips" was a response to the dismally low employee morale in my company (Hewlett-Packard) at the the time. The whole company felt bummed out by our self-serving CEO (Mark Hurd) who had trashed the executive management core values of Bill and Dave that made HP a great company. Mr. Hurd evolved into treating HP employees as consumables, instead of the company's most precious assets as Bill and Dave had treated their employees.

Employees received propaganda communications from executive management about how 'great' HP was, when we all knew in reality that the company was being run by a self-serving emperor with no clothes who had gutted the company at its core. Regularly scheduled employee surveys delivered dismal ratings to executive management. They responded with "training sessions" designed to help employees give better answers to surveys, and hired expensive consultants to improve employee morale.

HP management desperately wanted employees to be happy even though we were being treated as financial burdens by management. My "Smile Clips" were the answer. Look "happy" for executive management.

=======

TBMs have invisible "Smile Clips" installed by the brainwash. When a TBM does any kind of survey inquiring if they are happy, it's an automatic "YES! Don't you see my smile?" To answer otherwise would be tantamount to saying the Church is not twoo.

=======

I'm happy because the Church is Twoo.
If you join the Church, you can be Twooley Happy too.

Bit of a tangent, but as a weathering engineer, watching HP devolve from THE preeminent tech company of the 80s & 90s, to a wisp of its former self, has been tragic and frustrating to watch. Bain Capital would have been proud of Mr. Hurd. Right out of their playbook was he.

Sorry you had to go through that stress.

My 4 betrayals in life:
- the church
- my first wife
- the GOP
- and, corporate america

Can't trust a fucking thing any of them say to me, ever.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2015 08:22PM by schlock.

I joined HP Medical (Oregon) in 1980 after 6 years at IBM Boulder (fresh out of YBme). I got to personally experience Bill and Dave's amazing company culture where we employees were highly valued ... the LAST thing to be tossed overboard by executive management in a crisis.

It was heartbreaking to feel the company being eaten alive from the inside. Carly and Mark were self-serving jerks who thought nothing of tearing a leg off of a Steinway Grand Piano and tossing it into the wood stove the moment they felt a little chilly. They ended up as "Balloon Pilot CEOs" with employees as ballast. Losing altitude? No problem. Toss out another thousand employees. Problem solved. Zero appreciation for what Bill and Dave spent decades building from scratch on their foundation of authentic core values based on nothing more complicated than the Golden Rule.

===========

A church run by Jesus would have the same core values demonstrated by Bill and Dave. The members would be the most important component of the church. Their temporal and spiritual health and well-being would be the top priority of leadership who actually loves the members ... demonstrating that love by treating and respecting the members as they themselves would appreciate being treated and respected if the roles were reversed.

It's not complicated at all. Couldn't be simpler.

I was so happy the day I finished my last BYU final. I packed my stuff and was driving home to Texas the very next morning.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2015 06:13PM by axeldc.

The profit said to say "I am happy," and obedience is everything so they say they are.
They would say this as they are slitting their wrists in the bathtub or swallowing the pills or loading the gun or whatever.

I don't know many TBM's that don't equate their very personal success with image. There are some that may be more sincere, but generally public appearance means much more than individuality, appreciation for culture and integrity.

In 'City Slicker' Billy Crystal spoke the truth for TBMs:

"It's better to LOOK good than to FEEL good."

I'm not happy