In the surveys that measure people's happiness, decent government is as important as education, income and health (all of which are themselves dependent on government).To business, government can make an enormous difference.
The same duplicity of levels is evident in the way Cardano examines the notion of "tranquillity," which represents the highest point in one's virtuous behaviour: one type of tranquillity is premised on the attainment of a certain level of "honorable and moderate pleasure," the other secures a decent degree of happiness "even in the greatest calamities" (Theonoston, OO, II, 310b).
Nordenfelt takes us far by defining health as the abilities to achieve vital goals that lead to minimal happiness or minimally decent life.
When asked to share their three little wishes, most people might mention happiness; the dream home, a decent job.
Farrah Rochon's delightful Chase Me (Nicobar, ebook) is lighter romance fare — a joyful tale of two decent people who deserve a chance at happiness.
The plot is unashamedly formulaic: girl meets dashing, on-the-rise chef; chef breaks girl's heart; chef fails miserably while girl finds happiness with the boring but decent guy who was there all along.
Not bountifully so, to be sure, but enough to convey — tidily upbeat ending and all — that goodness can prevail over evil and that decent folks can have a chance at happiness.
Mass media and popular culture typically represent rural lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people as out of place: isolated or alienated individuals who must seek out belonging in an urban elsewhere to find happiness – or, at least, a decent dating pool.
To undermine that argument would entail going back and objecting to Nordenfelt's reasoning about health as being able to realize goals necessary and sufficient for minimal happiness; that is, a minimally flourishing, decent, non-humiliating life in the modern world.
Perhaps the secret of happiness, for you, is just a decent-ish partner and an OK house?
