Demos Helsinki teaches Brazilians to be happy | Roope Mokka and Simo Vassinen | TEDxAmazônia

Demos Helsinki is a Finnish independent think tank engaged in creating a new model of democracy. It published a manifesto which advocates the adoption of a "politics of happiness": a new kind of government devoted to making people happier.

So, every one of us
is in pursuit of happiness.

And it's also a great relief to realize

that a happy life is actually
a sustainable life.

We're standing here today,

in the middle of the Amazon,
with a message of hope.

We're saying that Brazil
has all the possibilities in the world

to become a true superpower of happiness.

Now, I want you all to, please,
close your eyes.

Can you please close your eyes

and think of the last time
you were really happy.

Try and visualize it,
see what's going on around you.

What are you doing?

What are the smells?

See it with your mind's eye.

Has everyone got some sort
of picture of a moment

in which they were really happy?

Brilliant!

Now, you can open your eyes

and if you were in company
of other people,

please, put your hand up, raise your hand.

This is the point of our presentation.

- I guess we can go now.
- Yeah, that's pretty much it. (Laughter)

OK, maybe we'll run through
a couple of more slides.

This is the magic formula
that we've been working on.

There are two really
interesting scientific findings

that we, as a team, have been working
really hard to understand better.

First of all, for some reason,

we are incredibly bad in knowing
what makes us happy.

Secondly, we are constantly
overusing our natural resources

and, essentially,
we're stealing from the future.

So, from this equation of happiness

within the ecological limits of the planet,

was born our journey
into the politics of happiness.

So, on the journey,

we put together
a great amount of research,

ranging from psychology to neuroscience,

to different behavioral studies,
life cycle assessments,

urban studies, you name it.

And, the final question remains:

How can we, as the global humankind,

live happily with
as little impact as possible?

But let's first ask:
What is happiness?

Happiness is essentially action

that takes place between people.

Right.

It is action between people.

It's important to understand
that happiness

is not a passive state of mind.

It's a process.

It's something you engage with.

It's not something you can give,
or store, or buy, or sell.

It's something you build.

If you look at the studies on happiness,

there are three fundamental observations
on human nature

that we constantly run into.

First of all, we, as humans,
are social animals.

We tend to compare ourselves
to other people,

we live in constant comparison.

And, if you say you don't do this,
you're a liar.

The second point is that
we get used to changes

very easily, very quickly;

good ones, bad ones, positive, negative.

We adapt, very quickly.

And the third point
is that it's truly impossible

to become happy alone.

It just doesn't happen.

So, these three are the essential findings

that you have to think about
when dealing with happiness.

Two really interesting things
happened in the late 1950s.

Firstly, we started attacking
the problem of overconsumption --

sorry, overproduction -- by trying
to sell things to people based on

their subconscious desires, rather than
their rational and conscious needs.

Second, an even more
interesting thing happened,

which was that in the US, the growth
in GDP stopped contributing

to the amount of very happy
American citizens.

Interestingly enough, this has then
happened in all wealthy countries.

And even more interestingly,

this happens with individuals as well.

As soon as we hit the median wage,

any salary rise will contribute
to our happiness

for a matter of months.

It's difficult to believe
that's how it is.

And, what has changed since 1957?
Not much.

We're still striving for happiness

by trying to increase
our capacity to consume,

which is like wetting yourself
on a cold winter day:

the warm feeling
doesn't stay for too long.

OK, so let's get political.
What are we talking about?

From the basis of happiness studies,

we can come up with five realms
for politics of happiness.

And these are truly the five topics

that need to be promoted
by political actions as well.

Politics of happiness,

we're talking about politics
of real free time,

politics of meaningful places,

politics of cooperation,

politics of healthy lifestyles

and finally, politics of open families.

Real free time. What is real free time?

Currently, we spend --

we split our time between
making money and spending money

and trying to fit family
somewhere into this equation,

which is sometimes referred to
as the work-life balance.

So, you may ask yourself,
where is the real free time?

Real free time, however, isn't slow life,
or slow food, or slow travel.

It can be really hectic.

It's deep engagement into things that are
free from the necessities of home,

free from the necessities of production,

free from the necessities of consumption.

It's very deep and it's very open.

Happiness, like we said, is an activity

that takes place between people.

And it also always happens
in a certain space.

If you think about our current spaces,

they are often not very good.

Spaces that we create actually
limit our engagement with other people,

both our current public
and private spaces.

We either run into people

that are very similar
to ourselves all the time,

or the other option is that we get
bumped into people by force,

that we don't want to bump into.

So, then...

You know, if you want
to add to this concept of...

the two concepts
of public and private space,

we actually are desperately
seeking a third space.

What could that mean?

Places where people can engage
in meaningful activities with other people

that actually might have
a different background from us.

So, for now, we've been seeking...
as you can see in the photo,

we've been seeking meaning
from bigger homes,

bigger cars, more cars, home spas,
home theaters, home gyms.

And sadly, becoming wealthy has actually
isolated us from other people.

So, this is the true challenge
to public space.

As we now are able to adjust
our homes to our liking,

we should be able to adjust
public spaces as well.

It's our right.

Politics of cooperation.

You know, human beings
are wonderful beings.

We're really happy

when we can take part in common decisions.

And we're really happy
when we can guide our own lives.

And the research even shows
that the happiest ones of us

are people who recognize
some sort of goal outside themselves.

So, how come we still spend
most of our time

producing what other people tell us to do

and not freely work with each other
for a common good?

Yes, there are examples, like Wikipedia,

of this type of production.

But what we need to do is make it

into a mainstream way of production.

What we need to do is create societies

the same way we create Wikipedia.

If you look at the graph
on the left-hand side,

the blue column shows the top 20 countries

with the longest life expectancy
in the world.

And the red line in the middle

shows the amount
of spending on healthcare

in these countries.

So, if you look at the graph,

it's quite fair to see
that the two are completely unrelated.

Health is fundamentally
a cultural phenomenon

and it's all about how we live,
how we eat,

how we move around

and spend our [free] time
making different choices.

We really need to start understanding
what motivates people's choices

and think about how we can
build healthy routines

that make those into healthy lifestyles.

On the right-hand side,
you see a very easy choice

that we tend to make.

So, how can we make those healthy choices,

the sustainable choices, the easy ones,

the inspiring ones,
the most accessible ones?

Because, for now,
it's often quite the opposite.

The concept of family
needs to be redefined.

Most marriages end up breaking up

and most couples are happiest
before their first child is born.

Still, it's precisely
the type of relationships

that one sees in a family, that are
the very building blocks of happiness.

They are relationships based on sharing,

rather than transactions or hierarchies.

So, what we need to do is we need
to be able to extend this realm of sharing

that is familiar to us from families,
and create an open family.

OK, so let's imagine we are
a new political party,

one that focuses on happiness
and one-planet living.

So it's election time.
So, what's on the agenda?

Well, a whole lot.
You can see a whole lot of examples.

Just imagine if we taxed unused space
in cities, just for being idle,

and imagine if schools could actually
become centers of society

where people going to work would be
in the same building as their kids,

or combining elderly homes
with kindergartens

and maybe with immigration centers.

Or imagine if there was a national
time fund to boost volunteer activity.

You know, you would get extra credit,
you would get days off at your workplace

if you spent some hours doing
volunteer service in your free time.

So why do we say that Brazil
can be a superpower of happiness?

It's quite simple.
Have a look at this graph.

Here, on the right-hand side
are the richest countries in the world

and here on top are
the happiest countries in the world.

And Brazil is right here.

So, Brazil is at the crossroads.

You can have a choice.

How to develop this country?

You can either go this way,

which means that you produce and consume,

and consume more of the natural resources
that make the planet work;

or you can go the hard way:

you can go political and you can aim
for happiness directly, not via GDP.

How?

Brazil, like a lot of the developing
countries, has got walls between people.

The most severe one of them
is the class system:

rich remain rich and poor remain poor.

And this is maintained mainly
by the education system.

There are different schools for rich kids

and different schools for poor kids.

And it's renewed in public spaces,

in the employment market and at work.

These types of walls are holding you back

from becoming the superpower of happiness.

So that's basically it.

Tear down the walls
of separation between people

and that's the way to make Brazil
a superpower of happiness.

(Brazilian Portuguese)
You won't be happy alone.

Happiness is a meaningful action
between people.

Making these meetings
with different people possible

is the way to a lively,
powerful, and happy society.

(Applause)