The Pursuit of Happiness

The Geography of Bliss is a New York Times bestseller written by Eric Weiner. In this book the author travels from Athens to Silicon valley and even to places like Bhutan, the chapter I will like to discuss, to see how different places define and pursue happiness. 

Buthan is a place where happiness is a policy, the author mentions that the government measures it success in the inhabitant’s happiness and not how much money has been made, like in most other countries in the world. Before arriving there the author even compares the place to Shangri-La a place invented by James Hilton in his book the Lost Horizon. In overall Buthan is supposed to be the happiest place on earth, but this is not an easy thing to define. Mainly because happiness is an individual thing, what I consider happiness maybe something horrifying to another person. Some people feel that being rich, having a yacht, a big house and a luxurious European car is the best way to be happy. Meanwhile there are people who would be horrified of having so much when there are so much poor people with hunger everyday. It happens the same with Paradise, for me a beautiful beach is the definition of paradise while other people picture a snowy mountain filled with peace on the Himalayas. In conclusion a place like Buthan may be the happiest place on earth, but only for some people, there is no place that encapsulates what is happiness for every person of earth. We have to decide what makes us happy in life and search for it, not follow what other’s dictate what happiness is or where it is. I would like to visit Buthan myself so I can have my own point of view of such a place and then I would really know if it really is the happiest place on earth, for me at least.