Well, what exactly should anyone say. If someone asks me offlist, what am I supposed to say to them, "Well, my life pretty much sucks."
To which the other person will likely tell me any number of things such as,
"You are a great person, blah blah. Don't let everything get to you. Chin up." "You don't suck. It's a bad situation. Things will look up."
Something like that.
Or, they will silently think their thoughts, "Man, too bad she can't get her ass out of the self-imposed sling. She's probably be a lot happier."
"Well, she probably sucks b/c of the bad attitude."
"What a self-absorbed person. Maybe that's the problem!"
Or, just silence. Who wants to join in a pity party?
And on and on. So, we train each other to respond in a perennially upbeat manner. To do otherwise, will elicit a chorus of protestations, advice to cheer up, pointed at people who's lives are worse, anger, silence, or patronizing pity indicating that the other person does see you at fault such as talk of "paying of your karmic debt" or some such bull shit.
I mean, after all, social structure just doesn't operate behind our backs does it?
[from The Nation's Pulse, a weekly column by Gallup ed-in-chief Frank Newport]
Personal Happiness
Americans' tendency to rate local aspects of various issues more positively than they do national aspects of the same issues has long fascinated social scientists. Local schools are rated more positively than schools across the country, personal healthcare is rated more positively than the nation's healthcare system in general, and congressional representatives from one's local district are rated more positively than "most members of Congress."
Nowhere is this more evident than in the comparison of Americans' ratings of their satisfaction with the way their personal lives are going and their ratings of the way things are going in general across the United States.
Satisfaction with the way things are going in the United States is now at 35%. As Assistant Gallup Poll Editor Joe Carroll wrote in a recent analysis: "Satisfaction was highest in February 1999, when 71% of Americans said they were satisfied and 26% said they were dissatisfied. The low point for this measure came in July 1979 -- only 12% of Americans were satisfied at that time, while more than 8 in 10 adults (84%) were dissatisfied." So, that's a range of 59 percentage points in general satisfaction over the last quarter-century.
But it's a vastly different situation when we ask Americans this question: "In general, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in your personal life at this time?" to which 85% of Americans respond affirmatively.
There has been little change in this personal satisfaction measure over time. The highest level recorded since Gallup first began asking this question in 1979 was 88% in December 2003. The lowest reading was 73% in July 1979. That's a range of only 15 percentage points, compared with the aforementioned 59-point spread in the national satisfaction measure.