Shiny Happy People

I was thinking about Shiny Happy People on my just completed trip of SF-Frankfurt-Paris-Helsinki-Paris-London-New York-SF (though two of the stops were just transiting). When I was in Stockholm and on the way to the airport, I had a talkative woman Swedish taxi driver who was just about the happiest person I have ever met. By the time I got to the airport, I knew that she was 60, felt she was overweight, her oldest daughter was 37 and had another daughter that was 30. It struck me that with her near perfect english and “just” being a taxi driver, she was happy with her lot in life, was worldly and was just plain happy. Later that night, when I was having a “Shiny Happy Fit of Rage” (see separate post and reference to Juno), I was wondering why is it that we can get so angry and so quickly over life’s indignities, and why she doesn’t?

Any on a trivia note, here’s an abbreviated Wiki post on the song’s meaning:

“Shiny Happy People” is a song by the band R.E.M. It appeared on their 1991 album Out of Time and was released as a single in the same year. The song features guest backing vocals by Kate Pierson of the B-52′s who also has a prominent role in the song’s music video. The song is supposedly an ironic reference to a piece of roughly translated Chinese propaganda; and the massacre in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, two years before the song was released.^[1] The inference apparently relates to how politics is controlled by those with kids in powerful positions, not idealistic revolting unhappy students on the ground in Tiananmen Square. The idea that propaganda is often used to cover up stark weaknesses in political systems. The song is mockingly played to encourage unknown political candidates to be upbeat even under fire.