Re: BOS political compass scatterplot
Ah my friend. Your view is one that is expressed by many people who have not lived an authoritarian childhood. I do believe it would be necessary for you to live a life where your choices are severely limited before you could pass judgement on this.
Whilst there is a correlation between health & happiness, experience shows that you don't have to be at the absolute peak of physical health and wellbeing to be happy. Sure, if you're fat, have lung disease, have suffered a stroke and are anaemic, it would make life much less enjoyable. For most people though, a hamburger and large fries here doesn't send them into misery.
I've lost many people to disease (some which are very recent) and tragedy; I've lost many people due to political turmoil, but that hardly means I'm going to stop advocating free choice. Rather, I will continue to advocate the education of the public so they can make better decisions. I cannot put the blame on a "lazy" or "inefficient" government that my grandmother died of diabetes. Nay, she died because she did not part with her baklava and chocolate.
Such self indulgent behaviours made her happy; as they make most people happy. Having choice is an amazing, wondrous thing. Sure, a communist government forcing health down my throat would give me a longer life... unless I decided to commit suicide first.
Ultimately I think that a MODERATE state of health, a high standard of mental development and freedom are the key factors of happiness. I don't think humans are ever happy when they are controlled.