Why Are We So Miserable? Mikko Ketovuori Surfs on the Waves of History to Explain Social Mood Swings

Andrew Keen (0:00)

Hello, my name is Andrew Keen. Welcome to Keen On America, the daily interview show about the United States.

Hello, everybody. It is Wednesday, the 9th of September, 2026 And as always, it seems these days, the news is bad. The New York Times report that Iran is preparing to escalate the war with the United States. Wall Street Journal reports on oil hitting $100 for the first time for a couple of months. Meanwhile, all sorts of other monstrous floods happening around the world.

The BBC reports on the rise of the far right party, the AFD in Germany, and The Washington Post, in anticipation of the 25th anniversary of 9-11 on Friday, reports that cancer's toll on 9-11 survivors is accelerating 25 years later. It seems as always that the news is bad. We live in miserable times, most people take for granted. But I'm not sure that's the view of my guest today. Mikko Ketovuori is a Finnish academic and writer, and the author of an intriguing new book, Waves of Change, A Study of Social Mood. Mikko wrote the introduction to the Finnish version of The Internet Is Not the Answer, one of my books from a few years ago, so I thought it would be an interesting opportunity for him to lay out his theory of history. He is talking to us from Turku, the old capital of Finland. Mikko, why these days does everyone assume that the news is bad, that the world seems to be coming to an end?

Mikko Ketovuori (2:19)

Well, you know, from my point of view, news is just an other sociometer. It means that it reflects the time. It's not necessary that we pick up the best news if the social mood is negative.

For example, in 1980s, the social mood was so bright that perhaps when you compare these different decades, you may know that the news were much better at that time.

Andrew Keen (2:58)

I know you wrote a book a couple of years ago laying out your theory of history. How does it work? I mean, your new book is full of references to all the great philosophers of historians of the past, from Hegel to Marx. But what's your version? What are you saying that hasn't been said before about how to interpret history?

Mikko Ketovuori (3:24)

Well, social mood drives the events, is the basic core claim of Socionomics.

Andrew Keen (3:32)

Right. And this book that you came out with a couple of years ago is called Socionomics, How Social Mood Shapes Society. So you've got this theory, Mikko, of social mood. What does that mean?

Mikko Ketovuori (3:47)

It means social mood is the collectively shared, largely unconscious feeling that fluctuates behind the daily life all the time. And normally we think that the events affect our feelings, but it's the other way around. So the social mood gives us the frame, the context in which we make our own interpretations, what is going on in the world right now.

Andrew Keen (4:22)

So social mood, which, as you say, is borrowed from your socionomics. But what does that mean? I mean, where do we get that from? Where does it originate?

Mikko Ketovuori (4:32)

Well, it's a combination of two words, sociology and economics. And the father of this idea is Robert Prechter from Gainesville, Georgia. And he was a Wall Street guru in 1970s. And he has a Elliott Wave International that is the largest market prediction company in the world. And they have been in the field like 40 years.

And I'd been working like 20 years with them. And I studied all the practice writings and some other writings as well. And I put it in one book, a very short book.

So it's not totally my idea.

Andrew Keen (5:20)

Well, claiming you can have it for you. It doesn't really matter where it originates from. But so, OK, let's let's talk about 2026 As I said at the beginning, I mean, newspapers are always full of bad news, even in the best of times. But why, Mikko, is everybody so miserable these days? You could make a compelling case that we're on the verge of a remarkable technological revolution with AI. We've only got another year and a half, two years of Donald Trump.

Global warming is a bad thing, but it nonetheless, certainly, I'm guessing, cheers up places like Finland in the winter. Why are we so miserable these days?

Mikko Ketovuori (6:06)

Well, eventually, the first thing I have to say is that social mood is negative at the moment. But it's a kind of invitation to people not to just reflect the outside world, but they should be looking for more, really asking themselves that what is going inside of me. And perhaps starting to use their own mind, if you like, saying this.