Goodbye Thatcher, Goodbye Reagan ... the last thrust of the Industrial age neo-liberal mindset of individualistic, lonely, over-rationalistic, unrealistic sociopathic societies, sick individuals and a sick planet. Welcome the the Information age, the new age of Sustainability - the Great Global Awakening! This article asks - Where are we running and why are we running there so fast? Look more closely at the image of heroic hard-workers: holding down more than one low-income job and working anti-social hours so they can support their families who they barely have the time to see in the context of rising living costs and stagnating wages; and it begins to look a lot like exploitation. Look further up the income scale and hard-work takes on a different meaning: Even in recession, for those on higher incomes working hard has a lot to do with consumption and status. Working – as Tim Jackson, Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey, has said – “to spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need to create impressions that won’t last on people we don’t care about”. Or, put another way, “working long hours to earn money to buy stuff that’s made and used in ways that inflict profound and irreversible damage on the ecosystem on which all life depends.”
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 23:17:33 +0000
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