I like what the School of Life is trying to do – bringing philosophy, wisdom and broader thought into our daily lives. Indeed, Life Squared shares a similar aim in much of its work. Where we differ (apart from size, finances etc!) is that Life Squared is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to offer its
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I went to an interesting talk at the RSA today by James Wallman who has just published a book called ‘Stuffocation’. His basic argument was that in the society of scarcity of around a generation ago, what mattered in life was having more stuff – i.e. in a society of scarcity, materialism is not a
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I had a much-needed day off recently and decided to visit a few places in London – like the London Library (wonderful) and Westminster Abbey (claustrophobic in its conservativism). I ended up at the Westfield shopping centre at Shepherd’s Bush to meet a friend for dinner before going to a gig, and I had to
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My dislike of advertising grows stronger by the day – partly because of the corrosive and limiting effect it can have on people’s lives, worldviews and aspirations, but also partly because of the insulting, manipulative rubbish that the industry continues to pump out. Take this new McDonald’s ad for example – peddling the idea that
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It’s bad form I’m sure to put a second consecutive post from the same person but Charlie Brooker does know how to skewer the shallowness and depressing nature of advertising with some humour – certainly better than me ranting angrily about it for several lines! Here is his article about the glut of ’emotional’ xmas
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Great article by Charlie Brooker in today’s Guardian about the repugnant practice of advertising to kids, and how consumerism is finding new ways to enter our lives.
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A few months ago I wrote about the highly questionable presence of Bounty packs in maternity wards (see this post for a reminder) and the unpleasant form of ‘captive consumerism’ they seem to enforce on new parents. In the last week the Independent has also covered this issue in an article that explains more of
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Here’s our new, improved summary of the social need for Life Squared and what the organisation does to address it… Click here to download the summary.
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It’s been a while since my last post because of a particularly busy period of work and the arrival of a new member of the Docwra household. The process of having a child has opened a door to a whole new world that many non-parents may be unaware of – and consumerism seems to have
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This article in the Business section of the New York Times is interesting, as it illustrates the difficulty that the mainstream media still have in coming to terms with the idea that living simply and buying less can make one happy. There are glimmers of clarity in the article – for example, the opening paragraphs
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