Part One

If there’s one book I’m going to read this year, it’s Affluenza by Oliver James (a British Psychologist). It’s been out for a couple of years now and I’d noticed it in the press and read reviews … but it wasn’t until this week when I listened to a programme on Radio 4 where the author was being interviewed about the book – that I realised just how relevant it is for 2009. So it’s time I read it.

The book’s title is a combination of Affluent and Influenza – and the title sets the scene for the analysis of today’s society, where there is an epidemic of excessive wealth seeking. Too high a value is constantly placed on the value of possessions, money itself and physical appearance, causing people to judge themselves and the worth of others based entirely on financial and material success, or looks. This “Keeping up with the Joneses” is a highly contagious and socially transmitted disease, fueled by advertising of all sorts … and it’s is incredibly destructive.

For most people, the energy and drive required to sustain the payments on a bigger mortgage to keep a larger house than is needed, or to pay the loans on a newer, faster car, or to buy the latest high-tec flat screen television, or designer clothes etc – is unsustainable. Then there is the desire for plastic surgery that so many people of today seem to think will make them feel happier or more fulfilled … GET REAL! The debt, anxiety, and stress caused by the financial overload of achieving these things, far outweighs the benefits of the possessions and often leads to exhausture and depression. One only has to read the papers to know that high profile wealthy bankers and stock brokers are committing suicide or dropping like flies at the mere thought of losing their wealth. It’s as if losing their money and the prestige that goes with it, makes them feel so worthless that they do not see themselves as fit to be living. What’s this all about? What has happened to our society? How come people who have never been anything but poor, still value themselves and feel life is worth living? As a society, we have a lot to learn from them.

James suggests that we should focus on NEEDS instead of perceived wants, and on BEING rather than possessions - because in the long run economic success and the possessions that go with it, are unfulfilling in and of themselves. And I have to admit I agree.

Of course, we all NEED a roof over our head, and we NEED enough money to pay our essential bills and we NEED enough money to buy food and eat – and many of us do NEED transport (of sorts) to get to work etc. But what we don’t need is a new flashy car every year, a bigger and better home every couple of years, or a wardrobe stuffed with designer clothes that only serve to accentuate that we lack the occasions to wear them. And no amount of clothes or possessions can make up for an empty unfulfilling life. And what women (or man) ever truly found that having a nose job, or a nip or tuck, ever really made their life happier?

So in 2009 – I’m going to read this book and then focus on needs and being. I will be satisfied with enough income to meet my obligations,  the same old car and house I already have, and the clothes already hanging in my wardrobe. I won’t be putting my tired old body through any nips or tucks or having any uplifts, downlifts or any other type of non-essential surgery! I’m not going to get sucked into consumerism and the social anxiey that follows it around. I am going to BE (see my Photo Friday new year video). I am going to enjoy nature, the landscape and animals – I’m going to write and paint and read and take photographs and enjoy the fulfillment this brings. I’m going to spend precious time with my friends and family and revel in that we all are currently in good health.  And in today’s Credit-Crunch society - I don’t think I’ll be the only one giving Affluenza the elbow for good; do you?

How about you?

Part Two

Part Three

There are 3 further episodes on You Tube (if you’re interested) – go to You Tube and search for Affluenza.