OK, this is lazy blogging I know, just referencing other reports, but work doesn't officially begin till tomorrow (by which I mean later today, it being nearly 2am, and before you start, I've actually just been doing emails).
The Indy on Sunday had a report on 'new buzzwords' for 2009. Some of my favourites:
"Junior moment: Flip-side of a senior moment. Can be committed by adults, with a sudden lapse into immaturity; or by youth, displaying the lack of thoughtfulness, sense or self-preservation we oldies associate with them."
"Edible estates: Phrase coined by US campaigner Fritz Haeg for digging up your lawn and growing in its place something you can eat. After all, we did it in the war, when the Dig For Victory campaign increased the land used for food production by 80 per cent. For examples, see any traditional cottage garden, or back yards in Switzerland, Italy, France, Germany – where grass is for sport or ruminants, not something to be made a fetish of."
"Eco-embedded: The idea that business and government adopts eco-friendly practices that leave the consumer no choice. A ban on plastic shopping bags, for instance, or other plastic-free zones (such as a shopping centre in Balgowlah, New South Wales), carbon emission laws, or 'green' credit cards where consumers pay a little extra to offset the carbon cost of their purchase."
"Enoughism: The creed that holds that we over-consume, amass far too much "stuff" that only ever provides a fleeting pleasure, and ought to cry "Enough!". Experts like John Naish and Oliver James argue this incessant acquisitiveness leads to dissatisfaction that can develop into mental illness. Been around for a while, but fast gaining currency."
"Enoughism: The creed that holds that we over-consume, amass far too much "stuff" that only ever provides a fleeting pleasure, and ought to cry "Enough!". Experts like John Naish and Oliver James argue this incessant acquisitiveness leads to dissatisfaction that can develop into mental illness. Been around for a while, but fast gaining currency."
"Unplugging: Technological wing of the above, where someone realises that the time they spend online, on the mobile, curating the Facebook page, etc, is no substitute for living. So they put themselves on a digital diet, and possibly even cultivate an interest in things without keypads. Like other people. What we all need, probably, are more islands of tranquillity, or thinking time, as it used to be known."
2 comments:
All of which (bar the first) are a sign that something is terribly, terribly wrong. When a society adopts austerity as an ideal rather than as a curse to be suffered until better times, then we can be sure that it has gone at least slightly, and probably severely, mad.
The word "puritan" is perjorative for a reason. People in the past who suffered under those who suffered out of choice, who took a perverse pleasure in suffering, understood only too well what a horror such societies are. The miserable mantra of temperance- "nothing naughty at all, and only a little even of the incontrovertibly good, lest it inflame the passions"- is a quiet, creeping evil sans pareil.
I weep for the world we are making.
i have majorly "unplugged" in the last few months. kerry, you're going the other way :-)
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