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Quote by Jeremy Seabrook

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What Went Wrong?: Why Hasn't Having More Made People Happier?

Written by a renowned economist, the book examines the relationship between wealth and well-being, analyzing various economic, social, and psychological factors. It challenges conventional wisdom and offers insights into the complexities of human happiness. more

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Jeremy Seabrook
Jeremy Seabrook

Jeremy Seabrook is a British journalist renowned for his in-depth reporting on Asia, particularly South Asia. His career spans over half a century and covers a range of topics including politics, society, and economics. Seabrook's work often focuses on issues in developing countries, particularly in India and Pakistan. more

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“The modern child may early in his or her existence have natural inclinations toward spirituality. The child may have imagination, originality, a simple and individual response to reality, and even a tendency to moments of thoughtful silence and absorption. All these tendencies, however, are soon destroyed by the dominant culture. The child becomes a yelling, brash, false little monster, brandishing a toy gun or dressed up like some character he has seen on television.”

MayChildrenLittlesMomentsCharacterRealityCultureSpiritualityIndividualImaginationNaturalSimpleExistenceSilenceModernTelevisionGunResponseMonstersTendenciesDestroyedThoughtfulOriginalityToysConsumerismDominantInclinationYellingOverconsumptionDressed UpAbsorptionBrashDominant CultureToy Guns
Author:Thomas Merton
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“The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere. The bourgeoisie has, through its exploitation of the world market, given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To the great chagrin of reactionaries, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood.”

WorldNeedsCountryCharacterGivenFeetProductsIndustryConnectionsProductionsSurfaceSettlingConsumptionExploitationGlobesConsumerismExpandingOverconsumptionReactionariesBourgeoisieChagrin
Author:Karl Marx
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“The philosophers of industrialism, from Bacon to Bentham, from Smith to Marx, insisted that the improvement of man's condition was the highest requirement of morality. But in what did the improvement consist? The answer seemed so obvious to them that they did not bother to justify it: the expansion and fulfillment of the material wants of man, and the spread of these benefits, from the few who had once preempted them, to the many who had so long lived on the scraps Dives had thrown into the gutter.”

MenWantLongAnswersConditionsHe ManMaterialsMoralityBenefitsHighestPhilosopherObviousSpreadImprovementBotherFulfillmentThrownJustifyConsumerismExpansionRequirementsScrapOverconsumptionGutters
Author:Lewis Mumford
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“We have lost the power even of imagining what the ancient idealization of poverty could have meant: the liberation from material attachments, the unbribed soul, the manlier indifference, the paying our way by what we are and not by what we have, the right to fling away our life at any moment irresponsibly - the more athletic trim, in short, the moral fighting shape.”

WaySoulMomentsFightingLostMoralPovertyOur LivesMaterialsShapesAncientLiberationIndifferenceAttachmentConsumerismAthleticOverconsumptionFling
Book:The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature
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“The religion and the environmentalism of the highly industrialized countries are at bottom a sham, because they make it their business to fight against something that they do not really wish to destroy. We all live by robbing nature, but our standard of living demands that the robbery shall continue. We must achieve the character and acquire the skills to live much poorer than we do.”

CountryCharacterFightingWishAchieveSkillsDemandStandardsBottomAcquireLive ByConsumerismEnvironmentalismOverconsumptionStandards Of LivingRobberyRobbing
Book:What Are People For?: Essays
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“We must waste less. We must do more for ourselves and for each other. It is either that or continue merely to think and talk about changes that we are inviting catastrophe to make. The great obstacle is simply this: the conviction that we cannot change because we are dependant on what is wrong. But that is the addict's excuse, and we know that it will not do.”

ThinkingKnowsWasteConvictionExcuseObstaclesConsumerismCatastropheAddictInvitingOverconsumption
Book:What Are People For?: Essays
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“By the same token, frozen dinners, a microwave oven, a dishwasher, and an illegal immigrant hired to clean the house and take one's cat to the vet would have seemed like the epitome of materialism in another time, but now provide the only means available for two-career couples to work hard enough at their jobs to earn the salaries they need to pay for those labor-saving amenities.”

NeedsMeanTwoHardEnoughJobsHousePayCareersHard WorkCoupleLaborCatCleanAvailableDinnerSavingImmigrantsMaterialismIllegalConsumerismFrozenSalaryOverconsumptionTokensOvensIllegal ImmigrantsAnother TimeEpitomeVetsMicrowavesDishwashersAmenities
Author:Robert Wuthnow
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“The world has proclaimed the reign of freedom, especially of late, but what do we see in this freedom of theirs? Nothing but slavery and self-destruction! For the world says: "You have desires and so satisfy them, for you have the same rights as the most rich and powerful. Don't be afraid of satisfying them and even multiply your desires."”

WorldSelfDesirePowerfulRichRightsLateDestructionSlaverySatisfyingConsumerismReignSelf DestructionOverconsumption
Book:GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD
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“Their property held them in chains...chains which shackled their courage and choked their faith and hampered their judgment and throttled their soul...If they stored up their treasure in heaven, they would not now have an enemy and a thief within their own household...They think of themselves as owners, whereas it is they rather who are owned: enslaved as they are to their own property, they are not the masters of their money but its slaves.”

IfsThinkingSoulHeavenEnemyMastersJudgmentPropertySlaveTreasureChainsOwnersThievesHouseholdConsumerismOverconsumptionTreasures In Heaven
Author:Cyprian
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