Our Cities Are Killing Us
Quite a report, and an clearly drawn indictment of the true costs of modern consumerism.
Think of it as a vast experiment in human biology. Put millions of people in a limited space, then crank a few levers: increase the hours they work, and increase the distance they have to travel; tempt them with material goods but undermine their sense of security about the future; allow them almost unlimited access to food, but subtly direct their choice by making grease and sugar most accessible. See what happens.
The results are nearly in. Half a century of postwar growth - driven by escalating production, and flavoured by hard-core consumption and mass migration to cities - is yielding a consistent global pattern.
The population’s physical health is starting to degrade. The body, overfed and under-exercised, stacks on weight; those extra kilograms turn on their owners, unlocking diabetes, kidney disease and cancers from a genome that evolved with little experience of carrying fat. Psychiatric illness increases as unbarred competition between individuals excludes and denigrates the more vulnerable.
Weight gain, says Dr Michael Booth, is a physical portrait of consumerism, an externalisation of our value system. “We do need to do something about ‘I will give myself pleasure whenever and however I please and not think about the consequences,”‘ he says. “It’s a problem that comes with greater and greater wealth. We see the world as the range of things available to us. Virtually anything is there for the taking. We’ve lost the notion that we should be denied anything.”
