A review by msy
The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being by William Davies
3.0
In the age of data breaches and news articles detailing how apps are constantly spying on us, the length to which government and marketing firms will go to to be able to determine the attitudes of their citizens or potential buyers is no surprise.
The information in this book shines a light on how much of what we are sold - ways to reduce stress, ways to combat depression, how to maximize happiness - are all products and services solving problems that weren't even named until fairly recently. One example from the book: the term stress existed only to describe physical forces acting upon metals, and was not applied to describe a force or state of the human psyche until early in the 20th century.
Reading this leads one to be mindful of the many artificial ways we are sold happiness. Hopefully it also leads to clairvoyance, for those who require it, on how to truly work towards that happiness that doesn't require buying a product/service or ingesting a pill.
The information in this book shines a light on how much of what we are sold - ways to reduce stress, ways to combat depression, how to maximize happiness - are all products and services solving problems that weren't even named until fairly recently. One example from the book: the term stress existed only to describe physical forces acting upon metals, and was not applied to describe a force or state of the human psyche until early in the 20th century.
Reading this leads one to be mindful of the many artificial ways we are sold happiness. Hopefully it also leads to clairvoyance, for those who require it, on how to truly work towards that happiness that doesn't require buying a product/service or ingesting a pill.