Feeling depressed? Maybe it's because of selfish capitalism.

According to this article in the Guardian, "selfish capitalism" is causing a global epidemic of mental health problems.

Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Oliver James; Selfish capitalism is bad for our mental health

"By far the most significant consequence of "selfish capitalism" (Thatch/Blatcherism) has been a startling increase in the incidence of mental illness in both children and adults since the 1970s. As I report in my book, The Selfish Capitalist - Origins of Affluenza, World Health Organisation and nationally representative studies in the United States, Britain and Australia, reveal that it almost doubled between the early 80s and the turn of the century."

A possible treatment? :)

FreeRice

Granny:hippy:

More like Big Pharma shoving it down everyone's throats, to convince us we all need their fucking meds. Not to mention all the poison in our food, water, air, and radiation from electronically generated radio waves, micro waves, X-rays, mercury in vaccines, and flouride in water.

We're all guilty of this in one way or another. We are consumers and we consume a lot. We just never seem to be happy with what we have.

Weed is all you need.

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Originally Posted by angry nomad

More like Big Pharma shoving it down everyone's throats, to convince us we all need their fucking meds. Not to mention all the poison in our food, water, air, and radiation from electronically generated radio waves, micro waves, X-rays, mercury in vaccines, and flouride in water.

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I couldn't agree with you more, especially about Big Pharma. "You're clinically depressed. So here, take this amphetamine-based anti-depresspant." Also, killerweed, I'd have to agree with you as well. If we stopped consuming it, then they'd have to close it down, or do what we want them to do, to keep their business going. Rarely is there such a thing that is actually evil, but I think Big Pharma is one of those rare phenomenons.

I couldn't really get into the article, and it seems like you needed to know something about the author's definition of "Selfish Capitalism" to understand it --- seems like he makes a distinction between that and other kinds of capitalism, and I wasn't understanding that. But I do think that our runaway consumerism is not making us any happier. Some studies have shown that scientific measures of happiness have not gone up even though we have more material wealth and more consumer goods than we ever have before. I don't know if there is any connection between consumerism and mental illness, but I think there is a certain dissatisfaction with the emptiness of consumersim. And I think there may be some kind of alienation as well. And as we learn more about how degraded our world is becoming from rampant consumerism, we have guilt added to it too. Those things do not add up to happiness and may be a recipe for mental illness.

I think consumerism has just become the way we are without us even thinking about it anymore. Our governemnt encourages it as a way to keep up the economy, and advertising and the media encourage it as a way to boost profits. When we have a feeling of dissatisfaction, we try to buy something to fill the hole. But it doesn't feed us what we need. We hunger for something we have never tasted. We yearn for a place we have never been.

I didn't even need to read the article and I understood it. Selfish and capitalism are synonymous with each other. The needless destruction of the environment for wealth, corporate slavery, war, the spiritual and moral decline of civilisation, it all points towards a complete social breakdown. Sharp increases in mental (and physical) health problems are only the tip of the iceberg. That fact alone is depressing enough.

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Originally Posted by McLeodGanja

I didn't even need to read the article and I understood it. Selfish and capitalism are synonymous with each other. The needless destruction of the environment for wealth, corporate slavery, war, the spiritual and moral decline of civilisation, it all points towards a complete social breakdown. Sharp increases in mental (and physical) health problems are only the tip of the iceberg. That fact alone is depressing enough.

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Well, that's what was confusing to me. He makes a distinction between the "Selfish Capitalism" in America and the UK versus the systems in German, France, Italy, etc. To me they all have essentially a capitalist economic system, so he must have some other kind of factor that makes it "Selfish Capitalism" by his definition. Apparantely not all capitalism is "Selfish Capitalism," and I didn't get far enough into it to find out the difference.