Monday, June 1, 2009

Affluenza - The All Consuming Epidemic

I bought Affluenza from Smith's a couple of years ago and I've often been amazed at how relevant it is to life in general. The book is written by John De Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas H. Naylor, and I highly recommend it. Below you can find some information on "affluenza":

Affluenza defined - a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.

Symptoms -
1) Excessive shopping
2) Rising debt
3) High material expectations (i.e. wanting more stuff)
4) Congestion (i.e. clutter clogs home, workplace, and roads)
5) Stress (i.e. no room in life for rest, relaxation, and reflection)
6) Family dysfunction (i.e. people living in houses with one another but not connecting to each other)
7) Dilated pupils (i.e. "gotta have that" mentality; focus on buying and consuming things)
8) Community chills (i.e. choose things over people)
9) Ache for meaning
10) Social scars (i.e. gap between rich and poor widens)
11) Resource exhaustion
12) Industrial diarrhea (i.e. toxic production byproducts)
13) Addiction (i.e. drugs, coffee, alcohol, smoking, gambling, shopping, etc)
14) Dissatisfaction guaranteed

If you believe you have "affluenza", there is still time to treat your ailment and recover. The following is what the book suggests to treat the disease:

1) Bed rest (i.e. take time to reassess your life)
2) Aspirin and chicken soup (i.e. get a support group and simplify)
3) Fresh air (i.e. get back to nature for entertainment; go outside)
4) Medicine (i.e. work on becoming environmentally friendly)
5) Back to work (i.e. become involved in your community)

Once you've been treated, you need to work on preventing a re-lapse of the disease through:

1) Vaccinations and vitamins (such as participating in a buy nothing day, using credit card condoms, and teaching your children to be responsible)
2) Political prescriptions (i.e. get involved in the political process)
3) Annual check-ups (i.e. reassess your life on a regular basis)

3 comments:

Valinda said...

I love you, you should spend more time in bed with me.

Karen Valinda said...

I love you too, but am not sure how much reassessing you will get done if Ddonn is in bed with you... however it would be relaxing and you would be connecting with a very important family member.
I will get Brent to read this tomorrow... I think he would be interested in the book.
xoxoxox

Emily said...

What a great book! Thanks for sharing!