The Curse of Aspiration
An eye-opening column by George Monbiot. He beautifully trashes aspiration by lifting the lid on the horrible, futile, unsatisfying, pre-determined lives of the elite.
In the cause of self-advancement, we are urged to sacrifice our leisure, our pleasures and our time with partners and children, to climb over the bodies of our rivals and to set ourselves against the common interests of humankind. And then? We discover that we have achieved no greater satisfaction than that with which we began.
In 1653, Izaak Walton described in the Compleat Angler the fate of “poor-rich men”, who “spend all their time first in getting, and next in anxious care to keep it; men that are condemned to be rich, and then always busie or discontented”. Today this fate is confused with salvation.
Finish your homework, pass your exams, spend your 20s avoiding daylight, and you too could live like the elite. But who in their right mind would want to?
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About Robert Wringham
Robert Wringham is the editor of New Escapologist. He also writes books and articles. Read more at wringham.co.uk
Aspiration is the propaganda used by Osborne to turn young people into future capitalists. The young people absorb the propaganda and join the rat race to own material things. WHy does the government care? because they receive tax chunks on pretty much everything associated with aspiration – stamp duty, capital expenses, consumer products etc……….
That’s it, yeah. Though in recent years I’ve started to wonder if it’s not more of a slavish, unthinking devotion on their part to ideology.