ABSTRACT
One of the problems with the policy of unlimited economic growth is that, as humans, we soon become disenchanted with what we have. Since the Second World War, although we have become far richer, on balance we are no happier (Veenhoven, 2007). While it is often true that wealth can make us more content this does not usually last long. We soon forget our last pay increase, and look forward to another one. Eventually, this becomes a routine. It is generally accepted that capitalism emerged from a Protestant culture that encouraged a particular kind of individualism. This Chapter argues that the emphasis on individual diligence that is typified by Adam Smith’s writings (1776) also led to alienation, solipsism, and, more recently, instrumental rationality (Habermas, 1968), and ‘enlightened false consciousness’ (Sloterdijk, 1988). All of these developments may help to explain why well-informed human beings appear to ignore their role in climate change, and losses in biodiversity, and so on. This process has led to enormous problems such as a reduction in the earth’s potential for supporting our needs. Beyond this book’s primary philosophical and theoretical agenda lies a whole set of deeply interrelated issues that are more recognisable as ‘design’. This chapter shows how the process of individualisation became a catalyst for economic growth. It therefore explores a style of self-awareness that has become indispensable within the consumer system. It relates this to the idea of ‘self’ that was initiated at the time of Socrates, and that has become intensified over the last few hundred years. In particular, it suggests that this idea continues to reward patterns of personal choice, which exacerbates over-consumption and the kinds of alienation described at the end of the previous chapter. This process is based on a belief system. As such, it can be re-designed.
