Posts in Anarchism,well-being technology
Biosphere 2 and the illusion of escape
Biosphere 2 and the illusion of escape

I’ve always been fascinated by the story of Biosphere 2. In the late 1980s, an avant-garde group of actors and scientists erected a gigantic geodesic dome in the Arizona desert, to see if humans could live in ‘space colonies’ that generate their own food, water and oxygen.

I knew that the experiment had gone wrong, but that was all. I was surprised no one had made a film or book about such an evocative subject. Well, now they have. Matt Wolf’s new documentary Spaceship Earth landed last month and can be viewed online.

Read More
Anarchism, climate changeJules EvansComment
Review: The Wellness Syndrome
Review: The Wellness Syndrome

How are you feeling? How well are you? Is your weight where you want it to be? Smoking too much? How happy are you on a scale of one to ten? Are you optimising your personal brand? How fast was your last five kilometre run? Would you like to share that via social media? Would you like a life-coach to help you overcome these challenges on a way to a better, happier, more awesome you?

Read More
Capitalism, Politics of Well-Being, well-being measurements, well-being technology, Wellbeing classes, WorkJules Evans Comments
Review: The Happiness Industry by William Davies
Review: The Happiness Industry by William Davies

Watch out folks. There is a murky world lurking behind the scenes, a sinister cabal of policy-makers, psychologists, CEOs, advertizers and life-coaches, watching you, measuring you, nudging you, monitoring your every smile, all to try and make you happy. We must resist. This, broadly, is the message of sociologist William Davies’ book, The Happiness Industry: How Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being.

Read More
Behavioural economics, Buddhism, Business ethics, Capitalism, CBT, happiness, Politics of Well-Being, Positive Psychology, well-being measurements, well-being technology, Wellbeing classes, WorkJules Evans Comments
Simon Critchley's Politics of the Sacred
Simon Critchley's Politics of the Sacred

Simon Critchley, an English philosopher at the New School in New York, has suggested that all philosophy is an attempt to deal with two disappointments: religious disappointment, or the loss of faith; and political disappointment, or the search for justice. In his most recent book, Faith of the Faithless: Experiments in Political Theology, he attempts to put these disappointments behind him, and work out a relationship between religion and politics.

Read More
Anarchism, Christianity, Civilization and its D..., emotions, Enlightenment, God, mysticism, Mythology, ReligionJules Evans Comments