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Enough (2008)

por John Naish

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2244119,438 (3.77)7
For millions of years, humankind has used a brilliantly successful survival strategy. If we like something, we chase after more of it: more status, more food, more info, more stuff. Then we chase again. It's how we survived famine, disease and disaster to colonise the world. But now, thanks to technology, we've suddenly got more of everything than we can ever use, enjoy or afford. That doesn't stop us from striving though and it's making us sick, tired, overweight, angry and in debt. It burns up our personal ecologies and the planet's ecology too. We urgently need to develop a sense of 'enough'. Our culture keeps telling us that we don't yet have all we need to be happy, but in fact we need to nurture a new skill - the ability to bask in the bounties all around us. ENOUGH explores how our Neolithic brain-wiring spurs us to build a world of overabundance that keeps us hooked on 'more'. John explains how, through adopting the art of enoughness, we can break from this wrecking cycle. With ten chapters on topics such as Enough food, Enough stuff, Enough hurry and Enough information, he explores how we created the problem and gives us practical ways to make our lives better.… (mais)
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In 'Enough' John Naish presents a coherent and well-argued case for change with a dash of reality that helps avoid the book becoming preachy.

The thrust of the book is that we (in the Western World) have benefitted from an economic and social system that has provided us with almost limitless bounties but if left to continue will ravage the world and we’ll lose all that we’ve gained.

The book first sets out a picture of human characteristics developed by our ancestors for a world of scarcity. These have driven us to develop and deploy the means to alleviate scarcity with such effect that we now live in abundance. We have developed and deployed economic ideas, technologies and social attitudes that have enabled us all to have far more than our grandparents could have dreamed of.

Yet the abundance we are surrounded by does little to quell our innate drivers that still see only what we do not have, whilst the economic processes we have devised revel and rely on this discontent, fuelling an insatiable desire for more in the forlorn hope that with a little more we will finally be happy. As we do so, the planet becomes increasingly ravaged by our actions.

I’m reminded as I write of the Monty Python sketch where the gastronome is invited to take just one more wafer thin mint – before exploding.

The book explores a number of areas in which we have enough, and in answer to the perennial question from the kids in the back seat ‘are we nearly there yet?’ offers the answer ‘Yes, so let’s get out and admire the view!’

There’s a chapter each on the subjects of Enough information, enough food, enough stuff, enough work, enough options, enough happiness, enough growth. Each outlines why we are driven to seek more, and why the pursuit is now unachievable and fruitless.

The book has a playful irreverence and the author, though a keen advocate of enough, is not so pious as to hide his not infrequent failings. Equally the book is dotted with interesting asides which help broaden the discussion. For example the French gourmet Père Gourier who became an untouchable serial killer by encouraging his victims to gorge themselves to death; the Toyota research that revealed most Prius cars were being bought as a family’s third car, so much for saving the planet; the role of Joshua Wedgewood in the development of marketing strategies.

All in all, an entertaining, fun and thought provoking read. ( )
  Steve55 | Feb 11, 2014 |
Mensen zijn volgens John Naish in 'Genoeg: meer geluk met minder' geboren overlevers. Al miljoenen jaren lang hebben onze voorouders gebruik gemaakt van een briljante overlevingsstrategie. Als ons iets beviel dan wilden we er meer van hebben: meer voedsel, meer status, meer informatie en meer dingen. En daarmee overleefden we hongersnoden, ziekten en rampen. En het is ons zo goed gelukt dat we ondertussen met 7 miljard (!) mensen op aarde zijn.

Maar deze succesvolle strategie begint in onze moderne maatschappij een beetje tegen ons te werken. Neem bijvoorbeeld eten: voor onze mensachtige voorouders was voldoende eten vinden een lastige en gevaarlijk taak. Het probleem is dat voedsel nu overal gemakkelijk en goedkoop te krijgen is en daar kunnen veel mensen niet goed mee omgaan: een kwart van de Europese, Noord-Amerikaanse en Australische volwassenen is obees, een derde heeft last van overgewicht. Er zijn nu meer overvoede dan ondervoede mensen op de wereld.

Een ander voorbeeld is spullen. Er zijn verschillende psychologische mechanisme in onze hersenen waardoor we graag zoveel mogelijk spullen willen hebben. Dingen verzamelen is een eeuwenoude menselijke gewoonte. Het heeft te maken met status (een rode Ferrari!), je willen identificeren met beroemdheden en als je iets koopt komt er dopamine vrij wat weer een lekker gevoel geeft (en weer de oorzaak is van koopverslaving).

John Naish analyseert in zijn boek nog een paar genoeg items: genoeg informatie, genoeg werk, genoeg keuzes, genoeg geluk en genoeg groei. Hij brengt zijn verhaal met humor en interessante voorbeelden en hij geeft ook praktische adviezen hoe we ons leven kunnen beteren. Want de boodschap is dat we meer moeten inzien dat we genoeg hebben. We leven in overvloed, maar zijn niet in staat dat te waarderen. Niet verkeerd om even bij stil te staan, toch? Mocht je geen genoeg van genoeg krijgen kijk dan ook eens op http://www.genoeg.nl/.
  BieblogHengelo | Jan 28, 2011 |
The premise of this book is simple: humankind needs to develop the ability to say no to ‘more’ if they are to live contentedly on a functional planet. More what, I hear you ask. More everything. More food, more work, more shopping. In a series of fairly lengthy chapters (consisting of approximately 35 pages each) Naish outlines the problems he believes are facing the human race and suggests both why these issues have developed and what we can do about them.

My thoughts

Naish’s style is immediately engaging. This is because it’s colloquial, easy to understand and informal. In the very first paragraphs he envisions aliens orbiting the Earth, shaking their heads sadly at the ruined planet and saying to each other, sympathetically but resignedly, “daft buggers”. This style is sustained throughout the book and meant that I found each chapter interesting.

There is an introduction which outlines a clear and simple central premise: over human evolution our desire for more has resulted in our reaching quite a pleasant, but not a perfect, stage in our development. We no longer need to chase unthinkingly after more, but our brain doesn’t know this and keeps trying to follow our inbuilt urges. This is leading to mass unhappiness, stress and the destruction of Earth. However, Naish stresses that this is not a self help book or a save the planet guide, but an almost philosophical meditation on where we are going wrong and what we might do to stop the merry go round. I was particularly interested by his suggestion that we should promote contentment over the lure of Happiness, which he expands on later in the book. I feel that the introduction established Naish’s central argument effectively and I was definitely interested in reading about the finer details.

Each chapter examines a different area of life, such as food, and uses our past as tribal brings to explain what does appear to be distinctly tribal behaviour. Within these areas, Naish covers topics as diverse as the growing trend for women to buy designer vaginas, Britain’s poor take up of holiday entitlement and the increasingly overwhelming options available to consumers when buying a gadget. One surprise for me was that the first chapter, "enough information", did not mention Facebook or other forms of social media. This seems to be quite an oversight, given the distraction and even obsession that these social platforms create. Published in 2009, I do feel that this was a significant and surprising omission. For each subject, Naish explains why choice is not simply an illusion, but actually something rather more toxic. I found this approach convincing and often illuminating, although less so when reading about group mentality and hierarchies. Apparently, low social status is more likely to kill you than being a high status business leader, not because of poverty or lifestyle factors, but because low social status “gnaws at our souls”. This seems unlikely, but even this statement is based on research, although in this case Naish refers the reader to a newspaper article, rather than the original research. This brings me neatly to my big complaint: references.

References are not indicated in the body of the text, which is a shame as, if you are interested in finding out where a particularly startling claim has come from, you have to just turn to the back of the book and see if there is an explanatory note. Most statements are supported by a references and notes section at the end of the book and are organised simply by chapter and page number. I found this a useful tool despite the lack of referencing in the body of the work and I was interested in many of the studies referred to. It was clear that, despite the informal tone of the book, Naish's apparently meandering thoughts are supported by solid research. I found this to be both reassuring (as I could trust the author) and a little scary (these issues are real and so important that they are being investigated). Many of the findings from these studies are fascinating, did you know, for example, that regular communal singing appears to enhance wellbeing to the extent that lifespan is increased?

However, not all references are equally weighty. Many “scientific” references were from broadsheet newspapers, which I learned to distrust after reading Ben Goldacre's "Bad Science". This did lead to me give some of Naish's arguments less weight than others. I thought it was a shame that Naish hadn’t referenced the source of the claim as well as the relevant newspaper article. Of course, most popular science stories in the paper don’t refer to the specific piece of research (often because they are wilfully misrepresenting it in their desire to excite newspaper readers with a random titbit of “fascinating” “discovery”) but it seems to me that there is no excuse for relying solely upon the journalist’s interpretation of the work. Either Naish has looked at the original source, in which case he could easily share that with his readers, or he has not and is relying upon potentially exaggerated and / or distorted reports. I felt that this was disappointing. A book which strives to appeal to a mass of the public to think differently about their life and their world should be accurately supported by reliable research. This is definitely my biggest criticism of the book.

Critics of evolutionary psychology are likely to disagree with much of what Naish argues but I felt that much of what he said rang an uncomfortable truth somewhere in my mind. I definitely find it hard to squash the rational part of me when I go shopping. (The rational part of me knows that I already have too many T-shirts to fit them all in my dresser at once, but somehow I still buy that beautiful top as a
"one off".) This strengthened the appeal of the book for me as there was a definite sense of experiential truth.

I liked the attitude Naish adopts throughout. There is a sense of rueful "what could you expect based on our past?" which is neatly balanced with a sense of what needs to be done to achieve real contentment: being 'eco' needs to become hip - permanently. However, much as I understood how this conclusion was reached, Naish lacked a plan to achieve this, which I felt was a shortcoming. Furthermore, the attitudes he wishes to take advantage of to achieve this transmogrification of the world's society are exactly the snobbish attitudes he admits that we should ultimately be striving to eradicate. I found this rather uncomfortable and perhaps, given the earlier point regarding the power of low social status, rather callous.

The chapter on thankfulness also dovetailed neatly with my own experiences, which made me trust the writer more. I am certainly in the habit of recognising problems rather than the countless things each day which quietly "go right". I also know how much people appreciate a word of thanks. Finally, I have recently begun a policy at work of making a positive phone call after making any negative calls. The thankfulness of the parent on the end of the line is often touching. I felt that this chapter was actually quite inspiring, although as always, Naish recognised that the power of any life change to raise our spirits will ultimately fade.

In this edition an afterword briefly identifies five taboo subjects that Naish believes must be discussed widely by the populace before they can be sold to politicians. The five subjects are not new and neither is the way he presents them, but I felt that it was worthwhile mentioning what are certainly key issues. The lack of solutions does mean that the ending felt a little bit negative. After all, Naish is right: it is currently impossible to discuss (for example) population as an issue without drawing hysterical condemnation from a number of groups and individuals. Without a dramatic change in our refusal to even acknowledge these five key debates, Naish suggests that we are damned as a species. Lovely. I felt that the afterword was almost a list of regrets, things that the author felt he ought to have tackled in the book but didn't, or didn't tackle as forcefully as he might have done. Regrettably, I did feel that this reduced the more positive feeling I had after reading the main text. Having said that, Naish is right: these are important issues and they need to be discussed.

A personal moment (feel free to skip over!)

The book did clarify something for me: I would really rather work four days a week. Perhaps that sounds like terrible ingratitude in a recession, and I am very grateful for having not just a job but a secure and enjoyable job. However, I am certainly one of the people Naish discusses who cannot achieve the mythical work-life balance. (Ironically, my desire to officially work one day less is actually based on a desire to do my job better than I feel able to currently.)

Conclusions

Overall, I feel that this is an important book that successfully examines our modern lifestyle without preaching. It is alternately inspiring (the dairy farmer who refused to become a businessman), chilling (if we survive the next twenty years without the end of the world as we know it, we won't survive the next twenty), and depressing (how can these much needed seismic shifts in attitude occur?)

There is some swearing in the book but it is limited and did not make me feel uncomfortable as I felt it was neither gratuitous nor excessive.

I felt that, ultimately, this book is essential reading for anyone who feels like their life is a little bit of a treadmill, or anyone who has ever realised that they actually own far too much stuff, or people who are convinced that everything will be perfect if they can only earn that bit more money and get that promotion at work...

Naish's style is easy to follow and, though seemingly rather haphazard, his ideas are fully supported by references, usually to published research in the fields of science or psychology.

Highly recommended. ( )
1 vote brokenangelkisses | Dec 30, 2010 |
0,90
  wtbril | Jan 14, 2019 |
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For millions of years, humankind has used a brilliantly successful survival strategy. If we like something, we chase after more of it: more status, more food, more info, more stuff. Then we chase again. It's how we survived famine, disease and disaster to colonise the world. But now, thanks to technology, we've suddenly got more of everything than we can ever use, enjoy or afford. That doesn't stop us from striving though and it's making us sick, tired, overweight, angry and in debt. It burns up our personal ecologies and the planet's ecology too. We urgently need to develop a sense of 'enough'. Our culture keeps telling us that we don't yet have all we need to be happy, but in fact we need to nurture a new skill - the ability to bask in the bounties all around us. ENOUGH explores how our Neolithic brain-wiring spurs us to build a world of overabundance that keeps us hooked on 'more'. John explains how, through adopting the art of enoughness, we can break from this wrecking cycle. With ten chapters on topics such as Enough food, Enough stuff, Enough hurry and Enough information, he explores how we created the problem and gives us practical ways to make our lives better.

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