Anyone feeling bewildered by modern society's focus on 'virtuality'
and 'globalisation', and the extremes it has created, should read
this book. The two most lucrative markets in the western world
today are 'consumer technology' and 'the escape from consumer
technology', and both are growing exponentially. Boyle gives a
lucid explanation of how this seeming contradiction has arisen.
Technological progress, particularly the development of
labour-saving devices such as irons, washing machines and
microwaves, has changed our lives, but it has also created
worldwide, seemingly all-powerful corporations and a sense that we
are alienated from the natural world and each other's needs. Brand,
imaging and advertising are everywhere, to the extent that American
families are naming their children after brands for cash, and Pepsi
have plans to project their logo onto the moon. In reaction people
are increasingly demanding something 'real', not 'fake-real' or
'virtual-real', terms Boyle explains, but 'authentic-real'. Hence
the rise in demand for 'natural childbirth, natural health, natural
pest-control'. But even authenticity is a contested term - the
'authenticity of the past' that many today hanker after usually
went hand in hand with prejudice and discrimination, making it both
undesirable and impossible to return to. This is a fascinating and
provocative discussion of 21st-century ills, and a brilliant guide
to alleviating their symptoms. (Kirkus UK)
The author guides us through the next big thing in Western living - the determined rejection of the fake, the virtual, the spun and the mass-produced, in the search for authenticity. The charms of the global and virtual future we were all brought up to expect, where meals would be eaten in the form of pills and machines would do all our work, have worn rather thin. It's not that we don't want all the advantages of progress, we just want a future that manages to be local and real too. Tracking the struggle for reality from Japanese theme parks to mock-Tudor villas and from Byron to Big Brother, this title explains where our reactions against spin and fakeness come from and where they are going. The current revival of real food, real business, real culture flies in the face of expert opinion from politicians, economists, advertisers and big business and they're having to run to keep up as our hype attention-span gets ever shorter. Optimistic, witty, highly thought-provoking and packed with fascinating stories, the author's search asks whether coolness is dead, how real reality is and whether realpolitik can ever change into real politics.He puts authenticity firmly on the map, lifting the lid on all the other symptoms of this powerful new phenomenon revealing the unexpected force that looks set to change all our lives.
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