9 March

I wonder if people can feel the imminent crash of what I call lifestyle culture. Where life and all of its existential complexities was replaced in the last century with the idea of life’s purpose being the maximisation of personal development. Of ‘fun’ and individual meaning, through ‘experience’. When you look at ads for retirement living, notice how they conspicuously exclude everybody except the blissfully happy old couple, released at last from the shackles of any responsibility for ongoing social life? On their ‘bucket list’ of never-ending spoiling (travel) of other’s homes across the globe, for the benefit of their own personal ‘experience’? That’s the apex of lifestyle culture, though everything leading up to it is the same culture. We stopped fighting infectious disease for example mostly because it obstructed our lifestyles. It stopped our morning barista coffee, and our beloved trips, and our dining out and gigs. The ‘you can’t take it with you’ philosophy of saving an enormous nest egg for retirement and then blowing the lot in an orgy of lifestyle indulgence is the same culture. It’s always disgusted me, the total removal of any sense of need to invest for the future of a society, to make life that bit better for those who come after us. Of the idea of service and responsibility, and connection. The circle of life, now an infinite flat line of ‘each to their own’ fun. I don’t know about you, but the crumbling of our societies happening in front of our eyes tells me the most obvious thing my own retirement planning will increasingly be called to do is try to insulate my family from that crumbling decay. Kids in major cities in the West now are increasingly staying at home well into their 30s, because they can’t afford to do anything else. It’s a slow but mostly unaware return to a life devoted more again to the idea of continuity, of connection and service, and actual investment in social progress. Of the circle of life, of the old making way for the young, but also retaining an actual meaningful social role as they age, rather than just be eternal tourists. A collapse of the hedonism of lifestyle culture.