"The elephant in our rooms"

I've always been sceptical about Timothy's who don't go by Tim - there is something a little too stiff about it. Adding a Professorial title and a double-barelled surname would seem to necessitate a walking stick and monacle. But Professor Timothy Garton-Ash is ok.

His article on the future of capitalism is worth a read - if just for his line about 'manufacturing desire'. Link to it HERE

"Marx thought capitalism would have a problem finding consumers for the goods that improving techniques of production enabled it to churn out. Instead, it has become expert in a new branch of manufacturing: the manufacture of desires. The genius of contemporary capitalism is not simply that it gives consumers what they want but that it makes them want what it has to give. It's that core logic of ever-expanding desires that is unsustainable on a global scale. But are we prepared to abandon it? ."