The Lifestyle Choice

I've been thinking how we often associate "lifestyle" to nutrition, sports, time management (work/life), and level of domestic comfort to name a few. I guess this is mostly an impression created through exposure to the commercial approach. We probably all adopt some commercial thinking unconsciously in our personal life: "oh I need to exercise", "I shouldn't eat such and such", "this new gadget will help me manage my time", etc, etc. It all seems a bit mechanical from that perspective, we want to "tune" the different aspects of our lives for better performance, which in turn makes us feel good and better able to carry on.

For this pattern to appear in the behavior of people, you would expect that they have at least reached the middle class: they have some disposable income and have time to think more about themselves. For a while now, people have also taken their careers as defining factors of their identities. It's almost as if there is spreading unspoken agreement that identity is based on performance, career and lifestyle (status and comfort, by extension). This is something we can observe fairly easily nowadays (I think) in many countries, as the middle class grows.

As a result, more basic activities become secondary concerns. We probably start using more energy, produce more waste, and because we are busier, we now "have to fit in" the traditional aspects of life like family and community. "It's OK, I can afford it and I'm on a mission" could be the our unconscious justification. Additionally, organizations, authorities or other systems have emerged which take some of that "burden" away. They are to figure how to "meet energy demand", take away our waste (and maybe make something useful of it), take care of poverty, youth and the elderly. Oh, and doing that with least cost on the voters/customers, and through financially profitable ways whenever possible.

Have we unconsciously, all together and over time, rejected responsibility over these vital components of our lives? If so, what consequences of that do you see around you? I invite you to ponder...