Reviewed by Gunnel Minett

A Cautionary Tale: When Excess Leads to Poverty

In this book Whybrow paints a very bleak picture of American life. The once so positive entrepreneurial spirit that contributed to the making of the most affluent country in the world seems to be escalating out of control, leading to exhaustion and dissatisfaction. Stress, anxiety, depression, eating-disorders have become part of every-day life in America. Despite the fact that they are clear signals that major life-changes are urgently needed, it seems to be very difficult for most Americans to break their vicious circle.

Whybrow’s explanation as to why America has embarked on this destructive path is that America's population has a particular genetic makeup. This makes them prone to travel and explore new territories. Whybrow argues that the roots of this behaviour go back to the era when the first Homo sapiens moved into the African savannah. The most adventurous group eventually set out to explore the rest of the world. This group, which populated the rest of the world, became our oldest ancestors.

The special ‘entrepreneurial’ genes that made this group of Homo sapiens to move away from their original dwellings, has lived on in our gene pool since then and played an important role for the people who left their home countries to try their luck in the big new land in the West (unlike migrants to Europe who are looking for countries that also offer better social security). Whybrow also refers to this American genetic makeup when he explains the biology of the brain's reward system, offering a physical explanation for the addictive mania of consumerism.

One of the weaknesses of a genetic determinist approach is that it is difficult to understand exactly how this influence works. There are also very strong counter-arguments which claim that the environment plays a crucial role in determining how the genes will ultimately influence behaviour. In the American case, the entrepreneurial attitude also has the downside of creating a very competitive environment where people are driven to aggressive behaviour simply because they have no alternative. So regardless of their natural attitude to life, they are left with very little option, in a society which accepts extreme poverty as well as extreme wealth.

American consumerism, which has become the primary expression of individual freedom, has serious consequences for both the mental and physical health of the American population. Whybrow’s solution to this situation is not surprisingly to suggest that individual Americans exercise their freedom in a different way by stepping off the treadmill for a simpler existence. Another way forward would possibly be to restructure the American social system and make sure that individuals have a better social network than what is on offer today. Unfortunately this is a solution that seems to be in decline in the rest of the world where social networks are being dismantled and replaced with private initiatives modelled on the American system.

Even if Whybrow is not offering a clear solution to this problem, he is presenting very interesting arguments as to why the problem is there. And in order to solve a problem it is essential to identify what it is and how it has occurred, which is exactly what this book offers.

Gunnel Minett is author of Breath and Spirit and Exhale