Paul Roberts 
The Impulse Society [EPUB ebook] 
What’S Wrong with Getting What We Want

From the author of The End of Oil and The End of Food, a galvanizing look at our restless and overindulged  »impulse society ».




 »I guarantee this will jog your thinking, and perhaps put you on a new path » Bill Mc Kibben, author of
The End of Nature




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A brilliant feat of analytic journalism »
Vanity Fair



What do soaring debt, endemic narcissism, road rage, political attack ads and killer drones share in common? All are symptoms of a society that moves, reflexively and relentlessly, to exploit the fastest, most efficient means to any end, without regard to cost. This is the  »impulse society » in which we live.



In every facet of postindustrial society – the way we eat, the way we communicate and entertain, the way we work, the way we court lovers and raise children, educate and govern – technology and affluence has let us reach our goals with a speed and efficiency unimaginable even a generation ago.



But the result is not all milk, honey, and gold. Companies now reflexively maximise short-term gain at the expense of long-term success. Politicians resort with ever-greater speed to nasty campaign tactics, and can count on their damaging claims to spread before the facts catch up with them. Consumers engage in serial over-indulgence and pursue instant gratification of every whim with speed and greed. The costs of living this way are substantial: financial volatility, health epidemics, environmental exhaustion and political paralysis, to say nothing of a growing, gnawing dissatisfaction.



In this epoch-defining book, Paul Roberts traces the roots of this problem, damningly revealing how it has permeated society, and cogently argues how it may, perhaps, still be reversed.