We Have Met the Enemy
self-control in an age of excess
Published on 31. January 2011
320 pages
978-1-921753-62-6 (ISBN)
Description
How do you save yourself from your destructive desires?All this freedom is making us ill. Perhaps half of all deaths are caused by overeating, smoking, drinking too much, failing to exercise, and other behaviours we indulge in against our better judgement. Why do so many of us embark knowingly on the long march to slow-motion suicide?In this brilliant and irreverent search for answers, Daniel Akst delves deep into overconsumption, overspending, procrastination, expletive-laden anger, promiscuity, and most of the other homely transgressions that bedevil us in a world of freedom, prosperity, and technological empowerment. He draws a vivid picture of the many-sided problem of desire - and delivers a blueprint for how we can steer more directly toward the wants we most want for ourselves.
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Person
Daniel Akst has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Slate, and many other publications. His previous books include Wonder Boy, which chronicled the wondrous financial fraud he had a hand in exposing, and the novels St Burl's Obituary (a PEN/Faulkner finalist) and The Webster Chronicle. He lives with his wife and sons in New York's bucolic Hudson Valley, generally a good place to hide from temptation.
