Some more reading..

... On our Greatest Social Ill.

Here's a great piece suggesting that our desire for more, is at the front of our social decline, - that the most significant forms of social evil are individualism, consumerism and decline of community. I like the below quote

Firstly, governments need to stop paying lip service to the idea that wellbeing is defined by economic prosperity. Of course, successive waves of politicians make noises along these lines, but as soon as they realise the motivational power of money, they tend to revert to type. Yet we are now inundated with studies that have shown that the accumulation of either money or stuff simply doesn't deliver the sense of wellbeing for which we all long. Despite this, though, we continue with the mantra of economic growth to the almost complete exclusion of any other narrative. Justin Thacker, Beyond the pleasure principle

... on Social Efficacy

The other piece which I found intriguing is 'If at first you don't succeed - you're in excellent compnay, which reminded me:

• Julie Andrews, was initially seen as plain.
• J.K. Rowling's book about a boy wizard was rejected by 12 publishers before a small London house picked up "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone."
• Decca Records turned down a contract with the Beatles, saying "We don't like their sound."
• Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor who said he "lacked imagination."
• Michael Jordan was cut from his high-school varsity basketball team sophomore year.[there's more in the article]

The question posed is what makes some people rebound from defeats and go on to greatness while others throw in the towel?

Chasing Leather: With apologies to Bill Shankly: losing isn’t everything, it’s the only thing (Simon Barnes, from The Times, UK)

While I was unpacking the remaining few boxes I discovered an interesting article, which given the weekend's results (and New Zealand's sad demise) is perhaps timely...

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"You can lose gloriously, dramatically, heroically, unluckily, adjectly, humiliatingly, defiantly, haplessly. (NZ is particularly good at losing honorably, eg.) […] but it all adds up to the same common experience of sport: not winning. We repress the idea of losing. So much of the sporting experience is about anticipation: the sort of things we might do, when it all begins. And in anticipation, we are all champions, and the teams we follow and cheer for and cherish are always unbeatable until we are beaten. […] To say that winning in the only thing in sport is to say that Tabasco is the only thing in a Bloody Mary. The Tabasco gives you the zing and the bite, but it is not the Tabasco that intoxicates, and it is not the Tabasco that keeps you coming back for more.

Without defeat there is no victory, without losers, there is no winner. We celebrate the winners: and we do so while repressing the thought that every winner floats high on buoyancy on the tears of the losers. We should be grateful to every loser. Without losers there is no sport.

We who follow sport are hooked on the twists and turns of the narrative: the ever-changing cast of heroes and villains, the thrilling alternations of victory and defeat. It is the unexpected victory that is always the sweetest, because it came so close to defeat.

Arsenal was within a Thierry Henry miss of a wonderful win (Champions League final 2006). In 2005 Liverpool provided the miracle that Arsenal narrowly failed to deliver. Last summer England won the Ashes (seems a long time ago now), and the joy of the victory sprang from almost 20 years of unbroken defeat by Australia, and intermittent defeat by practically everybody else. Without that history of defeat, victory would have been far less sweet. Defeat is a constituent part of sporting joy.”