I saw an advert on TV the other day through which a famous and long established European electronics company tried to convince us to buy its new hair dryer.
The wonder of the device is that it possesses a sensor that ensures that it propels hot air on to each sector of our wet heads in the most efficient proportions, thus ensuring that all of our hair dries at exactly the same time.
I thought about the amount of financial investment and deployment of other resources required to design, produce, market and distribute this product. I also thought about how we as a species refuse to take the destruction of our living space on this planet seriously. About how our major corporations often refuse to allow generic versions of their most useful, life-saving products to be manufactured and sold in the poorest countries in order to protect their profits. About how many of the most important decisions are taken and the greatest investments in our world are made on the basis of self or corporate interest rather than basic need.
I imagine the smart European hair dryer will be a success in its targeted sector of the market. But as the world burns and floods around us, more severely each year and viral diseases once thought impossible ravage our populations, I just wonder if any but a few of us are even remotely interested in saving ourselves.
