Our own relentless search for novelty and social status locks us into an iron cage of consumerism. Affluence has itself betrayed us.

Our own relentless search for novelty and social status locks us into an iron cage of consumerism. Affluence has itself betrayed us.

Novelty is adaptive when things are changing and you need to adapt yourself. Tradition is essential to lay down the stability to raise families and form cohesive social groups.

The philosophical point is that our happiness and wellbeing is not based on incomes rising. This is not just the wisdom of sages but of ordinary people. Prosperity is more social and psychological: it's about identification, affiliation, participation in society and a sense of purpose.

[Wherever he went, the voices followed. In the batting cage, in the dugout, in the batter's box, the relentless yapping of the Reds' coaches echoed in Adam Dunn's head.] I'm standing at the plate thinking, Where are my hands? Where's this, where's that? ... Before I know it, the pitch is there and I'm completely out of rhythm.

It is not only old and early impressions that deceive us; the charms of novelty have the same power