At first this is seen as a humorous lighthearted and human approach to the redesign of harsh and traditional security measures. I imagine a city where all of the existing precautions are replaced by a Sweet Dreams Security approach. This would certainly brighten up all of our days but what effect would it have for our children and future?



“One of the features which distinguishes human being from other animals, Barthes maintained, was the fact of their having had a childhood”



Introducing Barthes. Philip Thody, Piero. introducingbooks.



The signs, symbols and imagery that surround us remain in our consciousness and form early opinions of what type of world we live in. However, is there really any need for so much hardware?



AFFLUENZA



ECOLOGISTS MAINLY FOCUS on the damage being done to the planet by advanced industrialisation. I come at the same problem from a different direction: the damage done to our emotional wellbeing by the particular form of advanced industrialisation which many call neo-conservatism or market liberalism, championed by the USA.



My conclusions are the same but via another route: we must declare an end to profligate mass consumerism not only because of the damage to the planet but because of the damage it is doing to people.



Affluenza by Oliver James, Vermilion, 2007.



Perhaps we would encourage an even stronger, more human minded generation of children if they grew up surrounded by fewer symbols of overt restriction, intimidation and violence. Will this generation then go on to be less suspicious, more positive, happy and trusted?



Do these objects and structures actually enhance ones safety or even work as a deterrent for criminals and people wishing to break and enter etc?

My belief is that by and large they work for the user/customer in way that reassures their psyche.

The harm in this is that we continue on in being a scared nation at the mercy of our murky government. The items lay in a slightly grey area where one might believe to be doing something ethically and morally correct, but through an act of buying something new. Affluenza intervenes at every moral stage.