Oliver James on Envy

11.30am, 29 November 2009
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1

Covet not thy neighbour’s wife, the bible tells us. Depending on who lives next door, we may not find this too tricky a commandment. But Oliver James believes covetousness is a contemporary plague; it’s just more often directed at objects than people.
 
James has argued persuasively that we are becoming a nation of selfish capitalists. The growth in our relative materialism in the last 20 years has bought us neither reassurance nor contentedness, but unrealistic aspirations and neurotic competitiveness.
 
From The School of Life’s pulpit, James will warn of the evils of excessive materialism and the misery of relative inequality it inevitably leads to. He will urge us to mend our ways not for altruistic reasons alone but because the excess of envy and consumerism he calls “affluenza” is making us demonstrably more miserable and distressed.

So covet not your neighbour’s iphone any longer. Confess your greedy sins and be finally freed of the shackles of envy.

Oliver James trained and practised as a clinical child psychologist and, since 1988, has worked as a writer, journalist, broadcaster and television documentary producer and presenter. His books include the best-selling Affluenza, They F*** You Up and Britain on the Couch, which was also a successful documentary series for Channel 4.