emmeltee.

Happiness, Progress and Technology

What’s our goal? What’s humanity’s goal? Technology “makes the world better”. What’s “better”? Is it to avoid pain and death? Is it to make people happy? Are people happy when it’s easier to do something? Or does happiness level out? If a depressed person wins the lottery, they find months later that he’s as depressed as ever. If a happy person loses a limb, they find that months later he’s as happy as ever. If we bring technology/convenience/ease/proliferation of choice to 3rd world countries are they happier? Or is the goal maybe not happiness there? Are people truly happy when they have more choice? Or is happiness not in the attainment of progress, but in the PURSUIT of progress? Is it about opportunity and excitement? Questions.

flapper chic

flapper chic

There is no fashion when there is no liberty. And there is no fashion either when there is no economy. Fashion mirrors the changes in society. It was strong in France, when fashion was the privilege of the Royal Court. And then the Republic came and haute couture became a sort of oligarchy that diffused fashion to the world at large. Today, we are moving towards globalisation, and, although fashion may come from Japan, India, or China, its context still is, I think, very much focused on Paris.