I was getting upset with the same problem. I hate the fact that our right to infinite choice in every avenue of our daily life has robbed us of the one important one; the choice not to choose.

I feel like we're foie gras geese, having the same fatty muck ladled down our throats, unable to spit it out and say 'NO, I DON'T WANT IT! Nothing more than vessels for what comes out of us (labour mainly in our human case, rather than livers.) And then after we've consumed, and given up that labour, we're sold it back in the goods we've just provided for the fat shovellers - to make them more money!

What a depressing cycle. Makes me want to go online and buy something shiny, eat some processed comfort food and ring up to vote on X-Factor. (Or not.)

At least they don't frog march geese into Tescos and make them buy back their artificially engorged organs.

I dreamed as a younger man, that I would escape in Africa or the Middle East, but as a white man, it is so difficult. Spain has turned into my best hope. The place I have been living most of last year, with an incredible Dutch woman, is as close as 'off the grid' as I've found, completely self sufficient, there's no heating bills or electricity to pay when you don't have either, no rent to pay on a house made of stones from the mountains around it, no money needed to buy the services you don't want or need. Just goats and mountains, manual labour, fresh air and hard work, and hoping you don't stab yourself in the neck with a chisel or eat poisonous berries miles from help.

Birdy