So in recent months I've become an avid reader of the leftist magazine Adbusters. As you may be able to tell by the title, it attacks capitalism and the way we live. Every magazine comes with a fresh line of comments on how our lifestyle is destroying us..

Thanks for the obvious, but are you actually planning on giving us a solution?

Of course not, they simply don't have one.

So great idea guys, pull the plug on advertisements because you don't appear to have a clue as to how that effects the entire system. Without advertising there is : no fund-raising, no community events, no films, no sport stars oh and wait for it - most people will loose their jobs.

Ok so the problem here is corporations created 'cool' and since infancy they have told us happiness is created by consumption. It all begins with a cartoon mouse named Mickey printed on our nappies and explodes into a mountain of company names and slogans printed on every piece of electronics, every piece of clothing, the packaging of everything we eat, everything we see. We no longer create an identity, we become identifiable by the advertisements that appeal to us and the words and labels someone else have given to us.

We live in a 'free' world still controlled by the media and its propaganda. No, propaganda wasn't left behind in the events of World War II or in the grips of communism. Our newspapers are still government agencies, our televisions only tell us what the advertisements during the breaks are willing to support. Our internet is about to become censored, if it isn't partially so already.

We live in a rat race, fighting to be better than the person beside us, or we are not good enough. Suicide is up, mental disorders are skyrocketing, this way of life and our meaningless, repetitive jobs are making us miserable. We are forever fighting a war against terror that we will never win.

So as many a wise person has said, that a simpler life is a happier one but how do you convince billions of people that an almost guaranteed supply of necessities AND a long line of luxuries is a toxic and miserable way to live?

Communism does not work because we are selfish, that is a fact and will never completely change, so where do you propose is a middle ground? How can you run a country more effectively? How can we reclaim what we've lost and learn to live rather than spend our entire lives working for what we don't really want?

Where do you find a real way to live and a real reason to be alive?