Lifestyle gurus like Marie Kondo promise a sense of control – but there’s a hidden hazard I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the two most surprisingly successful lifestyle gurus of the late 2010s are Jordan Peterson and Marie Kondo. Fans of the glowering Canadian see him as a champion of the “masculine” forces of order over “feminine” chaos, while Kondo’s books and new Netflix show are squarely pitched at a female audience. But their best-known advice is exactly the same: clean up your room. Their reasoning’s the same, too: not just that a tidy environment beats a messy one, but that the same uplifting atmosphere of order and direction will spread to the rest of your life (and in Peterson’s case, to the universe). The appeal is the promise of a sense of control in a world that feels to many as though it’s slipping beyond their grasp. Kondo “puts forward a tempting bargain”, two classicists wrote in the New York Times, noting parallels between her and the Greek philosopher Xenophon: “If you organise your possessions, the rest of your life will magically fall into place.” Continue reading...
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