It's just one of the hundreds of fad words that weaker characters among us bash to death for a certain period until the spin doctors come up with another meaningless crap word to get them to feel 'with it' and to spend, spend, and spend.

I feel almost sorry for the silly buggers who parrot the word.

I heard of a word that had become a non-word, such as the Billion dollars that could not speak its name.
It was referred to as a "silent lie".

Very clever I thought and it should get some promotion.
It has arrived because of the spin doctors in politics.

Another silent lie is "energy security" which is used to avoid "Peak Oil".

They must be plentiful in politics, do you know any ?
Surely there are some surrounding the ETS or global warming ?

Excellent responses, and observant.

It's all a symptom of the nasty new disease infecting the whole world..
"The Screaming Me-me's"
"I want, it's my right, why should I be put out?, I don't like"..etc etc.
It seems to me it's about time "responsibility" started meaning more than "who has to pay?"
The "experts" have focused us all on personal "rights", and forgotten the other, equal, half....... personal and social responsibility.
We're becoming less of a society, and more of a mob of whingeing individuals. When "Lifestyle" is more important than the ills that surround us daily, we're in trouble! And we ARE!

Forrest,
I guess that could be one way of looking at it. (your NSW example)
Although I suspect that your intentions were to justify the concept yet logic shows both the justification and reasoning up as I described it, a manifestation of selfishness/prejudice/ fear etc.

The legalistic argument opens up a whole new nest of philosophic debate. i.e. Just because it's legal doesn't make it right. The nature of laws etc. The key to me is objectivity/balance.

Suffice it to say I understand your perspective but in the light of the other examples (composite depiction) I suspect you are focusing a little too myopically. Consider Coke , the 'beaver ad' , car ads The hospice argument etc.

BTW the fishing ban on specific portions of the bay were scientifically based . The fishing ban were a contentious issues and were actively run by the sporting (?) clubs. There were issues of the bridge candidate and pro development candidates (one a real estate agent, the other a background in large scale development.) I mentioned who referenced the change. In the end 23 votes made the difference. In short the victory was for personal selfishness. Not the good of the community./environment et sec.

Max
Yep it is what's your solutions?

Jewely
My point was that we as a nation particularly we Qld hide behind and are manipulated by the term 'lifestyle' as though it's the be all of justifications.
i.e. Ludwig and others point on 'No net immigration' as if that will make a hill of beans difference to the denuding, over exploitation of the worlds resources? Add global warming (if real and I suspect it MIGHT be ) and this amplifies the concern...(I am NOT advocating open door principal, previous postings)

It's the way we focus on it makes us more vulnerable to to manipulation the above BTW makes the point that it WASN'T the parties policies as such, more misplaced self interest that created the change.
The result while nominally democratic it ignores the wider perspective which is the theoretical point of 'democracy' the interests of the society.

Contrary to some argument. Humans are MORE than the total of their Genes otherwise why plan/dream anything determinism has us by the hairy bits.

If we didn't use 'lifestyle' it would be something else. Lifestyle really just means way of life.

One can live the lifestyle of a hippie, the rich and famous, in nudist camps, grunge, austerity as in monks and so on.

We tend to hear the word in terms of "lifestyle we have become accustomed to" as though we could not become accustomed to living a different type of life such as living a bit less so that others can live more.

It is both a word with many meanings and a meaningless word.