I believe that consumer capitalism is driven by addiction. At the core, an addictive stimulus is an event that causes the brain to release dopamine, and thus experience pleasure. Meth, for instance, is chemically almost the same as dopamine. Once you get acclimated to a certain level of dopamine, and it is suddenly removed, your brain inhibits the enzyme that breaks down dopamine - and all other neurotransmitters, which is the remarkably unpleasant experience of withdrawal.
This system evolved for a *reason* and it seems likely that reason is to encourage use to preferentially eat certain foods. Just looking at a hamburger triggers a dopamine release. Same for most things we call 'junk food' 'cause those are the things our ancestors needed to fatten up. So evolution came up with not only a (butter sauted) carrot to encourage us to eat that stuff, but a stick, too. When you switch from junk food to health food, you go into withdrawal of a sort.
But food isn't the only source of dopamine. Shopping does it too. Getting Stuff. TV teaches us that happiness comes from having the right Stuff. But, of course, we never actually have it - 'cause once we get home with our Stuff, we actually feel kinda hollow and dissatisfied and start thinking about what more Stuff we can get.
It's idiocy, of course. Joy is a state of being, which comes from leading a fulfilling life and being a good person. Pleasure is junk - a cheap high that leaves an emptiness behind. But our economy runs on it. If people pursued spiritual fulfillment instead of a cheap buzz, the economy would crash. That's the real reason the USgov hates drugs - it's competition, a short cut for getting that buzz that doesn't boost the GDP.
Oh, yeah, I like biosociology.
This system evolved for a *reason* and it seems likely that reason is to encourage use to preferentially eat certain foods. Just looking at a hamburger triggers a dopamine release. Same for most things we call 'junk food' 'cause those are the things our ancestors needed to fatten up. So evolution came up with not only a (butter sauted) carrot to encourage us to eat that stuff, but a stick, too. When you switch from junk food to health food, you go into withdrawal of a sort.
But food isn't the only source of dopamine. Shopping does it too. Getting Stuff. TV teaches us that happiness comes from having the right Stuff. But, of course, we never actually have it - 'cause once we get home with our Stuff, we actually feel kinda hollow and dissatisfied and start thinking about what more Stuff we can get.
It's idiocy, of course. Joy is a state of being, which comes from leading a fulfilling life and being a good person. Pleasure is junk - a cheap high that leaves an emptiness behind. But our economy runs on it. If people pursued spiritual fulfillment instead of a cheap buzz, the economy would crash. That's the real reason the USgov hates drugs - it's competition, a short cut for getting that buzz that doesn't boost the GDP.
Oh, yeah, I like biosociology.
My book, a setting for fantasy role playing games based on Bantu mythology: Ubantu
