an (in)glorious return

[534634634265]

well its been many moons since i posted here, but these hard times have driven me to extremes.:D

More and more i ponder the affects consumer driven culture has on those who (willingly or not) participate in it. I live in a fairly large metropolitan environment, and i see a lot of my fellow man. I ask myself lots of questions based on the observations i make.
What causes addiction? do primitive cultures have cases of addiction? i would postulate that only our suicidal drive to constantly consume more is what causes addiction. primitive cultures discourage over-consumption, due likely to conservation necessity, and thus discourage addiction. I did some reading on this, and there has been found a genetic predilection to being addicted. The studies i read never specified if there was a genetic predisposition to any particular drug. I postulate that addiction is a waning genetic trait. From an evolutionary standpoint addiction should be a waning trait. unfortunately for us, our consumption-oriented culture encourages addiction.


thoughts?

EDIT: think about how we're constantly bombarded with imagery of things we should want or need. or at least, told we should want/need. we wouldn't even know what we're addicted to at this point. does fast food really taste good, or do we think it does because its fast? do we really need to drive a car, or own a home, or do any of the culturally entrenched things we do? we won't know till we can look back on this problem.

[trivas7]

well its been many moons since i posted here, but these hard times have driven me to extremes.:D

More and more i ponder the affects consumer driven culture has on those who (willingly or not) participate in it. I live in a fairly large metropolitan environment, and i see a lot of my fellow man. I ask myself lots of questions based on the observations i make.

thoughts?

I suspect the tendency towards addiction is by and large genetic. Corollary to it is the hedonic treadmill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill).

[danyboy27]

i dont think overconsuming is purely a capitalist problem, people always loved to own stuff, and there is more stuff avaliable than ever right now, and if you consider that communism would ultimatly create more good than ever+reduce working hour, it will give more time and power to people to own stuff.

some people are more exposed to addiction, then again even in a communist society there will be people addicted to stuff, that the way it is. perfectly normal and sane people could turn out alchoolics overnight if they have a predisposition toward it.

[Dyslexia! Well I Never!]

I don't know about addiction but the instinctive drive for attainment of objects should be left well enough alone it's what got us all here is the first place

It is the very ability of man/woman to wish to attain things that allows him/her to progess.

It doesn't matter what society humans live withon the basic desire to attain persists once bombarded with the mainfold pomps, luxuries and boondoggles of modern civilisation it is only natural that at least some humans will strive to attain at a unsustainable rate.

As an easy example of the drive of humans to attain objects ask a group of people what they want and see how many want to attain an object rather than something less substantial like a concept or sensation.