Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The one who acquires the most toys…
In the current issue of Seed magazine, Jonathan Gottschall reviews the new book, Spent, by Geoffrey Miller. The book aims to understand from whence springs our “consumerist mania,” and to find a way to live more sustainable, sane and satisfying lives.
In his review, Gottschall calls marketing, “the jet fuel of unrestrained consumerism.” I love the metaphor. The fuel of rampant acquisition is the marketer’s chorus of “you ‘need’ this!!”
But why do we allow ourselves to be convinced? Spent author Miller combines the concepts of “conspicuous consumption” and Darwin’s concept of “sexual selection theory” to find an answer. He compares the Peacock’s tail and the Elk’s antlers to their human equivalents in Hummers and McMansions. All energetically wasteful ornaments, consuming a disproportionate amount of their owners resources in comparison to the benefits they bestow.
Reviewer Gottschall seems to have mixed feelings about Spent, praising some of Miller’s points and ridiculing others. But he agrees with the author’s central contention that, “we are awash in an ocean of consumerism, and we can’t fully understand that ocean (much less struggle out of it) until we recognize that it wells up from evolved biology as well as culture.”
Check out Jonathan Gottschall’s review of Spent at:
www.seedmagazine.comThen maybe spend some money and pick up Miller’s book.
Labels: consumer behavior
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