Dangerously Addictive: Why We Are Biologically Ill-Suited to the Riches of Modern America

Dangerously Addictive: Why We Are Biologically Ill-Suited to the Riches of Modern America

By Donal on Sun, 09/25/2011 - 9:49am |

[Peter C. Whybrow, MD] “It’s called the American Dream,” George Carlin lamented shortly before his death, “because you have to be asleep to believe it.” ... Carlin ... understood earlier than most that the debt-fueled consumptive frenzy that has gripped the American psyche for the past two decades was a nightmare in the making - a seductive, twisted, and commercially conjured version of the American Dream that now threatens our environmental, individual, and civic health.

The United States is the quintessential trading nation, and for the past quarter century we have worshiped the “free” market as an ideology rather than for what it is - a natural product of human social evolution and a set of economic tools with which to construct a just and equitable society. Under the spell of this ideology and the false promise of instant riches, America’s immigrant values of thrift, prudence, and community concern - traditionally the foundation of the Dream - have been hijacked by an all-consuming self-interest. The astonishing appetite of the American consumer now determines some 70 percent of all economic activity in the United States. And yet, in this land of opportunity and material comfort - where we enjoy the 12-inch dinner plate, the 32-ounce soda, and the 64-inch TV screen - more and more citizens feel time starved, overworked, and burdened by debt. Epidemic rates of obesity, anxiety, depression, and family dysfunction are accepted as the norm.

It is the paradox of modernity that as choice and material prosperity increase, health and personal satisfaction decline. This is now an accepted truth. And yet it is the rare American who manages to step back from the hedonic treadmill long enough to savor his or her good fortune. Indeed, for most of us, regardless of what we have, we want more and we want it now. The roots of this conundrum - of this addictive striving - are to be found in our evolutionary history. As creatures of the natural world, having evolved under conditions of danger and scarcity, we are by instinct reward-seeking animals that discount the future in favor of the immediate present. As a species we have no familiarity with the seductive prosperity and material riches that exist in America today. A novel experience, it is both compelling and confusing.

[Published as PDF]

URL:

http://www.postcarbon.org/Reader/PCReader-Whybrow-Addictive.pdf

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