George, I love your work and I’m excited to be a new subscriber! I truly believe that at the core of it all, capitalism is a reflection of human selfishness. It’s all about chasing profit, even if it means hurting people and the planet. The endless desire for more and more, just for oneself — that’s what really drives it. And waste is just a byproduct of this. Old things are to be discarded, thrown into landfills, while we get the newer, shinier things. Until it no longer fulfills us. We think we’re living in abundance, but really our lives are emptier than ever. Nothing makes sense anymore. We’re all living under an illusion.
I am in awe of your writing George!! You speak absolute truth!! I'm 75 and in my teenage years, in the 60's I remember the advent of the supermarket and the explosion of "everything". And since then I have always been amazed at the sheer number of supermarkets everywhere and more incredible that they are all stocked with fresh fruit and vegetables all the time. How is this even possible!!? Of course now I know how, but it still amazes me. It is the baby boomer generation (I'm a baby boomer) that has done all this, everything, all the destruction and exploitation, everything. When I was a little girl I clearly remember the baker, the green grocer, the milkman, ice man all coming to deliver at our home and the amount they brought was very meager, but sufficient. We caught a bus or walked to the corner shop to buy flour and sugar and other items. It was the 60's and 70's which brought the massive explosion of goods and services. Thankyou so much George.
I actually believe that greed is symptom not a cause. Greed is a symptom of fear of scarcity. Fear of scarcity is baked into humans and all other life forms; as this article notes most of nature has worked out and accepted that it will go without at times and survival is highly possible but also potentially not likely.
Humans on the other hand, thank to our big brains, saw a way of cheating, of not going through the hard times of waiting it out, of facing the risk of not surviving... We began to hoard - we began to gather food for hard times; and as we did we began to conjure up ways to control nature for our own benefit in order that we did not have to face scarcity. Once we began to work out way of cheating (agriculture, domestication, preserving) we began to hoard more and more - a sense of triumph arose bringing with it a massive dopamine hit! Greed was born.
Greed is a consequence of cheating nature, of not being prepared to face scarcity.
In this world, as George has laid out so well, humans can have it all, even if it risks destruction of others, in order that scarcity is something we dare not think about. Each time we buy something we do not need, something out of season flown in from across the ocean, a garment we do not really need, we are exhibiting greed - we are cheating nature, we are allowing ourselves to be hacked by our fear of scarcity.
Humans didn't invent waste. They are waste. The only thing that they know how to create as a result is more waste. Now it's time for nature to flush the overflowing toilet.
Great essay George, can I just add there are people, and maybe if they hadn’t there might have been others come along but these two techno gizmo and marketing guys the likes of Edward Bernays and Victor Lebow:
To quote Bernays: “Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested largely by men we have never heard of. In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind."
To quote Victor Lebow: Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption.
We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an
ever-increasing rate"
When it comes to waste Annie Leonard has done as much as anyone going back nearly two decades first with her “The Story of Stuff" video published online in December 2007 : https://youtu.be/9GorqroigqM
Then her book version, also titled "The Story of Stuff," published (USA) in 2010.
The trouble is we (Humans) aren’t interested, after all we don’t see wildlife tidying up there crap, anyone with a dog knows that, so it ain’t gonna’ happen no matter how much we’re shamed into doing it🤔
"Even human bodies are designed to last without food for several weeks. During this time they can still function by metabolizing the fat reserves under their skin. This is our normal way of existing and how our bodies were designed to optimally operate. "
Figure if we could have done without the hyper-fashionable lie about that :).
You are correctly showing the worst parts of our Western led Corporatocracy. But I might point out that not everyone buys into this system in the West let alone Asia,Africa and the Middle East. Culture is strong in many other places even western Europe doesn't buy into this model.
George, I love your work and I’m excited to be a new subscriber! I truly believe that at the core of it all, capitalism is a reflection of human selfishness. It’s all about chasing profit, even if it means hurting people and the planet. The endless desire for more and more, just for oneself — that’s what really drives it. And waste is just a byproduct of this. Old things are to be discarded, thrown into landfills, while we get the newer, shinier things. Until it no longer fulfills us. We think we’re living in abundance, but really our lives are emptier than ever. Nothing makes sense anymore. We’re all living under an illusion.
I’m delighted you joined my Substack!
I am in awe of your writing George!! You speak absolute truth!! I'm 75 and in my teenage years, in the 60's I remember the advent of the supermarket and the explosion of "everything". And since then I have always been amazed at the sheer number of supermarkets everywhere and more incredible that they are all stocked with fresh fruit and vegetables all the time. How is this even possible!!? Of course now I know how, but it still amazes me. It is the baby boomer generation (I'm a baby boomer) that has done all this, everything, all the destruction and exploitation, everything. When I was a little girl I clearly remember the baker, the green grocer, the milkman, ice man all coming to deliver at our home and the amount they brought was very meager, but sufficient. We caught a bus or walked to the corner shop to buy flour and sugar and other items. It was the 60's and 70's which brought the massive explosion of goods and services. Thankyou so much George.
Thank you Ebi
I actually believe that greed is symptom not a cause. Greed is a symptom of fear of scarcity. Fear of scarcity is baked into humans and all other life forms; as this article notes most of nature has worked out and accepted that it will go without at times and survival is highly possible but also potentially not likely.
Humans on the other hand, thank to our big brains, saw a way of cheating, of not going through the hard times of waiting it out, of facing the risk of not surviving... We began to hoard - we began to gather food for hard times; and as we did we began to conjure up ways to control nature for our own benefit in order that we did not have to face scarcity. Once we began to work out way of cheating (agriculture, domestication, preserving) we began to hoard more and more - a sense of triumph arose bringing with it a massive dopamine hit! Greed was born.
Greed is a consequence of cheating nature, of not being prepared to face scarcity.
In this world, as George has laid out so well, humans can have it all, even if it risks destruction of others, in order that scarcity is something we dare not think about. Each time we buy something we do not need, something out of season flown in from across the ocean, a garment we do not really need, we are exhibiting greed - we are cheating nature, we are allowing ourselves to be hacked by our fear of scarcity.
You would then love my article about scarcity! https://open.substack.com/pub/georgetsakraklides/p/the-happiness-trap-how-humans-became?r=4mkmev&utm_medium=ios
Humans didn't invent waste. They are waste. The only thing that they know how to create as a result is more waste. Now it's time for nature to flush the overflowing toilet.
Great essay George, can I just add there are people, and maybe if they hadn’t there might have been others come along but these two techno gizmo and marketing guys the likes of Edward Bernays and Victor Lebow:
To quote Bernays: “Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested largely by men we have never heard of. In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind."
To quote Victor Lebow: Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption.
We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an
ever-increasing rate"
When it comes to waste Annie Leonard has done as much as anyone going back nearly two decades first with her “The Story of Stuff" video published online in December 2007 : https://youtu.be/9GorqroigqM
Then her book version, also titled "The Story of Stuff," published (USA) in 2010.
The trouble is we (Humans) aren’t interested, after all we don’t see wildlife tidying up there crap, anyone with a dog knows that, so it ain’t gonna’ happen no matter how much we’re shamed into doing it🤔
"Even human bodies are designed to last without food for several weeks. During this time they can still function by metabolizing the fat reserves under their skin. This is our normal way of existing and how our bodies were designed to optimally operate. "
Figure if we could have done without the hyper-fashionable lie about that :).
The "optimally" makes the untruth optimal.
You are correctly showing the worst parts of our Western led Corporatocracy. But I might point out that not everyone buys into this system in the West let alone Asia,Africa and the Middle East. Culture is strong in many other places even western Europe doesn't buy into this model.
Waste not want not.