By Michael Beck
We delude ourselves to think we can ‘conquer’ nature. Suzi Orozco-Neu summarized my last post perfectly with this point, and yet, she almost understated it. When I wrote “Is Mother Nature Fighting Back?,” I tried to demonstrate the overwhelming concern that virtually every Earth scientist expresses for the consequences – the blowback – humanity will ultimately reap from a damaged environment.
Instead of ‘delusion,’ may I suggest insanity? It’s only delusional for some run-of-the mill fool to assume people love him even as everyone runs for the hills the minute they see him coming. It’s insanity for someone like Gaddafi to assume everyone loves him even as he murders half his people to prove it. Our culture’s embrace of mindless consumerism as the apex of civilization – grounded in nature as a mere dead pile of raw materials – morphs from delusion into insanity to the extent that it promotes ecocide, literally the killing off of the ecology.
Now, before you brand me as some fanatical environmental extremist, note that I paint only a single facet of our civilization, mindless consumerism, as insane. (If others wish to apply the label more widely, that’s up to them.) But just look at our 24/7 commercialism. Its very lifeblood is saturation advertising to sell ever more stuff through increasingly ferociously sophisticated ‘neuromarketing’ that completely bypasses rational thought. That is, it thrives on mindlessness. And just where is the boundary between mindlessness and insanity?
Now let’s turn from ecology to psychology. If individuals truly pursue their enlightened self interest, wallowing in a lifestyle that celebrates mindlessness strikes me as madness. At the very least, it’s not exactly what the doctor would order to promote inner peace and balance.
At Postconsumers, on the other hand, we live for peace and balance. Based on the neuropsychiatric background in Dr. Peter Whybrow’s American Mania: When More is Not Enough, we offer a mindset that I personally think of as a ‘neuromarketing proofer.’ And just as Postconsumers has transitioned its blog to a more interactive, article format, I personally am focused on linking my ecological and societal concerns even better with the psychological balance that comes from sane inner values as opposed to the cacophony of outer marketing.
I am looking forward to reading your comments, either below or on Facebook.
