The greatest myth ever invented is the myth of the rational consumer. Anything is more believable: vampires, ghosts or werewolves. At least those creatures are grounded in primal human fear.
Lock a poet in a room with nothing but a pencil and paper and they will create endless absurdities and tropes, but no poet worth their salt would ever disrespect their reader by trying to sell them on the idea of the rational consumer.
In order for there to be a rational consumer, there has to be a connection between value and desire. Now I’m not talking about basics like food, clothing or literature, because such things would be produced and consumed by any sufficiently well organized society.
I’m talking about the things that serve no purpose, that satisfy no need; soda, sugar sticks and pseudo-sociology, pornography both private and promotional, marvel movies and magic cards.
Of course it’s not the fault of the witless consumer (myself included) that fork over hard earned money for trash. It’s trickery. Everyday, we are bombarded by endless images and videos that slowly make us believe we want these things, that we need them even.
The human mind is only capable of processing so much information, and at a certain point, it’s just easier to comply with what your environment clearly is pushing you to do.
The trash-makers are so desperate to feed the need that they designed entire systems whose sole purpose is to persuade us. When I go to the movies I’m not just watching a cinematic narrative; I’m being primed by subtle product insertions.
When I go to the grocery store the garbage is almost always cheaper than the actual food. When I go to a bookstore, I have to strain my patience if I want to find a book that is actually worth reading.
I can’t just not buy food. I can’t just refrain from leisure activities like reading or watching television. I can’t scrape off the corporate logo from every piece of clothing I own. So there’s only one choice: consume or die. Make that choice count, because some fates are worse than death.
