Consumerism and the Shopocalypse

[skyfaller]

Could it be that consumerism and escapism destroy intelligent races before we can make contact with them? Is that why we haven't found any space aliens yet? If so, what can we do to avoid that fate?

Perhaps Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping will save us all. Maybe we'll need something a little more radical than that. At any rate, if Geoffrey Miller is right, something must be done.

Comments

[arctangent.livejournal.com]

Actually, the dude saying that is saying that "we" -- the Blue Staters -- will be destroyed, but that a more primitive, less consumerist/escapist culture that already exists will supplant "us" -- the Red Staters. We'll be outbred by people who like big families, outfought by people who like weapons, etc.

It's typical culture-war rhetoric, and I don't like it very much, but he is, to a degree, right -- things like family values, religious values, a culture of self-sacrifice, a culture of conformity/cooperation/obedience to authority, Geschellschaft as opposed to Gemeinschaft -- all these things make a culture more Darwinianly fit than a culture that lacks them. I don't like his doomsday rhetoric and his statement that a culture that incorporates these elements would naturally be one that "we" would find repugnant -- but then, he might find me repugnant if he knew me, so hey.