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Rampant consumerism is the exploitative pyramid scheme that's made the U.S. (and really the entire west and the part of the world that mimicks its economics in
by cmurf 9y ago
Rampant consumerism is the exploitative pyramid scheme that's made the U.S. (and really the entire west and the part of the world that mimicks its economics in some form or other) wealthy.
There's no possible way U.S. or global plutocracy is going to be kind and look the other way at attempts to shrink their economy. They'd sooner see the world burn.
I think what it would take, is a genome change. We'd need to be a different species. Perhaps inheritable memory so each generation isn't always forgetting the violence of their ancestors.
- crush-n-spread 9y agoYou're getting downvoted but you're basically correct. Notice how human civilization is dictated by a four-generation cycle like Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring. We're in the Summer/Fall transition and we will soon be entering the Winter right now. But if the baby boomers, Gen X and Millenials could have some genetic memory of WW1, the Great Depression and WW2, then we might not be in this situation.
- khedoros1 9y agoIt sounds like a milder version of the situation in Childhood's End (in the sense of humanity essentially birthing an alien race that will live in utopia, but dying off itself). It's a creative re-framing of the problem, though. From "how do we force humans to behave better" to "what do humans need to be, in order to behave better".