The unexamined life attends the consumption-oriented lifestyle. Meaning that external gratification dopamine addiction leaves little room for introspection. The consumption-addled mind can’t sit still for long enough to orient itself around anything that can’t be consumed or acquired - be that real or virtual. The competitive way of life rewards socialization over deep education. Superficial familiarity above profound insight. This all attends a broad-based sociopathy directed towards understanding people in order to ingratiate oneself into higher levels of society, at the expense of understanding the natural world and its processes. Disposability favoured over craftsmanship. Knowledge is deemed “useless” if it can’t be put to direct use accumulating additional wealth materiel and corresponding status.
All of which exhibits an unnatural way of being. The human linear extrapolation delusion, over the natural arc of nature. Humans inherently fear the natural world, and the future. Nature has been conquered by all means at mankind’s disposal. Tall mirrored skyscrapers void of humanity, tower above the concrete desert. The future has been conquered by industry-captured sociopaths spinning false narratives for a commission. The wholly unnatural entity known as the multinational corporation has arbitraged away humanity, because it was in the way of quarterly profit. We are not the consumers, we are the consumed. What we call "lifestyle", is really "deathstyle": the untold mental and physical attrition required to accumulate underutilized piles of junk. All capped off with an humiliatingly incontinent ending, riddled by a decades-long consumption binge.
Really, why is the end of Globalization so bad? The return of control to local markets, and local cultures. An end to the corporate monoculture that now infests the planet.
For the most part we know why - because humanity has been systematically programmed from birth to be inhuman. To be corporate consumption drones ahead of deep thinking humans. What now abides at this late stage of deformation is a sea of two dimensional individuals floating rudderless in a sea of ad-sponsored disinformation, wholly incapable of differentiating fact from fiction. Incapable of thinking for themselves and therefore falling back on a collective cynicism towards all of humanity. Having no concept of what is “good” or “bad” except as it informs short-term self-interest. Far from being protected by their cynical pretensions, these people are ready prey for the sociopathic sharks carving their way through humanity, feasting on the gullible at will.
In order not to fear the future, one must eschew the consumption lifestyle. One must realize that external gratification addiction leads to health decay, mental infirmity, and the incapacity to face the truth in any direction. Somehow along the way consumption-based masochism was conflated with machismo in this society. A cabal of overfed Tony Soprano wannabes pretending that their willingness to expose themselves to corporate toxic waste makes them more manly.
Quite the opposite, the consumption oriented lifestyle destroys testosterone, which has created a society of testosterone depleted man-boys. And yet it's the exact same people who are now wondering why everyone is getting sex changes. It must be a feminist conspiracy. Think about it. "The future is plastic".
Again, I return to the question at hand, why is the end of Globalization and the greatly feared end of mass consumption really so bad?
Is it because it brings a real future instead of a recursively self-imploding dead end?
The ability to be informed instead of constantly misled?
Family life above terrorism and mass shootings.
To go through life lucid instead of stoned?
To live in the real world versus virtual reality?
To have a social life outside of the computer?
To go through life healthy and full of energy as opposed to feeling like a serially drained battery?
The requirement to produce and consume in equal amount?
The requirement to save instead of borrow, leading to a solvent retirement?
The desire to conserve versus desecrate this planet?
The ability to begin to understand life and what it’s really worth?
Not so bad, for those who can wean themselves off of Big Macs.
I'll take it, because the alternative is pure science fiction.
