|
|
Home |
 |
|---|
Top Men Happiness Shopping Chemicals Meaning of Life Outlawing Happiness Dealing with Problems Designing Society Conclusions Drugs Laws
In a wonderful book by Alan Dean Foster, one of the characters is a Valley Girl. You know, airhead, from California. When asked what the meaning of life is, she replies, "Shopping". Later, after the characters have either been abducted by aliens, or stolen an alien spaceship, or something, they find out that shopping IS the meaning of life, at least according to the great sages of the galactic civilization. Alan Dean Foster writes silly science fiction, but it is great fun, and I strongly recommend his books. Humor is a great window into the Human psyche. When something is funny, there is a reason. Usually, because it is true, or close enough to true to feel that way, but also confusing because it doesn't make sense. How can it be true that shopping is the meaning of life?
Thank you Alan Dean Foster for the question. To find the answer, I will borrow methodology from Desmond Morris. Desmond Morris is probably a bit more famous than Alan Foster. Good old Des wrote "The Naked Ape". In this book he analyzes human behavior in terms of how evolution shaped people to behave. Some people find this offensive, because it is the same method used to analyze animal behavior. I hope by using this method in analyzing shopping to demonstrate that it is a) accurate, b) fun, and c) very useful.
So, let us look at natural human behavior. Not what you think is natural, not what the chinese think is natural, not what the bible says is natural, and above all, not what people on daytime tv talk shows think is natural. Let's look at the way people behave as a primitive hunter gatherer tribal group. You see, people lived as primitive hunter/gatherers for hundreds of thousands of years before they invented agriculture, etc. The way they lived is the natural, i.e. dictated by nature, way for people to live. This is very different from normal behavior, what is normal in a society is dictated by tradition, religion, or worst of all political correctness, and is by no means guaranteed to be natural. In a hunter gatherer society, you have men and women, so far so good. The women take care of the children, do the housework, cook, and provide about 70% of the food. That's right, women do it all.
Top Men Happiness Shopping Chemicals Meaning of Life Outlawing Happiness Dealing with Problems Designing Society Conclusions Drugs Laws
Men
What do men do? Well, they expect to be fed, they expect to have sex, sometimes they fight, and sometimes they hunt. Mostly though, they go around telling each other how important men are, and how lucky women are to have them. Oh yeah, they burp, grunt and fart to.
When you come right down to it, men are not that important. They serve one vital purpose and a couple of less important purposes. They father children, the important purpose, and they hunt for meat sometimes and fight off enemies sometimes. Sort of a combination sperm bank with legs and guard dog. This is pretty much the way it is with all mammals. At some point in the process of evolution, Mother Nature decided to use the male mammal to play dice with human genes. Mix them up, and roll those babies. A winning roll is stronger, faster, smarter, more aggressive or more something. The woman then has her babies from a male who appears to be the winning roll, if she can get him. All females are really designed to need from males is that they look like a winning roll, and make babies. Anything else is extra. Among lions, it is the lioness who does the hunting and providing and child rearing, etc. People in primitive hunter/gatherer groups follow this basic pattern. The woman basically does it all, and the man is a combination sperm bank and guard dog.
Top Men Happiness Shopping Chemicals Meaning of Life Outlawing Happiness Dealing with Problems Designing Society Conclusions Drugs Laws
Happiness
Humans are basically happy this way. Happiness, to a large degree, comes from doing what comes naturally. Women living like this are not exactly liberated, but they are happy because they are doing what they feel like, and what feels right, and getting all the natural rewards that nature provides for them. Happiness does not necessarily come from being politically correct.
Top Men Happiness Shopping Chemicals Meaning of Life Outlawing Happiness Dealing with Problems Designing Society Conclusions Drugs Laws
Shopping
So, since we are looking at shopping right now, let us ask how shopping can be so important. Shopping is a woman thing, but there are very few malls in the normal hunter/gatherer neighborhood. So, what did primitive women use for shopping malls? The key lies in the gatherer part of the hunter gatherer description. Women were the primary food gatherers. Food grew all around them. A woman's day would be spent going from place to place, looking for food plants and gathering fruits, berries, grains, etc. She would usually be in the company of a few other women, they would go to their favorite places. Talk, gather, talk, gather, eat a little here and there. Then they would return home. There at home there would be a hungry male, their man. They would show off to him what they had gathered, and he would be deeply grateful and impressed with what a wonderful woman he had.
In the modern world women go shop. They are usually accompanied by a few other women, friends, they talk, shop, talk shop, eat a little here and there. Then they return home. There at home is their hungry male, their man, tired after a day at work. They show off to him what they bought, and he gets all upset because of how much it cost. What an insensitive brute. After she spent all day working to.
Of course there is a difference in the two situations. In the natural world, the woman is the provider, her actions are what feeds her, her children, and her man. In our normal world the man is frequently the provider, and her actions spend what he has provided. She is not really giving him anything by her shopping activity. Instead, she is taking away. So, his reaction to her behavior is possibly understandable.
Most behavior is a combination of learned and instinctive patterns. The fewer constraints society places on behavior, the more likely behavior is to revert to instinctive patterns. The closer a behavior pattern is to one dictated by nature, the more likely it is to produce a sense of rightness with the world, contentedness, and happiness. Shopping is very close to gathering in the basic details, with a sugar coating.
In addition to duplicating the basic patterns of behavior, shopping involves other people, who work in the shops and who wait on the shopper. Thus, in shopping behavior, the woman is treated as a high status person, waited on by others. So, one has the feeling of doing what is right, and gets the feeling of being important and high status. Shopping is gathering with a sugar coating.
Top Men Happiness Shopping Chemicals Meaning of Life Outlawing Happiness Dealing with Problems Designing Society Conclusions Drugs Laws
Chemicals OH God!
Now, the body is designed to reward behavior with chemicals when that behavior fits specific patterns that have been dictated by evolution. There is a possibility that the body actually creates drugs and pumps them into the blood stream of women while they shop to reward them for doing something that the subconscious recognizes as natural behavior. In addition, women get the ego boost of being treated as high status individuals by the shop workers. This means that shopping is very possibly both chemically and psychologically addictive. Which is probably why it is the national sport of american women.
Addictive behavior, Oh My God! Shopping should be outlawed! There should be government regulations against Shopping! Shoppers should be put in jail for their own protection!
What's wrong with addictive behavior? Everyone knows that the secret of happiness is to find something you like doing and to do it well, hopefully well enough to make a living at it. If it makes you happy, it is psychologically or emotionally addictive, and very possibly physically chemically addictive as well. So what. If it makes you happy and doesn't hurt anyone else, its your business. If all addictive behavior is outlawed, all behavior that makes people happy is also, automatically against the law. Who gave the government the right to outlaw happiness for "peoples own good"?
Top Men Happiness Shopping Chemicals Meaning of Life Outlawing Happiness Dealing with Problems Designing Society Conclusions Drugs Laws
Meaning of Life
Shopping is the meaning of life for many people because it is naturally and psychologically rewarding. It is naturally and psychologically rewarding because it mimics behavior that nature rewards women for doing. It is not the same behavior, and it does not produce the same benefits. In fact, when done to excess it can be self destructive, destroy ones credit rating and wreck your marriage. In fact shopping can be as bad for you as cocaine. There is as much justification for outlawing shopping, when you really do the logic, as there is for outlawing cocaine. Some people just cannot handle the temptation to shop responsibly. The flea market leads to the mall, the mall leads to over charging credit cards, then, its forging checks, once you are a criminal, you might as well sell your body so that you can buy that ring you wanted. After all, your marriage was probably broken up by fights over how much you spent shopping. That first shopping trip leads to a life of crime and degradation. Maybe shopping should be outlawed. For your protection of course. I can hear the husbands of america cheering. Hold it, gathering is a woman thing. Shopping is probably only really addictive for women. Let's make it illegal for women to shop, and make men do it (husbands are now groaning all over america). Someone has to, you know.
Top Men Happiness Shopping Chemicals Meaning of Life Outlawing Happiness Dealing with Problems Designing Society Conclusions Drugs Laws
Outlawing Happiness
If you outlaw everything that is potentially addictive, you automatically outlaw everything that makes people happy. Anything that makes you happy is potentially addictive. There is nothing wrong with addictive behavior as long as people are happy and no one gets hurt. Life is designed to have a number of things in it that are addictive, so people will do them over and over. That is the way life works. Addictive is natural, and natural is good, at least when its not abused.
OK, you probably did not like having shopping compared to cocaine use. The comparison however is not as far fetched as you would like. Instead of panicking, and saying "Addictive, Oh My God!!!!", let's look at this and come up with some common sense things that can be done so we can still be happy and not hurt ourselves or others.
Top Men Happiness Shopping Chemicals Meaning of Life Outlawing Happiness Dealing with Problems Designing Society Conclusions Drugs Laws
Handling Problems
The places where shopping causes problems is where the behavior is out of touch with reality. Place number one. Instead of gathering wealth when you shop, you are expending wealth. Solution, shop within a budget. If you can't afford the mall go to a flea market. If you can't affort the flea market, go to goodwill. Shopping is still fun. Place number two (the big crash) your husband is not delighted with your constant spending. Solution, lower your expectations. Nature designed you to expect his delight from gathering, because gathering was a generous behavior which provided for his needs as well as yours. Shopping is basically selfish, taking from him and giving to you. Nature tells you to expect praise as though you had helped him, when you were actually hurting him. This is unrealistic. He will try to fake it some of the time because he loves you, but he won't always succeed. He can't really give you what you expect, because you are not really doing what that behavior pattern was designed for. It's not his fault. It's just this artificial world we live in.
What can you do to make shopping a giving behavior instead of a selfish behavior? Shop for things you need, instead of want. Shop wisely, and instead of showing him how much you bought. Show him how much you saved. If he's aware of how little he knows about shopping he will be grateful and impressed. As he should be, and if you did it right, and he is not grateful and impressed, then it Is his fault.
Top Men Happiness Shopping Chemicals Meaning of Life Outlawing Happiness Dealing with Problems Designing Society Conclusions Drugs Laws
Designing Society
Another thing that people can do, once they understand things like this is to design behavior that will provide the same rewards as shopping without the pain of conflict between our instincts and the artificial world we live in. So, instead of shopping, try something like communal gardening. Not gardening by yourself, though that is great, but communal gardening with a group of friends. Plant herbs here, vegetables there, fruits over here. Weed, and gather in a group with your friends. Enjoy the sunshine, working with your hands, the company of friends, and then go home and cook a nice dinner with the fresh herbs and vegetables you gathered to show off to your husband. This is an almost exact imitation of instinctive gathering behavior, and will be rewarding. Unfortunately, it is like health food. There is no sugar coating. You don't get the pleasure of being waited on by the workers in the shops. So, like a lo-cal dessert, it probably won't catch on. Though it would almost certainly be good for you in the long run.
Top Men Happiness Shopping Chemicals Meaning of Life Outlawing Happiness Dealing with Problems Designing Society Conclusions Drugs Laws
Conclusions
Conclusions, shopping is the meaning of life, because it closely mimics a basic pattern of human womanly behavior that is meant to be addictive and repeated. When handled responsibly, shopping can be a source of happiness, and pleasure. It can also be dangerous when misunderstood or handled irresponsibly. Other forms of behavior can provide similar rewards to shopping without the drawbacks. All of this is possible because we studied shopping as a natural behavior, and looked at where it does and does not fit into this artificial world we have created.
This sounds really scientific doesn't it? Well, it is and it isn't. It is scientific in the sense that it is sound and logical speculation based on real scientific knowledge. It is not scientific in the sense that no one has followed shoppers around taking samples of their blood to measure changes in blood chemistry to check for mood altering changes, or done statistical studies to measure the psychological and emotional potential of shopping as an addictive behavior. So, what this article represents is intelligent, fair, reasonable discussion of why things are the way they are, and how we can make them better, but it is not gospel, it is not carved in stone or dictated from above. The ideas in this article are probably true in general, but future scientific studies may or may not prove them in detail.
This article introduces the tone, tenor, and nature of this book. All the essays in this book are of this nature. Reasonable realistic speculation based on scientific fact and reasonable assumptions, but not proved by scientific studies. They are designed to help you see things from another point of view and understand how and why men and women sometimes have problems understanding one another.
Top Men Happiness Shopping Chemicals Meaning of Life Outlawing Happiness Dealing with Problems Designing Society Conclusions Drugs Laws
Drug Abuse Paralels
It is worth noting exactly how close the paralel is between shopping and other forms of drug abuse. Use of natural highs is not inherently unhealthy. A runners high is not a bad thing, the high weight lifters get, while sometimes addictive according to an article in one of Weider's magazines is not a bad thing generally. We are designed by nature to receive these highs when we do something that is good for us. Physical effort and exercise generate mild highs and contribute to our health. There is almost certainly a natural drug related high associated with contact sports, especially for men. This is natural, and since we are designed for this regular input of natural chemicals in our blood stream, it is likely that we are more healthy with them than if denied them.
In drug abuse, however, an unnatural high is generated by inputting drugs in at a point where our body is not generating them. Effectively rewarding the drug abuser for behavior which is not good for them. This reinforces negative and unhealthy behavior, and creates social, personal and economic behavior.
In shopping, the behavior mimics a natural behavior that contributes to wealth with an artificial behavior which destroys wealth. Shopping behavior fools the body into generating a reward for a behavior that can be very negative and self destructive, giving a high where nature really did not intend one. This is a direct paralel to drug abuse. Shopping can thus be really classified as a form of potentially negative self destructive behavior along with drinking, smoking, drug abuse, etc.
On the other hand, humans vary. The perfect metabolic balance does not exist. Every body is different, and Mother Natures ministry is not exact. Persons with behavioral problems related to physiological causes have been found to frequently self medicate with products like tobacco. Various plant products are available in nature which can ameliorate or correct minor variations in physiology which could otherwise be serious.
Top Men Happiness Shopping Chemicals Meaning of Life Outlawing Happiness Dealing with Problems Designing Society Conclusions Drugs Laws
Problems with Laws
Outlawing things because some people abuse them, may cause greater problems
for others who use them well, and indeed need them. If a person enjoys
shopping, and doesn't abuse it, I can't see the problem. On the other hand,
if a person uses alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, etc., and doesn't abuse it,
I can't see the problem there either. Think about it. How much power do
you want the government to have to tell you what you can and cannot do,
when it is Your life and on one elses.
|
Home |
|
|---|
