That's when it came to me: biological devolution was the answer. Buyology is defined as-noun: The urge to consume, purchase, buy, own. "He's so into buyology -- look at all those labels."
So many folks are driven by the constant advertising bombardment that cunningly tries to convince us all that we'll be more popular, more attractive, more wealthy, more-more-more everything if we'd just smarten up and buy whatever it is they're selling. The advertising industry does its homework, they've read up on human psychology, they've learned that almost everyone of us rogue primates is, deep down, insecure and fearful about our looks, the opinions of others, our future security, lottsa stuff. Salesmen and advertisers use this knowledge about our fears in an attempt to manipulate us into irrational behavior like lining up for hours at a border crossing to save a few miserable bucks on a buncha crap we don't need anyway.
These folks in the lineups weren't poor people going to Bellingham to buy cheese, milk and bread, at the lower American prices, so they could feed their family next week. These folks were, almost all, idling their precious time away in an SUV or expensive new-ish car, they were addicted consumers. Consumers are unconsciously destroying the planet. The addiction to consumption is devolution in that every one's genetic endowment to their children and grandchildren, the basic biological urge, is being rendered meaningless by needless-senseless buyology.
Wake Up People, do you really want to be a puppet, a tool in someone else's game.
Media Resistance To Consumer Resistance: On The Stonewalling Of "ADBUSTERS" And Advocates - by Richard W. Pollay, UBC
