Western culture is based on bad habits

We have the freedom to be stupid and to buy stuff. Welcome to the land of exploitation.

We love to drive insanely overpowered cars. We drink alcohol. We smoke. We eat meat. We hoard guns. While this is fun, this is also very unhealthy.

We do not kick those habits. Instead we invent new ones like the search for online attention, a plethora of video games and crazy amounts of caffeine. We are addicted to reading bad news. We are hooked to the mysteries of clickbait. We are longing for someone to agree with us online.

The most profitable industries in the first world are based on those habits: cars, guns, legal highs and dopamine rushes by the slot machine that is the internet.

Is this what freedom looks like?

Most people don’t have a lot of wiggle room, because they are dependent on material needs, caged into their jobs, deadlocked into self-chosen responsibilities. Most people have to work a lot to put food on the table or to pay for a mortgage or loans, to create a stable environment for a family and — in the best case — put some some money aside for illness and retirement. Any change is complicated and costly. It is fair to say: The more safe your life is, the less you are free.

Instead of having the mobility that comes with material wealth people develop a kind of gear acquisition syndrome. This is where the bad habits come into play: Instead of striving for health and community and time a lot of people are looking for ersatz freedom.

At least we have the freedom to drink and smoke, to consume indecent amounts of meat and sugar and to barrel through town with a sport utility vehicle.

I work in the ad industry and I know what I’m talking about. There is a mirage of freedom depicted in countless Hollywood movies, the American middle class dream. An ideal that fits the wolves of wall street, rebel teenagers in muscle cars and sturdy cowboys on a ranch. It is deeply interconnected with bad habits. And with the success of capitalism in the idea of consumerism has conquered the rest of the world by storm.

The postmodern society is built around the needs of its customers: us. We are human beings and our bodies loves rushes: adrenaline rushes (by bad news, fast cars, games, guns and coffee), dopamine rushes (attention and alcohol), oxytocin rushes (sex), sugar highs and whatever painkiller or antidepressant we add to the mix.

Since the mid-80s there is a growing community of people, who wanted to improve the western system from within. They don’t want to abolish capitalism and they don’t talk revolution, but they want to cut off the spikes and edges that come with unregulated markets. They want to stop excessive profiteering on bad-habit-businesses. They fight for environmental control. They seek for a democratic socialism.

The right to exploit

On the other hand there is a growing community who oppose redistribution of wealth. People who profiteer from the exploitative nature of bad-habit-businesses team up with people who simply want to keep their freedom and with people who think it’s their RIGHT to exploit other people or natural resources. They think people on the wrong end of the exploit are just sore losers.

The question is: what is a fair game? Do you want to play games, where everyone is winning now and then? Or do you want a world that is divided in losers and winners?

There is a middle ground here and this is something that should be acceptable to all parties: Effort should pay. Exploitation shouldn’t.

Everything will be fine, they say

The magic of democracy lies in the optimism that comes with the possibility of a regime change, motivating a losing factions to try again harder next time. But again, any change is complicated and costly. Everyone is unhappy with the political process, because it’s a tug of war between a growing number of parties. While the democratic system is way too complex to achieve real fairness, too intransparent to predict outcomes, too big to have a measurable influence, we still believe in stories of easy solutions, like Alexander cutting the Gordic Knot.

We adore leaders that promise we can keep all the bad habits and everything will be fine. Exit Britain. Enter stage: nationalist right-wing autocrats.

It will earn us money, which in the end will benefit everyone (it doesn’t) There is no such thing as climate change (but there is). We don’t have to care for others if we simply can lock the doors (like iron curtains ever did something good). Unpredictability might be bad for diplomacy, but it is the fuel of the news cycle (true). Give me that sugar high now, tomorrow we might be all dead anyway.

No remorse.

This is what conservatism means today: Keep the freedom up, the freedom to make bad choices. Work hard. Keep the business running. Booze, meat and cars. Add some loans and prescription drugs. Add software hookups and entertainment. Add some little wars — on the other side of the planet — to keep the weapon sales up. Cut down government regulation.

And so we have the big divide in society. Everyone knows unhinged capitalism is exploitative, but it’s also the essence of western culture. It’s the branch we all sit on. It’s the money that gives us the freedom to buy more … stuff.

If you have a look to the US you see the western dominance strategy is working. Get over it. We are the good guys, those are the bad guys anyway. If we take something, someone else has to lose — not our problem.

But it is. We notoriously give too much attention to short-term outcomes. We elect leaders that give us what we want NOW (or worse: what THEY want now), instead of working for a better future. Leaders who promise to help us dominate others, instead of working together with them. Leaders who tell us other people are horrible bad hombres.

Ironically nationalist right-wing autocrats make the same mistake as all the failed communist regimes. They try to enrich themselves to stay powerful. They undermine checks and balances. They insert yes men into the judicial system. They fight to derail critical journalism. They even start 1984ish disinformation campaigns. You can see this in Venezuela, Turkey, Russia, Hungary, Brasil, the UK and of course the US.

To be clear: conservative strongmen enjoy incredible support. One reason is, because they remind us to our rebel teenage selves, the ones we saw in the movies, the ones we still want to become, shouting:

We don’t want leaders that behave like parents. We don’t want people to tell us right from wrong all the time. We shook off church, we have risen out of colonialism, we have a f*cking democracy. We-the-people tell ourselves what to think, what to like and what bad habits we want to have. I don’t want to live in a world where everybody is a saint, where everything somebody saying is under the looking glass of sj warriors and the pc police. Stop whining, girly faggots. Don’t tread on me, you green painted barefoot hippie know-it-alls. MAGA!

But at least let’s consider the exploitative nature of your conduct. Is it really necessary to suck up to your boss by squeezing your employees? Do you really need to work for the petrol, cigarette or gambling industry? Do you really believe that dual-use technology is only made to make the blind see and the cripples walk? Is it really ok to put kids in cages for the benefit of border security? Do you really believe in a necessary evil?

Do you think exploitation of weaknesses and bad habits is hard-wired to humanity, so why not take advantage?

At first glance this seems to be a sensible choice: take the winning side and you will belong to the winners. But if you exploit people you have exploited people to deal with. A border wall and a stockpile of guns might give you some feeling of security back, but this should not end in an Alamo scenario.

You can still navigate the grey area, don’t you?

You don’t have to be a saint to tell right from wrong. It is not about morals, it is about long-term thinking. You don’t have to be a vegan bicyclist to see that burning oil does create pollution. You don’t even have to be a vegetarian to understand the environmental issues of meat production. You don’t solve problems by pointing fingers to scapegoats and you should not let down people who need help. It’s all karma.

Well, it is not my job to talk somebody out of bad habits. If you should change your lifestyle for the better and if you refuse to do so, you simply have to live with being a leech.