Need-gratification machines
“. . . Moon-Watcher felt the first faint twinges of a new and potent emotion. It was a vague and diffuse sense of envy--of dissatisfaction with his life. He had no idea of its cause, still less of its cure; but discontent had come into his soul, and he had taken one small step toward humanity.” ― Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey
It’s an aggressive title but perfectly apt to describe us.
Think of it this way: imagine your life fanning out behind you – a caravan of consequence if you will – and imagine wondering to yourself:
What have I consumed?
What have I discarded?
What have I wrecked?
What could I have ameliorated?
What have I stolen from the future?
In my case, I can feel the echo on my soul and know there will be a reckoning for my desecration.
And the truth is, it’s getting worse despite all the glorification of sustainability et al. Well, perhaps not worse but it’s certainly not getting any better judging by the way we’re still obsessed with the obligatory annual celebrations (I struggle with the amount of consumption and waste generated by Christmas which no one seems to know why they’re celebrating), our need to be constantly entertained, our ability to travel anywhere in the world and an endless supply of products and services that float like a dirigible just waiting to fall from the sky into our consumer laps.
I realise this modus vivendi isn’t universal and some people have done a volte-face the programme of ‘needs & wants’ but you have to look very hard to find them. For most of us, if we can afford it and say we need it, we buy it, consume it and discard it.
With my slightly cackhanded language, I realise I’m oversimplifying a desperately complex issue but you only have to follow the money – always a good litmus test of our so-called lives – to see what prevails.
I pause at this juncture to ask myself the question:
“How the hell did it get like this?”
There is no one-size-fits-all answer, nor a treatise with a linear exposition of how we went from an animistic presence to one where we’re now radically and irrevocably disconnected from the gods, but losing touch or being out of touch with the valence of our soul is a redeemable place to start. Not only that but our ability to stay focused on what’s important is, in part, derailed by our addiction to distraction – e.g. our phones (Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity), screens and, if we’re lucky enough, our subscriptions. You’d also have to include in your purview: population growth over the last 200 years, the Industrial Revolution, R&D, Big Pharma, the concentration of extreme amounts of wealth in a few hands (perhaps they think of themselves as Promethean or god-like), but, most of all, or perhaps the most pernicious of the regnant labels is: GLOBALISATION (i.e. go big or go home).
As I said, there is no one answer to the question but I long for a grown-up conversation about how we might become, again, more village-minded, more in touch with the earth and adapt ourselves in such a way that we weren’t driven, compelled or brainwashed to believe that work and the causes and effects that that brings about is the only way to live as humans.
Yes I’ve a downer on work, but when you’re stuck doing mindless, repetitive work, it’s no surprise that so many people seek an outlet from the torpor and ennui in buying a slew of unnecessary things, living for the next break and aimless wandering trying to justify their existence. Like all these throwaway lines of mine (they’re not really but might appear so), I realise and recognise that there are always ‘exceptions’ but I’m confident that X = Y and if it were otherwise we wouldn’t need to or want to work exclusively for profitmaking enterprises and would join together in an open-hearted way to see what it might mean to own and operate something that was generative of the world and not, as seems the case, earth-devouring.
I realise once again that the invective isn’t going to be your liking if it interferes with your way of being in the world but then again, if I’m not minded to prop up the system that cares not a jot for me or anyone else, why should I speak in support of it? If you were up for a chat, I’d ask you to consider first the notion — at least in England and Wales — of the company:
Companies Act 2006
1 Companies
(1) In the Companies Acts, unless the context otherwise requires—
“company” means a company formed and registered under this Act, that is—
(a) a company so formed and registered after the commencement of this Part,…
It’s not much to hang your hat on, is it? I and many others work for something that has no substance and only agency by dint of that which the directors and members give to it. And if that’s right, then why do so many people place so much store by this ethereal beast that can do no more than exist subject to the necessary Companies House filings? Or to put it another way, when someone proselytises a purpose-driven company, I do wonder what they or those in charge mean. The purpose, such as it is, can be found in the Memorandum and Articles of Association which typically, in the case of the Objects, are as broadly worded as possible. To illustrate my point, here is an extract from the Objects from Innocent which was incorporated on 17 February 1999 and originally called “Naked Products Limited”:
“3. The Company's objects are:
(a) To carry on, in conjunction with each other or as separate and distinct undertakings, ail or any of the following businesses: manufacturers, importers, exporters, agents, dealers (both wholesale and retail) in all articles of commercial, manufacturing, personal and household use and consumption and in all kinds of raw materials; warehousemen, storage contractors, shipping and forwarding agents; dealers in property and estates; property developers, property managers; estate agents, insurance agents and brokers, financiers, financial agents and to act as nominee, trustee, agent, factor, broker, executor, administrator, receiver for or otherwise on behalf of Companies…”
That seems a world away from what the website now says:
“We started innocent back in 1999 with a dream to make it easier for people to do themselves some good.
We might be a company that makes little drinks and cracks some bad jokes, but we’ve got some big dreams bouncing around our heads. We had our first one back in 1999 when we decided to crush fruit into bottles to help people do themselves some good. Since then, our dreams have got bigger and bigger.
Now we have dreams to keep people healthy while making sure our communities and our planet are healthy too. It's the reason we became a B Corp, always give 10% of our profits to good causes and are working to halve our supply chain carbon footprint by 2030*. Fancy getting involved?
*per litre”
Do you get my point?
No, well, it’s not so much that the Ad Men have been at work but a company can go in any direction and not one that has ecocidal tendencies. Just to be 100% clear, I’m not suggesting that Innocent has ecocidal tendencies but some companies do, even though they’d deny the same by dint of the fact that they “follow the law”.
In the end, my argument or postulation or admonition (I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusion) will, I doubt, gather no momentum, nor find a home in the hubris of growth or be well received or received at all given it goes to the very nature of humanity. Then again, if we don’t seriously look at our predilection for comfort and must-havery, arguably, all we’re doing is stealing the future faster than (if it was even possible) we can repair the same.
One last point. I’m very conscious that you may have a very different take on human making and have seen it in action and, if that’s the case, I salute you but you only have to look at the narrative of growth and prosperity that’s coming out the Labour Government, recently elected, to understand that it would be a brave government indeed to look at a very different way of us all being in the world. As to what’s happening on the other side of the pond, I don’t want to say too much but if Mr Trump wins in his campaign for reelection and proceeds to scrap all the environmental laws introduced by President Joe Biden then I genuinely fear for all of humanity (“The United States’s first major climate legislation dismantled, a crackdown on government scientists, a frenzy of oil and gas drilling, the Paris climate deal not only dead but buried.” – The Guardian, 6 February 2024).
Take care dear Substack readers.
Love, Julian
PS. I aim to keep this Substack page free but if you’re able to support my work, I have a Ko-fi page where you can make a small donation.
Photo by Henry & Co. on Unsplash