The Economy of Denial: Addiction, Extortion, Deception

Denial doesn’t end well, and the ‘Economy of Denial’ is destined to deconstruction.

Even the most opinionated become circumspect when the discussion turns to The Addiction Economy, for the term The Addiction Economy calls things by their real name, which disrupts our protective shield of denial.

Yes, denial, for ours is an Economy of Denial, where the surface stability of normalcy demands we avoid calling things by their real name at all costs, for that lays bare the core mechanisms of the Economy of Denial: addiction, extortion, deception. This is a jarring, disturbing mirror, for we see our own reflection.

We become quiet when The Addiction Economy comes up, for the core concept here is that highly profitable addictions have been normalized to the degree that the majority of the populace is addicted but doesn’t identify their addiction as an addiction because the words addiction and extortion have such negative connotations that they threaten both our sense of normalcy (i.e. belonging to the safe, stable, acceptable majority) and our self-pride that we’re far above the poor lost souls who succumb to addiction.

Addiction calls up images of illicit drugs and lost souls trapped in destructive dependency. Since discipline and will power are the highly valued engines of accomplishment, we view addicts with disdain, for their emotional craving for immediate comfort and solace has overwhelmed their rational will.

This is why saying that we’re addicted to our phones, social media, snacks, junk food, fast food, novelty, selfies, entertainment, the endless scroll of “news” and all things “money” is so disquieting, as all of these addictions have been normalized. Since “everyone does it,” it can’t be an addiction, right?

The denial isn’t just about recognizing behaviors as destructive dependencies; it’s also a denial of the core dynamic of our economy, which is weaponizing and normalizing our instincts to overcome our rationality. As Charles Darwin observed, “The very essence of instinct is that it’s followed independently of reason.”

It’s natural to seek sources of immediate comfort and solace, and be drawn to sources of novelty, distraction, amusement and belonging that are socially approved. These are our instinctual, hard-wired drives for dopamine hits and endorphin highs.

What The Addiction Economy does is exploit these instincts by engineering products and service to be so addictive that dependency is guaranteed. Given an immediate dopamine hit, rationality and will both dissipate into the ether, and the instinct to get another hit of comfort and solace increases.

Bet you can’t eat just one is the entire goal, and it’s easily amplified / weaponized. But just as important as the weaponization is the narrative control of normalizing destructive dependencies: impulsively looking at our phone hundreds of times a day isn’t like an addict seeking a hit; it’s normal. Turning to snacks for dopamine hits isn’t an addiction, it’s normalized. Everyone snacks, all day long.

This narrative control is so effective that anyone who refuses to get on board the addiction train is considered not just abnormal, but a threat because refusal is a way of saying “all of this is destructively addictive,” i.e. calling things by their real name, and this brings us face to face with our own dependencies on these products and services to provide us comfort, amusement and solace.

Just as the alcoholic cannot admit to being addicted to alcohol, we can’t admit that our dependencies are dependencies. We rationalize it all away, for the rational mind cannot reverse our hard-wired instincts, but it is absolutely masterful at conjuring rationalizations.

The same can be said for extortion, an ugly sounding word conjuring up images of sordid gangsters and helpless victims. That this is a core strategy of Corporate America is an ugly truth that we prefer to cloak with denial. I outlined this dynamic in
Here Come the Chaos Monkeys: we took away the durability of your appliance, now pay us extra for an extended warranty.

Deception is a core dynamic in the Economy of Denial, for to call it deception, i.e. by its real name, is to reveal the destructive nature of the economy. Deception plays out in multiple levels: products are labeled deceptively to con consumers into buying what they seek–a high-status product that enhances their self-worth in a society geared for downward mobility–with an inferior product intentionally packaged to claim something that isn’t true.

So the package of coffee is labeled “Kona Coffee,” but the fine print reveals it is only 10% Kona coffee. The other 90% is cheap filler. The idea is obvious: label cheap coffee as being $50 per pound specialty coffee, and sell it to those who feel better about themselves drinking coffee that’s labeled as high-status.

The deception is universal: the once prestigious brand is now made cheaply as a commoditized product bound for the landfill, but the brand can still be milked for higher profit margins.

Here’s another example. I recently accompanied a friend seeking 100% cranberry juice at a Big Box retailer. A dizzying array of juices claimed to be 100% cranberry juice, but this was not the case; a careful reading of the label revealed that they were “100% juice” but not 100% cranberry juice; they were blends of cheaper juices. Only one brand had only cranberry juice in the list of ingredients. The rest were intentionally deceptive.

The most important deception is the one protecting us from admitting that our economy doesn’t just profit from deception, it’s dependent on deception, in effect addicted to addiction, extortion and deception because if these were somehow extinguished, profits would collapse.

Denial is the core dynamic of collapse. Refusing to call things by their real name is the core rationalization that enables us to avoid facing our economy’s dependence on destructive dependencies. It’s cute to call the weaponization of instinct The Attention Economy, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s The Addiction Economy.

Denial doesn’t end well, and the Economy of Denial is destined to deconstruction. Our only option as individuals and households is
Going Cold Turkey in our Addiction Economy.

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