The EEA and the mall

Let's tabulate:

Humans in the Pleistocene

Move around in small groups

Bewildered by the surrounding environment but forced to interact with it for survival

Have only a small and stereotypical culture

Subject to capricious changes in circumstances

Humans in the mall

Move around in small groups

Eminently understandable environment with opt-in/opt-out immediately available if gratification delayed even for a moment

Have only a small and stereotypical culture

Ensured of constancy of circumstances

(Mall here is shorthand for allegedly shallow, market-led, TV-and-shopping existence.)

There is a prevailing body of myth that claims humans like to be outdoors, that we prefer lofty goals than just getting by, that we can only achieve totality or satisfy unarticulated spiritual needs by oneness with nature and such. This myth was manufactured in the 60s and honed in the 90s, where most of us caught a bad case of it.

In truth, we like our environments changeless, our horizons proximate, and our superficial needs met in superficial ways. So it sounds to me as though, from caves to malls, we've evolved ourselves into this corner and we're getting what we, at a genetic level, want. Those that truly live the myth i.e. reject the mall are the outliers, the species-fringe -- the denizens of the mall are the norms. Who will outlast the other? Who has the upper hand?

Dawkins says we should beware the tyranny of the selfish replicators. He meant genes but a friend of mine pointed out to me once that it also applies to the social underclass, who tend to replicate a lot and, we must note, shop in malls…

The meek shall inherit the mall. What are you going to do then?