The origin of this false need

It is not enough to denounce false needs to make them disappear. There will always be supporters ready to defend the worst habits in the name of tradition, convenience, individual freedom, and inveterate ecologists tempted to ban to ban. Things change when there are not only objective criteria to distinguish true and false needs, but clear explanations of their respective origins.

Saying, for example, “It’s wrong to smoke because it harms your health” is usually without much effect. Fear of danger is not necessarily dissuasive, as shown by the inefficientness of slogans such as “smoking kills” on cigarette packages. It is much more efficient to explain to smokers the reasons for smoking, and the reasons for it. Once known the psychological causes that prompted the young person to do “like the others” and the biochemical action of nicotine on brain cells, it is much easier to become aware of the meaning of this terrible habit.

Understanding exactly why and what has been victimized allows for an awareness that makes it singularly easier to renounce a pernicious habit. This remains true for all the false needs that make us victims of consumer dependence, and therefore the great artisans of planetary destruction…

Let us also note that any false need, not belonging to natural functioning, necessarily has a particular cause, most often of human origin, which can be defined by difference with real needs, whose causes are intrinsic to biology and evolution.