Most of us haven’t seen actual “live” … errrr mobile zombies in the flesh. But from stories and films, it is clear that they have needs. Like the rest of us, they have a fair amount of energy and what do they do after breakfast? A female zombie might not be so picky about her food, because it seems from what we have seen, any human will do—but clothes? We have no reason to believe that given the opportunity, a female zombie would not be just as interested in that all-consuming female activity, namely “shop ‘til you drop.” After she has had breakfast of course.
What would the shopping habits of a female zombie look like? Let us look at her pre-zombie expression vis-à-vis shopping to get an idea. While “still in the flesh,” how was she fulfilling the demands of the sensation energy center of her false self survival strategy? As we began to collect our evidence it became curiously evident that Avis the American mall maven would probably give us an accurate picture what the behavior of Nancy the non compos mentis shuffling sale hound would be. The behavior of both would be relatively mindless.
Sorry about that ladies but don’t blame us, we are only reporting the evidence revealed by Avis Cardella in her review of Elizabeth Cline’s book The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. What is that mindless behavior? First, let’s define mindless behavior as irrational, that is to say, human behavior that does not “make sense.”
For example, “Do we believe that by continually acquiring and displaying what we wear, we are creating an identity, an eternal brand of the self? Simple Reality says we are not creating an identity but expressing an identity that we already have.
“When Cline cleans out her closet she discovers, among other things, 61 tops, 60 T-shirts, 15 cardigans and hooded sweatshirts, 21 skirts and 20 pairs of shoes, most of which she never wore.” This is what we mean by mindless or compulsive consumption.
What about the so-called “haul” videos on YouTube where shoppers post reviews of their purchases? Again, we can understand those kinds of activities as an almost frantic attempt on the part of compulsive shoppers to distract themselves from their existential pain. Life is suffering. But not if I can keep myself mesmerized by continuous and never-ending consumption.
Cline writes, “People crave connections to their stuff.” There you are! Buddha discovered that the origin of existential suffering was “craving” and “aversion.” But for the American female shopper it is not just purchasing clothes, it is keeping the clothes “flowing” through her closet. “In 2010, Goodwill sold 163 million pounds of used clothes and household items.” So the complete pattern of the behavior of the shopping zombies is not just buying but buying and donating, otherwise the flow of the addictive activity would be blocked by a full closet. And addiction, as we have learned is one of the hallmarks of an unconscious person and maybe an unconscious zombie too, although it might sometimes be hard to distinguish between the two.
Cline asks some very perceptive questions to which she did not know the answers. But since we are privy to the context and content of Simple Reality—we do. “Have we somehow become disconnected from ourselves?” We most certainly have lost the awareness of our True selves which has us behaving in a mindless and self-destructive manner.
“If we don’t stop to consider this [the distinction between True self and false self, i.e. zombie behavior], we may end up perpetually rushing out to buy more “stuff,” never realizing what we truly need, genuinely want and cannot afford to waste.” We have already ended up perpetually rushing out to buy more stuff to fill our closets, garages, and storage units and frankly it’s pretty scary.
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References and notes are available for this essay.
Find a much more in-depth discussion in books by Roy Charles Henry:
Who Am I? The Second Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality
Where Am I? The First Great Question Concerning the Nature of Reality
Simple Reality: The Key to Serenity and Survival
