Within We buy, we possess, we accumulate. We fill garages, closets, warehouses, and landfills. We buy what we do not need to replace what we already have, which in turn was bought to replace something else.
The West has transformed desire into a conditioned reflex and happiness into an endless expenditure. Every year, in wealthy countries, tons of still-functional objects are discarded because the new model has a more appealing line, an unprecedented color, or a more persuasive advertisement. This is not economics. It is bulimia. And like every bulimia, it leaves the body satiated but the soul empty. The term is not chosen by chance. The bulimic ingests without measure and then expels, because the food has not been absorbed. Thus, the West consumes resources as if the planet were an infinite warehouse, and then expels waste, pollution, and inequality. The food of development has filled supermarkets, but it has also generated a widespread sense of nausea: the nausea of those who possess everything and enjoy nothing, of those who have access to any good yet feel empty, of those who live in an unprecedented abundance yet suffer from depression in epidemic proportions. The paradox is before everyone s eyes, but almost no one names it. Western bulimia produces not only material waste. It produces human scraps. Thousands of people whom the system has consumed and then expelled: workers burned by competition, young people without a future but with bank accounts full of debt, the elderly abandoned in a loneliness that no tablet can fill. The model that promised well-being for all has created well-being for a few and widespread malaise for many. And the saddest thing is that the few do not even know it: they are too busy buying the next thing to realize that happiness was not there. Yet, something is moving. Not in the halls of the powerful, not at the G20 summits where biodegradable plastic is discussed while planning the next infinite growth. It is moving in the margins, in the suburbs, in the courtyards of public housing, in solidarity purchase groups, in farmers markets resisting large-scale distribution. It is moving in the silent choices of those who decide that enough is enough, that the latest smartphone can wait, that meat consumption can be reduced, that clothes can be mended rather than thrown away. It is not an armed revolution. It is a revolution of gestures. And gestures, when they become millions, change the world more than laws. Degrowth is not a swear word. It is a proposal for civilization. It means producing less, consuming less, working less, but living better. It is not a return to the cave; it is an exit from the golden prison of consumerism. It means rediscovering that leisure time is not a cost but a wealth, that human relationships do not need technological intermediation, and that beauty is not a commodity but a breath. Countries that have adopted well-being indicators alternative to GDP have discovered that one can grow in happiness while the economy slows down. The news has not yet reached the evening news, but it is true. True hope lies not in a return to the past. It lies in the courage to imagine a different future. A future where cities are designed for people, not for cars. Where water is not a commodity but a right. Where work is not a condemnation but a realization. Where children can play in the streets without parents fearing for their lives. Where the elderly are listened to, not forgotten. Where diversity is a wealth, not a threat. It sounds like a dream, I know. But all the dreams that have changed history seemed impossible until the eve of their realization. The bulimic West still has an ethical chance. It is the capacity to admit that we have gone in the wrong direction, to reverse course before the ship crashes onto the rocks. There are no culprits to prosecute, except the very idea that more is better, that growth is always right, that consuming is the only way to be happy. It is an idea that has killed the sense of measure and transformed man from a social animal into a desiring machine. But machines, sooner or later, stop. Men, however, can begin again. There is no need for heroes. There is a need for ordinary people who every day make abnormal choices. Buy less. Walk more. Repair instead of replacing. Reuse instead of discarding. Listen instead of speaking. Stay silent instead of filling every void with voice. Small choices that seem insignificant but instead build, brick by brick, another possible world. The world will not change by decree. It will change because millions of people will have decided that it is no longer worth living this way. Western bulimia still has time to heal. Awareness of the evil is already the first step of healing. The second is the daily practice of sobriety. The third is the joy of discovering that with less, one lives better. It is not a sermon; it is an evidence that millions of people are already experiencing. One can be happy without owning the latest model. One can be free without having to choose between a hundred different brands. One can be human without having to consume the world. It is enough to want it. It is enough to stop believing that happiness is in the shop window. It is enough to look within, where there has always been everything needed.
RVSCB
Professional Bibliography
Latouche, S., Short Treatise on Gentle Degrowth (original: Petit traité de la décroissance sereine), Bollati Boringhieri, Turin, 2008. (Manifesto of degrowth as a civilization project).
Jackson, T., Prosperity Without Growth, Edizioni Ambiente, Milan, 2011. (Economic analysis of the possibility of well-being beyond GDP).
Bauman, Z., Liquid Modernity (original: Modernity and Ambivalence), Laterza, Rome-Bari, 2002. (On the condition of fragility and dissatisfaction in consumer society).
Illich, I., Tools for Conviviality (original: La convivialité), Mondadori, Milan, 1973. (Critique of industrial society and proposal for convivial tools).
Alexander, S., The Politics of Degrowth (original: The Politics of Degrowth), Ombre Corte, Verona, 2017. (Political and social analysis of alternatives to infinite growth).
Klein, N., No Logo, Baldini & Castoldi, Milan, 2001. (Critique of branding and the commodification of identity).
Fromm, E., To Have or to Be? (original: Haben oder Sein?), Mondadori, Milan, 1977. (Fundamental distinction between the existential modes of having and being).
D Eramo, M., The Pig and the Skyscraper (original: Il maiale e il grattacielo), Feltrinelli, Milan, 2003. (Analysis of territorial devastation linked to land consumption).
Morseletto, P., The Society of Waste (original: La società dello spreco), Edizioni Ambiente, Milan, 2020. (Essay on waste as a systemic structure).
Rifkin, J., The Empathic Civilization (original: The Empathic Civilization), Mondadori, Milan, 2010. (On a possible way out based on cooperation rather than competition).
Note: The bibliography follows ISO 690:2010 standards. Dates refer to the relevant Italian editions.
