The Economy of Craving Part 1 — What the Ancient Greeks Knew About Consumer Society
For most of my life, I was locked into the cycle. I didn't even question it. Sugar was just part of my daily existence—Coke, Monster, processed food, constant cravings that felt normal. It wasn’t an addiction in the way people talk about addiction. It was just life. A small impulse, a small satisfaction, repeated endlessly.
Then I cut it. And suddenly, I saw things differently. Not just sugar, but everything. How cravings weren’t just physical—they were engineered. How people around me were trapped in their own loops, reaching for the next fix, whether it was food, caffeine, social media, entertainment. The constant need for something, for anything, as long as the mind never had to settle.
And that’s when it hit me. This isn’t just a personal struggle. It’s a system. A system that thrives on keeping people off balance, always wanting, never arriving. I started seeing it everywhere—in the supermarkets, in the advertisements, in the way people talk about their lives. They aren’t living. They’re consuming. And what they’re consuming isn’t food, or products, or entertainment. They’re consuming desire itself.
It reminded me of something Socrates once said while walking through the Athenian marketplace, surrounded by goods meant to dazzle and tempt. He looked at it all and said:
"How many things I have no need of."
The Market of Illusions
The marketplace has only grown since then—into sprawling malls, neon-lit advertisements, endless shelves of products promising fulfillment. And yet, the fundamental trick remains the same. The market does not just sell goods. It sells desire itself. The illusion that we are always missing something, that satisfaction is always one purchase away.
The Greeks understood this dynamic long before capitalism perfected it. They saw the dangers of craving, excess, and illusion, and they knew that true freedom was found not in having, but in needing less.
The Trap of Desire
Epicurus divided desires into three categories. Some are natural and necessary, like food, water, and shelter. Some are natural but unnecessary, like fine dining and luxury. And then there are those that are neither natural nor necessary—the endless pursuit of wealth, status, fame. It is this last category that ensnares people. A person who needs only what is necessary is hard to control. But a person who constantly chases artificial desires is forever a servant of craving.
Modern consumer society has perfected the art of keeping people in this third category. It does not just satisfy hunger—it creates hunger. Processed food is designed to make you eat more. Social media is engineered to keep you scrolling. Entertainment is structured to never let you feel at peace, always needing the next hit, the next distraction.
The Illusion of Freedom
But is it not our choice? Do we not live in a world of endless freedom, where we can buy, consume, and indulge as we please? This is the great trick of modernity.
Socrates would have laughed at the idea that this is freedom. He believed that to be truly free is to master oneself. To be ruled by desires is to be enslaved, no matter how gilded the chains.
Because the sugar addict believes he chooses to drink, but his body tells a different story. The consumer believes he is making independent decisions, yet every choice has been pre-programmed by marketing, by advertising, by a system that knows exactly how to manipulate desire.
The Philosopher-King and the Empty Throne
Plato imagined an ideal society ruled by a philosopher-king—one who seeks wisdom, not power, one who governs not through greed, but through knowledge. But in the modern world, the throne is empty. In its place stands the marketplace.
Consumption rules.
Instead of striving for virtue, people strive for luxury. Instead of pursuing wisdom, they pursue comfort. Plato feared democracy would devolve into tyranny, as people, driven by their base desires, would hand power over to those who promised them pleasure. And what is modern consumerism if not a soft form of this tyranny? Not imposed from above, but welcomed with open arms, with every new trend, every new product, every new craving.
The Escape—A Return to Simplicity
And yet, there is always a way out. The Cynic philosopher Diogenes rejected the illusions of society altogether. He lived in a barrel, owned nothing, and mocked those who chased wealth and status. When Alexander the Great stood before him and asked what he could do for him, Diogenes simply replied, "Move, you are blocking my sunlight."
That is freedom. The ability to say no, to refuse to be owned by cravings, to step outside the game entirely. The Stoics, too, understood this. Marcus Aurelius, despite being emperor of Rome, wrote of the discipline of desire, of controlling one's impulses rather than being controlled by them. Epictetus, born a slave, knew that true freedom is not in external wealth, but in internal mastery.
And so, we return to Socrates, walking through the marketplace, surrounded by goods meant to tempt, to entice, to create needs that were never there before. He sees through it all. He does not crave, he does not need. He is as free - as a man can be.