Romantic consumerism..................

      Even what people take to be their most personal desires are usually programmed by the imagined order.  Let's consider, for example, the popular desire to take a holiday abroad.  There is nothing natural or obvious about this.  A chimpanzee alpha male would never think of using his power in order to go on holiday into the territory of a neighboring chimpanzee band.  The elite of ancient Egypt spent their fortunes building pyramids and having their corpses mummified, but none of them thought of going shopping in Babylon or taking a skiing holiday in Phoenicia.  People today spend a great deal of money on holidays abroad because they are true believers in the myths of romantic consumerism.
       Romanticism tells us that in order to make the most of our human potential we must have as many different experience as we can.  We must open ourselves to a wide spectrum of emotions;  we must sample various kinds of relationships;  we must try different cuisines;   we must learn to appreciate different styles of music.   One of the best ways to do all that is to break free from our daily routines, leave behind the familiar setting, and go travelling in distant lands, where we can 'experience' the culture, the smells, the tastes and the norms of other people.  We hear again and again the romantic myths about 'how a new experience opened my eyes and changed my life'.
     Consumerism tells us that in order to be happy we must consume as many products and services as possible.  If we feel that something is missing or not quite right, then we probably need to buy a product (a car, new clothes, organic food) or a service (housekeeping, relationship therapy, yoga classes).  Every television commercial is another little legend about how consuming some product or service will make life better.
      Romanticism, which encouraged variety, meshes perfectly with consumerism.  Their marriage has given birth to the infinite 'market of experiences', on which the modern tourism industry is founded.  The tourism industry does not sell flight tickets and hotel bedrooms.  It sells experiences.

-Yuval Noah Harari,  Sapiens:  A Brief History of Humankind