GLUTTONY: The Age of Excess
The Culture of Endless Consumption
We have more than any generation in human history. So why does nothing ever seem to be enough?
We live in a world where nearly everything is available at the touch of a button. Food arrives at our doors. Entertainment never ends. Shopping never closes. Our phones deliver an endless stream of stimulation, distraction, and temptation.
We have more choices, more conveniences, and more opportunities for pleasure than our ancestors could have imagined.
And somehow, we still want more.
Gluttony was once understood primarily as the sin of eating and drinking to excess. But in modern society, it has evolved into something far more pervasive. We consume food, entertainment, information, possessions, experiences, and even attention with an appetite that seems impossible to satisfy.
In GLUTTONY: The Age of Excess, Kevin L. Whitworth examines how the ancient vice of overindulgence became one of the defining characteristics of modern culture.
Blending history, psychology, neuroscience, and sharp cultural commentary, Whitworth explores how an economy built around endless consumption influences our habits, our expectations, and our understanding of happiness.
Inside, you'll discover:
Why abundance doesn't necessarily produce satisfaction.
How the industrial food system transformed our relationship with eating.
Why streaming services, social media, and digital entertainment encourage endless consumption.
How advertising, convenience, and consumer credit make excess feel normal.
What neuroscience actually tells us about dopamine, reward, habits, and self-control.
The hidden financial, psychological, and social costs of constantly wanting more.
Why moderation and personal responsibility still matter in a world engineered to encourage indulgence.
This isn't a book arguing that pleasure is evil, prosperity is dangerous, or modern conveniences should be abandoned.
It's a book asking a much more uncomfortable question:
At what point does enjoying the abundance of modern life become surrendering control to it?
Provocative, insightful, and occasionally uncomfortable, GLUTTONY challenges readers to reconsider the difference between having enough and never being satisfied.
Part of The Seven Deadly Sins of Modern Culture, this book explores an ancient human weakness that has found extraordinary new opportunities in the modern world.
Because the greatest danger of living in an age of excess isn't that we have too much. It's that we've forgotten what enough looks like.
