Hi - you need to ask your surgeon how these polyps develop - but I suppose it is genetic and probably accelerated by smoking/bad dietary habits etc etc. All the usual non-specific waffle...!!
Surgical excision - i.e. a total colectomy - has probably been recommended to you as the most favourable option which ought to prevent the onset of colon cancer from the polyps. In other words, if nothing was done then you might develop colon cancer. I suppose that the presence of multiple polyps excludes "snipping them off" during a colonoscopy - easier to cut out the whole section.
I underwent a total colectomy for torrential diverticular bleeding five years ago. This was a full "surgeon's hands inside the abdomen" rather than a laparoscopic technique - the latter supposedly enabling quicker recovery due to its greater "non-invasive" methodology.
In response to another Medhelp patient, I placed the experience of my operation on Medhelp and you can read this on:-
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/523166
I suggest that you may like to print this off and show it to your surgeon and ask him/her "is this likely to be my own experience - more or less?" A total colectomy is a big operation and it will take time to recover.
Last suggestion - I would recommend a surgical team/hospital where total colectomies (also called ileorectal anastomosis) are carried out all day/every day. Try to engage a surgeon who is a specialist G.I. surgeon rather than a "general surgeon" who carries out occasional colectomies as well as hernias, sawing off legs and ingrowing toenails!!
Good luck and do come back if you have any more questions
regards
Morecambe