I’ve read some thought-provoking articles on consumerism recently. One was in The Observer – Stop shopping… or the planet goes pop:
‘Many big ideas have struggled over the centuries to dominate the planet,’ begins the argument by Jonathon Porritt, government adviser and all-round environmental guru.’Fascism. Communism. Democracy. Religion. But only one has achieved total supremacy. Its compulsive attractions rob its followers of reason and good sense. It has created unsustainable inequalities and threatened to tear apart the very fabric of our society. More powerful than any cause or even religion, it has reached into every corner of the globe. It is consumerism.’
He goes on to say…
‘I think capitalism is patently unable to go on growing the size of the consumer economy for any more people in the world today because levels of consumption are already undermining life support systems on which we depend – so if we do it for any more people, the planet will go pop,’ Porritt told The Observer. ‘So in a way we don’t have a choice about this: we’ve got to rethink the basic premise behind capitalism to make it deliver the goods. In the long run, when you really look at what happens on a planet with nine billion people and really serious constraints on the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that we can emit, it’s almost inevitable we will learn to have more elegant, satisfying lives, consuming less. I can’t see any way out of that in the long run.’
Meanwhile, author Lawrence “Mad Larry” Miles over on his blog issued this challenge…
So I say this, to anybody who might be reading these words in the future, assuming you’re not choking to death on your own packaging. Get rid of everything, absolutely everything, that you don’t want. Forget “need”, forget the whole Marxist idea of surviving while allowing others to survive. Get rid of everything you don’t really, really want. Throw it away, or give it to Oxfam, or leave it on a park bench. Any DVD you know you’re not going to watch again at least six times over, any CD you know you’re not going to listen to in a month’s time, any book you’ve already read and are just using to make your bookcase look better-stocked. Get rid of it. Stop buying more of it. Buy things only if you want them, only if they make you feel really, really good, not just because you’ve been told it’s normal to keep filling your home with dreck. And while you’re at it, don’t go and see any film at the cinema unless you’ve got good reason to think it’s worth seeing. If you’ve got money left to waste, then do something with it instead of wasting it, and stop encouraging people to fill the world with shit. You don’t want stuff, you certainly don’t need stuff, so take the stuff out of your life. That’s all.
I’m beginning to seriously think it might be a good idea. Anyone else up for it? One last quote, which is even more radical:
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”