[dohboi]

Pope Francis To World Leaders: Consumerism Represents ‘Constant Assault’ On The Environment

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/1 ... nsumerism/

A brief history of contemporary “consumerism” and anti-consumerism

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014- ... onsumerism

These two pieces fit rather nicely together and, given the centrality of the issue for understanding our situation, I thought they would be worthy of discussion.

Please try to keep discussion focused on the message and not so much on the messengers. Thanks.

[vtsnowedin]

The day you are born they wrap you up and place you at your mothers breast and you begin consuming. It becomes a lifetime habit. I don't think they will ever get humans to not consume. They need a better name for what they are railing against.

[vtsnowedin]

The day you are born they wrap you up and place you at your mothers breast and you begin consuming. It becomes a lifetime habit. I don't think they will ever get humans to not consume. They need a better name for what they are railing against.

Bad taste? Honey Boo Boo?

All the trendies take trips around the world to consume local customs, nature, art, and anthropologically-correct "culture." They burn petroleum. Is that consumerism?

Bad Taste? Were you bottle fed and now need therapy? Having not watched a single episode of "Honey Boo Boo" I don't get the reference.
How does one consume a local custom? You might observe a local custom or participate in one if allowed but consume it?
Now flying around in jets to observe poor peoples customs would be in poor taste. A reference to the mother child relationship is not.

[dorlomin]

Is posting on the internet "consumerist"?

[dinopello]

As someone pointed out, life is about consumption/conversion. It is the celebration of gluttonous consumption that is the big problem, IMO.

[dohboi]

People don't seem to be able to read.

The title is not about consuming, as in a child consuming its mothers milk.

It is about consumerism, a specific construct of modern industrial life that only really got into full swing after WWII.

Please don't post any more until you have at least tried to read the second article so you know what you're talking about.

Thank you.

Oh, and here's another relevant short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kQgb1w792M#t=169

[vtsnowedin]

Please don't post any more until you have at least tried to read the second article so you know what you're talking about.

Don't waste my time telling me what to do or not do. Your not qualified
.

[dohboi]

"Your not qualified"

Says the bloke who couldn't understand a simple English word nor manage to punctuate his own simple sentence!

If we can please get back to this vital subject--is the choice between consuming less and consuming better? Can the latter alone ever really be enough?

[GHung]

Yeah, Dohboi, some of us get it. Consuming to get what we need is entirely different than consuming purely for consumption's sake; what we think we want: Consumerism. Most folks don't know the difference since they've largely never been in a situation when they didn't have the things they really needed. Be nice though. Since most folks in the west can take needful things (food, shelter, water, clothing, energy) for granted, shopping for stuff they don't need is basically people practicing their hunting/gathering skills. That there's very little effort involved makes it even more fun. "Americans need to go shopping"; that'll fix it.

[dohboi]

"Americans need to go shopping"

Nice.

In preparation for assigning the short Wendel Berry essay "What Are People For," I sometimes ask them to first write there own essay of the same title. One of the best responses was a student who pointed out that corporations have a very clear idea of what we are for--buying and consuming stuff.

[dorlomin]

Is posting on the internet "consumerist"?

Answer please

Pope Francis To World Leaders: Consumerism Represents ‘Constant Assault’ On The Environment

Pope Francis believes contraception to be wrong.

The old joke is that an alcoholic is someone who drinks more than you.
Is a consumerist not someone who consumes more than you?

[GHung]

I'll take a stab at "What Are People For"?

Nothing. We're just an evolutionary oddity which has developed the ability to cheat evolution better than other species. This too will pass. The idea that we need to assign some meaning to our existance is proof that there is none. That that 'meaning' involves consuming well beyond consumption for 'security and procreation' is proof of my first point, especially in light of the fact that we occupy no important niche in the circle of life. Unless we do, we will self-select ourselves for extinction. Back to the Garden? The Garden doesn't care.

Did we ever have that choice?

[dinopello]

My point being; those who yap about the curse of 'consumerism' believe that natural dyes and hiking shoes are not consumerism. Or that micro-apartments and flat sneakers are not consumerism. In fact our consumer choices reflect little on the impact our lives have on the planet. We are all about equally tied into the industrial energy-manna teat (there's that teat for ya' )

As is pointed out in several places, the curse of consumerism is the economic model. There are many other threads on this. The underlying economic model predicated on growth must celebrate consumerism in this context. "Green" products are just another way to juice the consumer into buying something new so in that context they are just as bad as anything. The video that was posted said basically what I said before - it is a matter off sufficiency or enoughness - eg not encouraging gluttony. The Pope should IMHO work in the gluttony argument to his stuff. After all it is one of the deadly sins although there are probably others that apply as well.

Many other characteristics contribute to our consumerist society - throwaway products (Posted this in one of the other threads on consumerism), boredom (people shop as a pastime), technology obsolescence, the advertising industry and many other things either enable or amplify the consumerism but underlying it all is the economic imperative of constant growth.

[dinopello]

I agree with you Peter. The Pope is religious but also political and has great sway over a lot of people. I think in terms of a single person, he can change more minds than just about anyone else (not every Catholic though). Besides, it's fun watching the right wing Catholics struggle with their views vs the infallible Pope.

By economic model I really mean how we agree on success. Fixation on GDP growth, housing starts, standard of living (ie GDP/capita) etc.

[vtsnowedin]

vtsnowedin, where did I mention the teat? Do you have the teat on your mind?

By my reading of your post above not until now. Nor had I ,though I did mention a mother nursing her child as a starting point for consumerism. Do I have them on my mind? No more then usual being a hetero middle aged male.