I definitely believe the theory by Naomi Klein, Thomas Picketty, and others that to fight climate change we have to end depending on an economy which demands increased production and consumption each year. It isnt an abstract moral question, although there is a moral component: preventing enslavement to consumerism, loss of self empowerment and creativity, and stopping exploitation as well as millions of deaths looming on the horizon form climate change. Also, Americans are not honest enough about the moral implications of their economy. Our success depends on fighting wars every year. Murder for profit brings comfort at home if you enjoy bathing in the blood of slaughtered people. But isnt completely a moral issue. It is common sense. The end is here. Consumerism has to end now if we have any chance. Humanity has been unwilling to address climate change. People waited for the free market to solve the problem when it is the problem. I was born in the 1970s so I saw how hippies became yuppies and turned their heads while the planet was attacked and the US empire grew more totalitarian. The Me generation. We can blame them. Few things would be better for humanity than ending consumerism.. then we could all become citizens instead of consumers.. we would all be forced to be creative in a sense instead of filling the void of disempowerment by the system with shopping. We should empty most stores anyway and find a new use for their structures. Plan B? Plan B is where anarchy comes in. Im not saying that as an anarchist for any ideology, but as someone who thinks it holds a lot of the answers. Basically grassroots control. An active local community instead of a passive one which provides for itself. An overarching national and international structure ensuring as much equality and anti-oppression as possible worldwide. Climate change is interesting because it signals an end to so many things that need to end. I was just reading about American Millennials, the people maybe ten years younger than me which said they arent buying cars of homes. The article didnt address my question: is that because they know its all over? Consumerism will end because it has to.. just a matter of time. The failure of consumer society to check itself will be its suicide. There is no way to have an economy dependent on constant growth in the coming few decades. The sooner we recognize consumer society has to end, the more of a chance we have. It will end anyway. It has two issues really: its not sustainable to have the kind of economy we have, being dependent on selling useless goods at endlessly increasing levels, just wont be possible with climate change. The second problem is the point capitalism has reached. The major breakthrough with Pickettys book - something most of us sense but he proved it - is capitalism has a certain logic, for a while it creates a middle class, but within that logic this is only temporary. It has to go back to an oligarchy, where its at now, and from there only grows more tyrannical as it needs to eat away populations and resources. We see this happening now, the new economy, the consolidation of wealth. That is not a dip. Its where the ideology of capitalism is today. We wont have money to buy things. Green technologies dont really count as consumerism since they are life sustaining. That - to me - is a whole other economy. People are pretending we can simply stock Wal-Mart with green products. What we have today depends on selling us useless crap often made from petroleum; empty things. In other words, we havent had a needs based economy in many decades. Its a desire based economy not only destroying our future, it enslaves people, makes them idiots, misinforms them, controls reality, takes over our government. Its sad, unsustainable and dying anyway in this late stage of capitalism. There is a long held truth I believe that says we can either be good consumers of good citizens, but we cant be both. Often, I think how easily all of this would change if people understood how brainwashed they can become under consumerism.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 23:34:33 +0000
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