May 2nd - Consumerism Isn't Good For Us

Another need to be met if industrial capitalism is to continue to grow is consumers.  At every turn we are encouraged to shop til we drop and after 9/11 George Bush told Americans to go shopping!

When I realised how 'the system' encourages to become consumers, so many things became clearer.  Although I’m a bit reluctant to use the word ‘brainwashing’ I think of it that way.  On March 22^nd I was thinking about how we learn about and absorb the social world around us, but put briefly the underlying message we in the ‘developed’ world receive about how to be ‘successful’, our values and dreams centre around the ‘American dream’ – that the good life depends on material wealth that can be had by anyone who works hard enough and is enterprising enough.  

On closer inspection though it becomes pretty clear that while consumerism is good for industrial capitalism it’s not so good for us or for the planet and that many of our problems come from it.  On April 4^th I talked about what I’d learned from David Edwards[1] (capitalism needs to keep us discontented so we will go out and buy) and from Oliver James[2] (the wealthiest people in the world are often very unhappy, depressed, drug addicted …)    And as for the poor old planet, it just doesn’t have sufficient physical resources to meet the demands of the world’s population. We are already facing a shortage of oil which doesn’t only provide energy but is also being used up in the manufacturing process, not only to produce items which make life easier but in the outpourings of plastic 'stuff' which we are all persuaded we can't live without!
So, in my search for a simple answer to the problems of the world, another piece is placed in the jigsaw with the realisation that the scramble for more and more stuff is at the very heart of our troubles ... 

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[1] Free to be Human -Intellectual Self Defence in an Age of Illusions

[2] Affluenza – How to be successful and stay sane