Rethinking Consumerism
The “Climate One” conference in San Francisco is a day chock-full of interesting and compelling ideas about humankind’s behavior vis-a-vis the environment, and what can be done to improve this relationship. Did you know, for instance, that, on average, an electric drill is used eight minutes from the time it leaves the shelf at Home Depot until it makes its way into a landfill? All that resource extraction, transportation and refinement of raw materials, manufacturing and distribution goes into a product that will serve its master only eight minutes in its entire lifetime.
If you think that sounds like profligate negligence and an obscene misuse of our environmental resources, you’re certainly not alone. And, if you live in Toronto, you’re part of a bold new experiment focused on changing all this. Canada’s largest city (a place so spectacularly clean one can eat off the sidewalks) is home to a “Library of Things.” Need an electric drill, but don’t think you’ll use it too often? What about a crepe-maker, a six-man tent, a Have-a-Heart trap for a marauding raccoon, a fondue pot, a roto-tiller, or any of hundreds of other things gathering dust in garages, closets and attics around the world? Just borrow it and return it when you’re done.
Let’s be fair, though, and admit something that’s undeniable: as a culture steeped in consumerism, this is a definite shock to the system, as it forces us to look beyond our society’s paradigm of owning stuff. It’s really about sharing, which is something we’re not particularly prone towards in today’s world.
Yet, once we break through that, we’ll be reminded of something very important, something that we’ve known all our lives: sharing produces a good feeling. You’re giving the world around you a gift: a tiny bit of environmental damage that never happens. And doesn’t it make you feel good when you give a gift?
If you’re wondering what on Earth is represented in the pic above, it’s a shot I just took of the glove-compartment of my car. Visible are the owner’s manual for my Prius and perhaps a dozen small packages of almonds. I give them away to people begging for handouts. I’ve given away a lot of almonds, and gotten a lot of heartfelt thanks in return. On top of it all, sharing my (meager) wealth with others makes me feel good…..every single time.
Craig,
Well done! Caring and sharing, hugs all round and a warm sense of moral superiority.
Except….
This is the bit where moral philosophers hate. In reality, all those consumers goods (including my Handy-Dandy dial-o-matic, Easy to use, Sponge sharpener, available in fourteen colours), are the only reason our industrialized economy, or any advanced economy survives and progresses.
More importantly, consumerism is the basis of civilization. No consumerism = no accumulation of surplus wealth = no expansion of civilization.
Once societies begin to “share”, and reject the expansion of consumer goods, they begin to lose momentum and decay.
Every consumer item, no matter how seemingly frivolous,is tangible evidence of individual creativity, inspiration and diligence. It’s proof of a free thinking and secure society.
It’s the bedrock of every advanced economy. No great advances can be made without the sort of society that produces a myriad of small, seemingly useless or unnecessary innovations.
Reductionism may be a catchy moral philosophy, but in practice it represents a self, inward looking, decaying society.
Thank goodness for consumers !