Discuss: The Gospel of Consumption

I do not believe in global warming - It’s not real.. just like man bear pig.

After having cleaned out my mother-in-law’s home after her death last year, my husband and I are adamant about not accumulating too much crap!  After having read Kaplan’s article, I now feel better about our decision.  It is difficult in this age of “stuff” to refuse purchasing items that you really think you need… but I think if more people would do that, it would make a world of difference.  Thank you for the great article Orion!

It’s funny and crazy how people
in this country keep on buying
all this cheap,slave labor made
junk and then not knowing what to
do with it,after they by it.
Why don’t they just stop
and use the money to help people
in this country and world wide.
Instead of buying more material
junk.People need to get back to
knowing each other for real.
This is why kid’s are messed up
today.
Peace

I enjoy life at 79 years old. I am prepared to die, but am not anxious to die because life is good.

Come to think of it, I never did work: I always did things I enjoyed doing.

We have 24 hour days for about 70 years on an average. We are free to choose our occupations. Learn to make independent choices of what is important and you will avoid living a life of ‘quiet desperation’.

In “The Gospel of Consumption,” Jeffrey Kaplan channels the Sandwichman, arguing that if we want to save the earth we can start by sharing the work and the wealth. I just want to add that the connection between the National Association of Manufacturers and the abandonment of shorter hours goes deeper than the American Way campaign. Beginning in 1903, the NAM was the source of a steady stream of propaganda against shorter hours. The NAM virtually wrote the economics textbooks claiming the drive for shorter hours was based on a “dangerous fallacy.”

This is a fantastic and well-crafted article!  People fear the thought of a stagnant lifestyle as though its advance will assail them, as if it would mirror their worst nightmares about poverty.  “It is possible that people fear a lifestyle where they have time to look around them and see what they have been missing and where they really are,” my friend explains to me in conversation frequently.

Going back to Peter’s comments about the idea that kids are messed up because of the great God of consumerism.  I would be inclined to agree and disagree.  Yes, I think much of today’s youth suffer from too much stuff and not enough time with the people who they really care about.  However, I would also say that this situation is not new.  I remember competing with kids at school 30 odd years ago on who was wearing the most expensive “fashions.” Most of which were items made in foreign sweatshops, even then!  I do not think this is a new situation but I think that we have definitely become more of a throw-away society compared to my grandmother’s generation.  That may be where the fault is. What do you think?

All parents regardless of race need to start
throwing out all this electronic stuff
before it’s to late to save their kid’s
state of mind.
I kid you not
I am talking about bad music,games
and whatever else.
I see it as electronic brainwashing for sure.