With expectations in place, and with evolution and group selectivity leaving us strongly predisposed to seek one another's presence or to in some way identify with one another, human nature struggles to manifest itself through the environment we've constructed. The end result is that it is often the case that much of what is consumed is not essential. It can at least be said that much of what we buy is not in it's minimal form; bigger cars, bigger meals, bigger storage space for more stuff, bigger garages for more cars, bigger homes for more furniture, and bigger counter-tops for more utilities.
The overall theme of bigger and more speaks of a need to fill up something which has been emptied. The need to consume non-essentials to essentially sell ourselves to one another speaks of a general state of alienation among us and craving to fill what is missing inside of us.
Can it not be said that much of consumption can in fact be related to the endeavor of identifying with a group, i.e. hip-hop clothes help one identify with other hip-hop people, fancy cars help one identify with wealthy people, etc.. Sometimes consumption can be an excuse just to get out of the house and be around others. This raises big questions; how much of America's drinking, obesity, and hording cases were in fact contributed to if not entirely triggered by the simple fact that we need to meet prerequisite social and financial expectations just to be around one another? How much of what we consume is actually needed? How much of what is consumed non-essentially actually provides us the level of satisfaction we are chasing? How much of what we consume goes into the garbage instead of being reused? How many people profit from America's consumption of non-essentials, how much do they make off of it, and how hard did you work to get enough to buy it?
The overall theme of bigger and more speaks of a need to fill up something which has been emptied. The need to consume non-essentials to essentially sell ourselves to one another speaks of a general state of alienation among us and craving to fill what is missing inside of us.
Can it not be said that much of consumption can in fact be related to the endeavor of identifying with a group, i.e. hip-hop clothes help one identify with other hip-hop people, fancy cars help one identify with wealthy people, etc.. Sometimes consumption can be an excuse just to get out of the house and be around others. This raises big questions; how much of America's drinking, obesity, and hording cases were in fact contributed to if not entirely triggered by the simple fact that we need to meet prerequisite social and financial expectations just to be around one another? How much of what we consume is actually needed? How much of what is consumed non-essentially actually provides us the level of satisfaction we are chasing? How much of what we consume goes into the garbage instead of being reused? How many people profit from America's consumption of non-essentials, how much do they make off of it, and how hard did you work to get enough to buy it?
Some might say the concept of "produce more, consume more" is healthy economics, but only you can answer for yourself if it was a fair exchange. As for me, I've worked too many jobs demoing expensive and perfectly in tact homes full of very good stuff that fills up a ~30 foot dumpster or more in a single day. I have spent too long living outside easily constructing dwellings far more inhabitable and sustainable than some of the bug infested and/ or moldy overpriced SRO's or apartment units I've lived in, and I did it with little more than dead limbs and what I could take with me on the the bus from a job site. Like many, I've also wasted a whole lot of money by committing the crime of walking around and looking for a place to be outside of my own territory.
It truly is laughable the social norms we construct in an effort to uphold this culture of consumption. In this regard there is actually much to be learned from a common camper. Many look down on a homeless person drinking outdoors rather than in a bar- as if cooping oneself up in a dingy tavern full of un-conversational people and buying overpriced beer is better than drinking one on a grassy hillside watching the sunset. Homeless campers are looked down on for leaving waste, yet 200 ft. tall piles of garbage in landfills too clogged to even allow basic fruit to decompose naturally (it turns to methane without oxygen) goes unquestioned because they are out of sight. A camper may be ridiculed in the local paper and his or her choice to construct a campsite may be framed as being "destructive" to some local forest, but realistically speaking, how many trees had to die for that camper to tie his or her tarp up? How many naturally occurring plant, insect, and animal species had to be uprooted so they could lay their foundation?
... I hate to be the uncooperative individual disagreeing with a cooperative (eusocial) and agreeable species, but I think it is fair to say we could actually learn a lot from the common camper.
It truly is laughable the social norms we construct in an effort to uphold this culture of consumption. In this regard there is actually much to be learned from a common camper. Many look down on a homeless person drinking outdoors rather than in a bar- as if cooping oneself up in a dingy tavern full of un-conversational people and buying overpriced beer is better than drinking one on a grassy hillside watching the sunset. Homeless campers are looked down on for leaving waste, yet 200 ft. tall piles of garbage in landfills too clogged to even allow basic fruit to decompose naturally (it turns to methane without oxygen) goes unquestioned because they are out of sight. A camper may be ridiculed in the local paper and his or her choice to construct a campsite may be framed as being "destructive" to some local forest, but realistically speaking, how many trees had to die for that camper to tie his or her tarp up? How many naturally occurring plant, insect, and animal species had to be uprooted so they could lay their foundation?
... I hate to be the uncooperative individual disagreeing with a cooperative (eusocial) and agreeable species, but I think it is fair to say we could actually learn a lot from the common camper.