In the name of “growth,” forests are burning, oil is spilling, ice caps are melting, animals are dying and villages are disappearing. Unsustainable economic systems are being replicated in the developing world where labor is cheap so that more forests can burn, more oil can be spilled, more ice caps can melt, more animals can die and more villages can disappear. What is actually being sold to us under the auspices of “growth” and “development”? How does consumerism contribute to this? Why is this bad for us as persons? And what we can do to change for the better?
The Illusion of Infinite Growth
Corporations see their profits grow exponentially by outsourcing jobs, using cheap toxic materials, wasting limited resources and erecting polluting factories. All of this involves:
● destroying habitats or ancient towns
● exploiting natural resources and human persons
● losing cultural and natural diversity
To cope with globalization, small towns and farms are being abandoned for the sake of better wages, hence, more opportunities for consumption. But, is the “modern” lifestyle really that much better? The cost of living always goes up, and so do avenues to spend money, especially using the internet. Furthermore, we are largely unaware of there sources involved in extracting materials from nature, processing and packaging them, to be delivered thousands of miles away, and to be found in dumpsters a few months or years later. The epitome of this phenomenon is the life of the common plastic bag, too often thrown in the trash (not recycled) merely 10 minutes after it was acquired to transport food down the block.
Consumer’s Dilemma
Low prices are appealing because they enable us to “save” in order to buy more low-quality products designed to be thrown away, especially since fewer of us now have the skills to fix things. It is easier and cheaper to just dispose of something and buy a new one rather than pay someone else to repair it. In fact, many of us are trying to make ethical choices in consumption, but even that has fallen to corporate trickery involving false “green” labels, loopholes to bypass regulation and fancy marketing ploys. Moreover, the overwhelming abundance of choice has gotten worse, as many companies can simply attract more clients with two kinds of products: one for the social-justice-eco-conscious person and another for the rest.
Instead of re-orienting our outlook toward the self and the world, we are encouraged — if not instructed — to tolerate the status quo, which includes the pressure to live up to societal norms. This way, we can avoid questioning the sources of our sadness by targeting situational stress in lieu of changing social situations that are themselves in need of remedy.
Consumption and (Un)Well-Being
We strive to lead productive lives working 40, 50, 60 hours per week just to sustain current levels of wealth and continue to consume. What is the result? Hard work all day, TV at night, shopping on weekends, with social gatherings sprinkled here and there. We pay taxes only to see corporations get away with paying none. To make things worse, the state rewards the latter with subsidies. Furthermore, by relinquishing industries such as education, health care, incarceration and waste management to the private sector, it makes consumers out of those who must avail themselves of such services. Hence, personal growth means acquiring more and more wealth so that we can meet “needs” that are ever-increasing. Our self-centered (in the individualistic sense of the term) lifestyle of consumption leaves no room for cultural/spiritual practice, community involvement or appreciation of nature. Materialism has been shown to decrease self-esteem, eat away at our inter-connectedness with other living beings and increase feelings of loneliness. The reverse may also be true, in that loneliness can lead us to fall “in love” with our possessions.
Let’s make it a point to give our lives purpose beyond the roles of “consumer” and “periodic philanthropist,” which may give us the impression we are good citizens. Let’s bring back modesty and simplicity to our value system so that people can cease to see money as a means to dominate others and nature. Instead, let’s show them how to be in community with others, aiming for virtuous relationships with all living beings.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy