What is consumerism? Well, it’s simple really. It’s when one
consumes.Consumption doesn’t only occur in the eating of food. It is also the
buying of products, the usage of electricity etc.
And so we are labelled as a ‘consumerist society’. It is said that our lives revolve around this. Well, people’s lives have always depended on consumerism. Otherwise we would not eat, we would not buy the materials to build a house, and we would not have businesses.
Consumerism is a necessary foundation for building any society, it’s vital for the survival of any person.
So I would not say consumerism is an issue. The issue is excessiveness and fanaticism. People excessively consume. They keep lights on, straighten their hair five times a day, buy inordinate amounts of food. People want and buy things they don’t need.
No one needs a superman figure on their nightstand. No one needs three different mobile phones. No one needs a television in their room. No one needs the Playstations or Nintendos or Xbox games. No one needs twenty pairs of shoes. No one needs a whole wardrobe full of clothes. No one needs to eat a metre-long pizza or a 12 inch sub stuffed to the max. No one needs to drive ten minutes down the road.
People can walk down the road. People can survive on a six inch sub or a couple of slices of pizza. People can survive without a ridiculous amount of shoes or clothes. People can find other creative ways of having fun other than spending hours attached to a piece of technology that's sucking their brains and creativity out of their systems. A family can survive with one television in the house. Ten year olds have no real use for an IPhone (look at all the problems Snapchat and the internet are causing anyway (naked photos? open doorways to pornography?))
But people are greedy, and people are lazy and people are shallow. That’s the problem with society. People are not willing to let go of their desire to live simply, to live lavishly, to look beautiful. They don't care about helping the earth which provides them with all these resources in the first place.They just want what they want.
So when people tell me they refuse to be a part of a consumerist society what do they mean? Are they being hypocritical?
Are they aware that in fact consumerism is essential to the basic survival of any human being – we need to consume food, we need to buy clothes to keep a rudimentary level of our dignity, we need gas and electricity to eat and keep warm. This automatically renders everyone consumerist anyway.
Or do these people mean that they refuse to be among those who consume excessively? Is that the consumerist society they oppose? Because if so then I wholeheartedly agree.
People are too absorbed in the meaningless, material mainstream world which does nothing but potentially put a huge dent in ones purse. And the destruction of the Earth and its beautiful resources which we are quickly destroying is also another consequence of our gluttony.
But who cares as long as we stay content in our laziness and life increases to become easier?Let us accept this 'consumerist society' as we call it and move on.
Or you can get off your lazy behind and go do something productive and try an make the world a better place.
Either way, stop saying that you refuse to be a 'consumerist'. We all do it. If you refuse to be an excessive 'consumerist' and refuse to indulge in material objects then fine. But make that clear. Get off your high horse, and stop thinking that just because you've decided to stop being like everyone else that makes you superior.
And so we are labelled as a ‘consumerist society’. It is said that our lives revolve around this. Well, people’s lives have always depended on consumerism. Otherwise we would not eat, we would not buy the materials to build a house, and we would not have businesses.
Consumerism is a necessary foundation for building any society, it’s vital for the survival of any person.
So I would not say consumerism is an issue. The issue is excessiveness and fanaticism. People excessively consume. They keep lights on, straighten their hair five times a day, buy inordinate amounts of food. People want and buy things they don’t need.
No one needs a superman figure on their nightstand. No one needs three different mobile phones. No one needs a television in their room. No one needs the Playstations or Nintendos or Xbox games. No one needs twenty pairs of shoes. No one needs a whole wardrobe full of clothes. No one needs to eat a metre-long pizza or a 12 inch sub stuffed to the max. No one needs to drive ten minutes down the road.
People can walk down the road. People can survive on a six inch sub or a couple of slices of pizza. People can survive without a ridiculous amount of shoes or clothes. People can find other creative ways of having fun other than spending hours attached to a piece of technology that's sucking their brains and creativity out of their systems. A family can survive with one television in the house. Ten year olds have no real use for an IPhone (look at all the problems Snapchat and the internet are causing anyway (naked photos? open doorways to pornography?))
But people are greedy, and people are lazy and people are shallow. That’s the problem with society. People are not willing to let go of their desire to live simply, to live lavishly, to look beautiful. They don't care about helping the earth which provides them with all these resources in the first place.They just want what they want.
So when people tell me they refuse to be a part of a consumerist society what do they mean? Are they being hypocritical?
Are they aware that in fact consumerism is essential to the basic survival of any human being – we need to consume food, we need to buy clothes to keep a rudimentary level of our dignity, we need gas and electricity to eat and keep warm. This automatically renders everyone consumerist anyway.
Or do these people mean that they refuse to be among those who consume excessively? Is that the consumerist society they oppose? Because if so then I wholeheartedly agree.
People are too absorbed in the meaningless, material mainstream world which does nothing but potentially put a huge dent in ones purse. And the destruction of the Earth and its beautiful resources which we are quickly destroying is also another consequence of our gluttony.
But who cares as long as we stay content in our laziness and life increases to become easier?Let us accept this 'consumerist society' as we call it and move on.
Or you can get off your lazy behind and go do something productive and try an make the world a better place.
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