There is a simple yet profound saying that applies to trying to solve a problem while continuing the cause, “You can’t dry off when you are still under the running shower.” That pretty much sums up trying to become sustainable while continuing the consumer mindset. This mindset is an addiction that has to be recognized and then broken, otherwise what can change.
If you haven’t read “The Story of Stuff” or watched the YouTube video of the same title by Annie Leonard, please do so, because it outlines in an easy way, our process of what goes on with the process of modern manufacturing of ‘stuff.’ Bear in mind that this video and book is already 13 years old, and the process is only getting more destructive. Reviewers fall into two camps: The environmental camp that agrees with it and the industrialist camp that considers it ridiculous. The sad fact is that it reveals all the major problems with the consumer mindset. Not the least being the concept of ‘Economic Externalities’ (see previous posts Reconditioning Ourselves: Alternative Perspectives 5 – Economics part 4, and Reconditioning Ourselves: Alternative Perspectives 6 – Walking the Talk of Green Business and Sustainability? Part 1 and 2 for a deeper explanation). I love how she uses the term ‘The Golden Arrow of Consumption’ to describe the consumer mindset. Think about this system in which 99% of the stuff we ‘consume’ is trashed within 6 months. Planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence are two primary drivers of the consumer mentality.
And the only way it can pay for itself is to externalize most of the costs into our environment – that is air, water, food and of course and into us, just so we can have cheap goods and the corporations can have a net profit at the end of the day. Money and profit are the end goal and the only thing that matters on the spreadsheets of financial progress.
It used to be that things were well made, and made to last. Planned obsolescence means everything (except perhaps the most expensive stuff) is made to fail in as short a time as possible to ensure more consumer purchasing. And if that isn’t bad enough, we now we have been convinced that it is socially desirable to have the latest version of product X, even if it works perfectly – the iPhone is a typical icon for this mentality. Advertisers no longer have to convince people to buy the updated products, the consumers themselves demand they be built and then beat each other up to be the first to obtain them.
What we have is really a two-pronged situation: one is the consumer mentality with its demand for cheap stuff, and two, the manufacturing that demands high profits at whatever other costs (externalities) may be incurred. If we were to pay the full cost of every product or food item we use, we would think more carefully what we purchase. We are addicted to cheap goods, but remember that these goods are cheap only because we ignore all the externalities (see previous posts Reconditioning Ourselves: Alternative Perspectives 5, 6 and 7). More often than not, externalities incurred by the corporations that cannot be ignored are covered by government subsidies, which I might add are paid by us the people through taxes. So, the illusion that our goods are cheap is illusionary since we pay for some externalities in other ways we do not actually notice. And the rest we pay for with the decreased quality of our environment and our lives – quality that we know is of immense value but which is not easily quantifiable through an economic paradigm.
This inevitably drags me back to what I have said many times already, is really important – QUALITY OF LIFE, not Standard of Living. For instance, we are cutting down rain forests for wood and mono-culture crops, and the prices the locals get for their resources are literally pennies compared to what we finally pay at the store, which itself is ridiculously cheap compared to the real full costing. Since you are reading this, none of this information is new to you, yet, considering how many people obviously do know this is happening, and care about it, the facts are simple, we are still not changing. I’m already seeing that I am back to the socio-cultural aspect of sustainability, which literally underscores why no matter what technologies we develop, we will never become sustainable until we face our consumer addictive mindset. OK, back to more technology thoughts.
When harvesting valuable wood products from a tropical rain forests such as mahogany trees, there may be only 3 mature trees of value in an acre of rain forest, yet the whole acre is clear cut to obtain those three since that is the most economical way presently to harvest them. Another option currently being used is going in and cutting those specific trees and then using a heavy-duty helicopter to lift the cut trees to the timber truck for transport out of the area. Obviously, the cost is much higher with helicopter and fossil fuel use. It resolves some of the problem with complete destruction of the forest but how many people can, or will, choose the much higher cost of more environmentally sensitively harvested mahogany? And this begs the question, do we really need to use mahogany for fine furniture for wealthier people? Let’s face it, the majority of the westernized world can only afford IKEA specials. It’s comes down to choice doesn’t it – OMG, there’s that word coming in again, choice.
There are patron saints for almost everything, and yes, there is a patron saint of choice – a 16th-century soldier-turned-mystic, St. Ignatius of Loyola. Curiously, he advocated that people use feelings and emotions to reflect on all their choices – obviously from a religious perspective of godliness. Do they produce feelings of peace, freedom, joy, love or compassion, as indicators that a choice was a ‘right choice’ from more selfless desires, or feelings of dread, anxiety or despair from desires for power and greed? You don’t have to be religious to want to help people so what drives your desires?
Let me do my next post about some new waves of technology before I descend yet again into the abyss of the human mind.
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