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January 13, 2010 ESSENCEESSENCE January 13, 2010

MICHAEL WOODBRIDGE

Like many people I know, Imaddicted to consumption.

It started small; mothers milk,mashed carrots, a little bit of oxy-gen every now and then. Twenty-four years later, however, I amhorri ed at what I have become: aforest butchering, fossil fuel guz-zling monstrosity (an accomplice atthe very least) with an unquench-able thirst for new products, con-cepts, experiences, and emotionsthat I store like a squirrel hoardingacorns for winter.

This would be all well and good,and I could undoubtedly live outmy days pursuing my seeminglyendless desires if it werent for a bit of uncommon sense: that in -nite desires pursued with a linearperception of time are incompat-ible with our planet which is theexact opposite: a finite, complexnon-linear system.

Many of us currently live ourlives on Planet Earth as thoughwe are at an all-you-can-eat buffet,shoveling as much as we can ontoour plates. We try to make sure weget our moneys worth before clos-ing time. In doing so, we not onlyforget to enjoy the meal, but in ourpushing and shoving to get fed, we

damage each other, as well as therestaurant. This is our truth, but

its not the only truth that exists.Now, what is so bad about con-

sumption? After all, the desire toconsume exists throughout thespectrum of life on earth. Ababycrying for food, a lioness track-ing prey, and the mosquito thatwont let you sleep in the dead of night, are all examples of subsis-tence consumption. If unanswered,these impulses ultimately lead todeath.

In contrast, we also have non-subsistence consumption: productsthat if consumed, will not affectthe length of our lives. Regardingmaterial goods, this is a phenom-enon unique to humanity (unless Ihave misinterpreted the facts, anddogs force owners to go out andpurchase pet clothing).

Arguably, there are numerouspositive aspects of non-subsis-tence consumption. Sure, it mightnot address our basic biologicaldemands for survival, but it unde-

niably makes the process of livingmore enjoyable, so again, whats

the problem?From an ecological standpoint,

our apparent ceaseless quest formaterial goods is destroying thelife support systems on which wedepend. Barbara Sibbald capturedthe severity of our ecological pre-dicament in a comment fromDavid Suzuki in the CanadianMedical Association Journal: If everybody in the world lived theway we do in Canada, we wouldneed the resources of five moreplanets.

And these reckless patterns of consumption arent unique to Ca-nadians - theyre present through-out all western society. Moreover,as global connectivity increases, sodoes the risk that societies whichhistorically have consumed little,will want to enjoy the perceived benefits of a high-consumptionlifestyle like ours. This spellstrouble.

Perhaps this way of life would be excusable if most of us wereat least enjoying ourselves. Thenour actions could be rational-ized through the stoic wisdom of Trooper, if we are simply here fora good time / not a long time.But statistics show that our con-sumption is not making us anyhappier. In The Wealth of Nations

Revisited: Income and Quality of Life, Professor Ed Diener of the

University of Illinois showed thereis no positive correlation betweenmaterial well-being and subjectivewell-being. More money does notmean more happiness.

Similarly, in Let Them Eat Pro-zac, David Healy writes: the anti-depressant industry has grown toa 20 billion dollar a year industry.Whats more, the World Health Or-ganization website darkly projectsthat depression will be the secondmost frequent cause of disabilityglobally by the year 2020.

Our situation is one of a houseparty gone out of control. Weredestroying the house, and only afew people are having a good time.Those that are enjoying themselvesare doing so at the expense of oth-ers.

Of course, when a house partygoes awry, we can always wanderdown the street and repeat thecycle once more, and we arentheld accountable for our actions.

The problem is, Planet Earth isour only house; we only get one

chance with this party. So if we aredestroying our planet, and are alltoo often unful lled and discontentin the process, why do we continueto live this way?

The popular (and convenient)answer: human nature. Our cur -rent system of industrial capital-ism is rooted in the teachings of the father of modern economics:the 18th Century thinker AdamSmith. Smith believed people natu-rally have an insatiable appetite forconsumption, and as a result, ourcondition on this planet of niteresources is one of scarcity.

This paradigm is still consideredvalid today; we consume not out of choice, but because of a hardwiredimpulse that we cannot deny. This belief has been naturalized to thepoint where it is considered fac-tual, but there is considerable evi-dence that demonstrates that ournature is not fact, but part of aconstructed collective identity.

I believe our perceived natu -ral condition of instinctual con-sumption and acquisition is adeeply embedded social construc-tion. And if this is true, if we con-struct an identity with a lifestylethat pushes us against and be-yond our planetary limits, thenwe can also construct an identity

in which society sustains both eco-logical and human communities.

Take for example hunter-gath-erer societies, such as the !Kungof the Kalahari Desert region of Southern Africa. The !Kung havelong been exposed to a facet of our natural way of life: agricul -ture which allows us to gener-ate a surplus to ward off our therisk of scarcity. However, despiteexposure to western ideals, the!Kung have shunned our idea of what is natural, and outrightreject the belief that our conditionis fundamentally one that requireshoarding and storing goods, andcreating private property. Theyopt instead to see their naturalcondition as one of exuberance andexcess within nature.

In Limited Wants, Unlim-ited Means, anthropologist JohnGowdy recounts the perspective of a !Kung Tribesman regarding ag-riculture: Why should we plant,when there are so may mongo-mongo nuts in the world?

If our thirst for consumption andfeelings of scarcity are constructed,then we should be able to create analternate identity that transformsour way of life so we can sustain both ecological and human com-munities.

Many leading environmentalthinkers believe we must change,

including James Speth, the Deanof Yale Universitys School of For-

estry and the Environment. In TheBridge at the End of the World, hewrites, a major cultural changeand a reorientation of what societyvalues and prizes most highly iswhat society needs in order to re-organize our relationship with ourplanet, and with each other.

But how do we do construct anew identity? To begin, we must

rst take apart the fundamental te -nets of our current one. Otherwise,if we try to build a new house onthe old foundation, we might endup with the same problems.

So what does the foundation of our current identity look like? Itis a mosaic of patterns and beliefsthat we assume are completelynatural, and perhaps infallible.We must move beyond these ac-cepted truths, and judge for our-selves how legitimate they are.A start would be to examine thefundamental questions of our ex-

istence, as I believe they are deeplyrooted in patterns that breed con-

sumption.Our society is obsessed with

questions concerning what wewant. From childhood throughuniversity, and sometimes be-yond, we ask what do you wantto be when you grow up? Adultsare posed the same question, onlystructured differently: 5-yearplans, 10-year plans, goal setting,all centered on what we wantout of life, what we want fromthe world, and what we want forourselves.

These questions of what wewant are questions of wholeness,and our answers to them are thingswe seek to make ourselves com-plete. Perhaps most damagingly,they create an idea of a world thatexists only to ful ll our needs.

To create a new identity, weneed to transcend the empty ques-tions of consumption, and we needto start asking questions that revealto us a different relationship withthe earth, and with those aroundus: partnership and community.As Jean-Paul Sartre wrote: Every -thing has been gured out, excepthow to live.

This is a question we must ask ourselves now: how do we want tolive? Do we continue living in con-stant search of something to make

us feel complete? Or in a way thatrecognizes everything we need to

make ourselves whole is alreadywithin our grasp? Enlightenmentwont be found on eBay any timesoon; it comes from within.

Change is not easy, regardlessof scale. Anybody whos tried toquit smoking or lose weight cantell you that. However, the scale of change we need now is huge, withthe consequences of our currentdecisions affecting the livelihoodof future generations. We needto transform our identity now,so that we can start building ournew foundation. It seems incred-ibly hard, but we can look to ourchildhoods for inspiration.

Think back to when you were 4 or5, when you had sleepless nights because of a monster hiding inyour room. No matt er how hardyou tried, sleep wouldnt come un-til your parents had shone a lighton the monstrous pile of clothesin your closet, or under your bed.Then sleep would come for a fewnights, but before long the mon-sters found their way back.

This cycle continued until we

realized that these monsters onlyexisted in our minds. We havent

looked back since, and bedtime ismore enjoyable than ever before.

Were older now, and werehaunted by new monsters. Ourdesire to consume seems to fol-low us wherever we go. In orderto expose them for the gments of imagination they are, we need to bring them to consciousness andtalk about them. And just like themonsters of old, they arent goingto disappear forever right away. Weneed to keep discussing them, andkeep bringing them to conscious-ness, until the happiness and tran-quility that we thought our emptymaterial desires would provide us,have appeared in their place.

Its undeniable, we must con-sume to an extent, and where itcant be helped, we can be smartabout it. Buy local. Invest local.Support human-powered transportinitiatives and infrastructures. Re-assess the line you draw betweennecessity and luxury, and if youdont have one, make one. Theseactions are possible now.

We need to turn the ashlight onthese monsters, before our desiresto consume end up consuming us.If we take the time to reexaminethe way we act at this cosmic buf-fet, perhaps we will recognize that

there is more than enough to goaround.

Confronting Consumption: A New Consciousness at the Cosmic Buffet

HEAVEN AND EARTH: HEARTLAND LANDFILL, VICTORIA B.C. MILA CzEMERys

MILA CzEMERysJULIA BENNNETT

Many o us currentlylive our lives on PlanetEarth as though we are

at an all-you-can-eatbufet...

...we consume not outof choice, but becauseof a hardwired impulsethat we cannot deny.

Buy local.Invest local.

This is a questionwe must ask ourselves now: how

do we want to live?