Hi Michael
These are my views and I don't doubt that many won't agree with them.
At the end of the day though, it's more important to actually DO
something - no mater how small and seemingly insignificant - than to
sit around talking about it... :o)
How does one stop being a consumer? It's not easy for a start, and it
does of course, depend on one's definition of a 'consumer' in the
first place. If we are to use the term in its simplest form then we
might say it is anyone that buys commercially available and produced
goods from some supplier with the intention of being the end user of
those goods. To that end, there isn't much hope for any of us - could
you live outside the commercial system of daily existence in the US
or UK? No - not unless you move to a remote area somewhere and
provide for your own electric, spin your own wool, and grow your own
food etc. In other words, become pretty much self-sufficient.
On the other hand, one could be an 'ethical consumer'. We might
define an ethical consumer as someone who lives within the boundaries
of 'society', but who when spending their income on products and
goods, makes their choice based on a rational decision arrived at via
informed selections, and based on ethical and moral considerations as
to where and how a particular product or goods was manufactured.
One of course, could take ethical consumerism even further. If we
decided to become even more pro-active and refused to be persuaded in
any way by advertising, could not be tempted by sweeteners to brand
loyalty (discount cards, air miles, computers and books for schools
etc), and became actively opposed to those who propel consumerism
(multinationals such as Kellogs, Nike, Ford, etc), then I reckon we
could consider our self as someone who contributes to consumerism as
little as possible, and for all intents and purpose might not be
considered a consumer - not in the average sense of the word at any
rate. It's important to remember that 'consumer' is just a label
applied to everyone in society by some idiot that thinks they can get
away with stereotyping everyone regardless of age, gender, colour,
race, creed etc. etc. etc.
Even if you did all the above, you would still be labelled a
'consumer' and stuck in a category such as a C2 or some other such
nonsense. But if you don't consider yourself to be a 'consumer' and
you can justify that claim with your actions, then I think you could
successfully claim not to be one. Yes, I have a car. Yes I have a
computer. Hell, if you came to my house you'd struggle to get in the
living room for books and CDs. Does that make me a consumer? I don't
think it does.
At the end of the day, consumerism is the driving force behind
globalisaton.If people spent more time being intelligent and
individual human beings and not mindless robotic recipients of some
monolithic blandola corporatism, accepting the concept of the market
less and spending more time being producers than consumers (in
activities and ideas as well as material objects), then 'the market'
would become undermined, the corporates less powerful and the drive
for external markets halted. Globalisation of course, is not simply
economic - it is political as well, thus we would need to see a move
away from market liberalisation and internationalisation towards
domestic production and selected self-sufficiency.
Of course, members of the list spontaneously and collectively ceasing
purchase of some 'brand' of a particular goods won't mean that
globalisation will disappear overnight. But if a significant number
of people in a significant number of countries did do over the course
of a few years, then it most certainly would. To think otherwise is
to simply accept globalisation as fact - and that's plainly
ridiculous because as human beings we can make choices. And if we
make the right choices, then globalisation would cease to exist.
As for convincing everyone to accept some anti-consumerist condition?
I doubt that's possible - not in the short-term. It's a personal
moral decision that one arrives at and getting enough people to make
that decision to a point where critical mass is reached is going to
take a long time. I personally go to great lengths and choose to
contribute to consumerism and globalisation as little as possible,
because at the end of the day, I consider it abhorrent that in the
twenty first century, human beings should still be exploiting other
human beings for personal benefit and power.
To hell with the barcodes.
Paul.
At 13:34 -0600 22/2/01, michael benton wrote:
>Hi Paul,
>
>I know that this may be nitpicking, but do you truly believe that
>all that needs to be done to arrest multinational/transnational (or
>whatever other flavor you choose) globalization is for "one ... to
>simply 'stop' being a 'consumer'"? Could you expand on this? Lets
>say that everybody on this list agreed to stop 'being'
>consumers--what real-world effect would this have? Would we hurt
>the global economy, or, would business just continue as usual?
>
>Could you also clarify the extent of our 'becoming'
>non-consumers--what would this entail? Would there still be
>products that you would find acceptable, or, would we have to give
>up everything that we didn't produce ourselves? Even if you were
>able to convince everyone in one country to accept these conditions
>would that stop the global process--what would the ramifications be
>for that 'bold' country (and a better question is what are the
>ramifications for developing countries that attempt to opt out of
>the global process).
>
>Thanks Paul for provoking these questions.
>
>Its great to see this list waking up.
>
>Michael Benton
>Illinois State University
>English Department
>Normal, Illinois 61790
>
>
>
>All as one needs to do
>>to
>>halt globalisation is to simply 'stop' being a 'consumer'...
>>
>>Cheers, Paul.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>
>>----------------------------------
>>"The Macintosh isn't a computer...
>>it's a way of life." Don Rittner.
>>o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o
>>Paul Broome
>>Centre for Developing Areas Research
>>Department of Geography
>>Royal Holloway and Bedford New College
>>University of London
>>Egham, Surrey, TW20 OEX, UK
>>
>>Tel: +44 (0)178 444 3574
>>Fax: +44 (0)178 447 2386
>>Voice Mail:+44 (0)207 681 2867
>>http://www.geo-know.net/pab
>>o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o
>
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