(a 4 to 5 minute read)
The history books in our schools tell us that scientific and technological advancement have freed us from boredom, ignorance and oppression; from drudgery and repetition; from dirt, disease and malnutrition.
Let’s briefly examine these assumptions about what “progress” has achieved, and consider where we go from here.
(4 - 5 minute read)
Switching from synthetic personal care products to simple, natural alternatives means giving up superficial attributes like foam, fragrance, and texture, which are achieved using toxic ingredients. This article explores how we got so dependent on these products and shares 3 ideas we can rely on in our efforts to get back to natural.
5 minute read | Part 5 of a 5-part Series| Also published at PermacultureNews.Org
Self-determination is the ability to re-parent ourselves: to learn new ways of being that may be very different from the ways we learned as children.
This is difficult, uncomfortable work, but it broadens the path for the feet that follow, making it easier for all of us to out-grow not only consumerism but also all the forms of separation and alienation from each other and from nature that have befallen us.
This article follows on from “Out-Growing Consumerism: School, Screens, and Our Kids.”
4 minute read | Part 4 of a 5-part Series | Also published at PermacultureNews.org
What too many children learn at school is not to take risks and not trust their own thinking. When digital data-harvesting enters the mix, it becomes the perfect recipe for producing compliant consumers.
This article continues on from “Out-Growing Consumerism 3: Living a Self-Determined Life.”
4 - 5 minute read | Part 3 of a Series | Also published at PermacultureNews.org
The consumer culture has an easy path which leads us to behave like dependent juveniles for our entire lives.
The alternate path—more difficult but very worthwhile—leads to increasing self-determination and self-reliance, which is very bad for the growth economy.
That’s why no profit-focused corporation will ever fund government policies to encourage the public to behave like this.
This article continues on from “Out-Growing Consumerism 2: An Act of Subversion.”
4 minute read | Part 2 of a Series | also published on PermacultureNews.org
Better questions lead to more informed choices, enabling you to live a life designed by you rather than one that’s handed to you as a member of the consumer culture.
This article continues on from “Out-Growing Consumerism 1: What Should Never Have Been for Sale.”
4 minute read | Part 1 of a Series | Also published at PermacultureNews.Org
There’s a subtle mantra playing in the background that we’re so accustomed to, we no longer notice it:
“Consume something. You’ll feel better.”
Having monetized everything else, in order to keep growing the consumer economy now needs to monetize the space inside your head.
(Approximately a 6 - 7 minute read)
When your friend says, “Remember that camping trip?” they are not just recalling dry facts, the names of campsites, stops marked off on an itinerary.
Your friend is recalling a host of felt perceptions and experiences that have shaped the relationship you share and have become part of who you are.
(Approximately a 6 minute read)
Thinking for yourself, to me, means understanding what influences your thoughts, questioning everything, and then making your own informed decisions with consideration for the short and long-term consequences to yourself and other living beings.
Aside from building more autonomy and self-reliance into your life, this kind of thinking will help dismantle the existing growth-at-all-costs system that relies on consumers who don't think for themselves.
(Approximately a 4 minute read)
In the modern world, independent individuals and nuclear families are artificially sustained by a fossil fuel dependent, growth-at-all-costs system that cannot last.
The alternative that most appeals to me is a world in which we live interdependently – in direct relationship with each other and with the web of life that can sustain us indefinitely, so long as we care for it as the extension of ourselves that it really is.