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February 17, 2020
The 10 Commandments of Consumerism
These are the unspoken, unwritten, yet clearly understood, 10 Commandments of Consumerism:
1. Thou shalt never rent things, or buy previously used/desecrated goods.
2. Thou shalt never fix or repair anything.
3. Thou shalt increase thy pace of shopping indefinitely, until death.
4. Thou shalt never consider the social, ethical, and environmental responsibilities of the actors in the system.
5. Thou shalt covet the Jones's stuff, and try to out-buy them.
6. Thou shalt shop endlessly even when thee doth not need a thing.
7. Thou shalt never be content with just enough as long as too much is available.
8. Thou shalt deny any and all negative effects of basing life on rank materialism.
9. Thou shalt work as much as possible to make as much money as possible, then spend it all as fast as possible. Thou deservith it.
10. Thou shalt borrow as much money as credit limits allow, at any interest rate, to buy more stuff and keep up the appearance of success.
What about the 10 Commandments of Simple Living? They don't exist, because unlike the conformity of consumerism, approaches to simplicity are as beautiful and varied as the people who take it up as a guiding principle in their lives.
Besides, I can only think of one Commandment of Simplicity.
That would be:
1. Never use more of anything when less would suffice.
Warning: The 10 Commandments of Consumerism are largely unaffected by the particular brand of buying.
Green Consumerism, New Consumerism, Conscious Consumerism and other lame lies like these are all variations on a broken, irredeemable theme.
5 comments:
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I had to smile at 'thou deserveth it'! Your one commandment is as economical in it's use of words as we should be in our use of.....just about everything.
ReplyDeleteMadeleine
From an Alan Watts talk I was just watching: "In this culture that we call materialistic today, we are, of course, bent on the total destruction of material and it's conversion into junk and poisonous gas as quickly as possible." Been going on a long time, no surprise Mother Earth is fighting back.
ReplyDeleteHere are a few Alan Watts ideas that might go on the Simplicity Commandments:
- Be in awe of existence, for when you feel this awe, you respect that existence.
- Marvel at the feel of a pebble in your hand.
- Remember that the meaning of life is just to be alive. It is that plain and simple.
All the best to everyone. - Mary
Nice reminders, Mary.
DeleteMadeleine
These need to be put in the pocket of every expensive handbag sold.
ReplyDeleteHah! Great comment!
DeleteLinda