The Consumership Question

Remember when we were citizens?

The US is currently having a debate about putting a citizenship question on its upcoming once every 10 year census form. Far from controversial in Canada, we have had a citizenship question on our long form census since 1901. 

We do have different systems, but the whole affair leaves me with a question. In an era in which those in power have decided that citizens don't really exist any more, what does a citizenship question even mean?

Since we have all been downgraded from (active) citizens to (passive) consumers, how long will it be before our census forms quit asking about citizenship, and ask a consumership question instead?



"Do you promise to consume like there is no tomorrow?



Yes? 

You're in. 

Here is your credit card with a low, low 24% interest rate. 

Welcome. 

Exercise your consumership, and go shopping." 

10,000 Year Plan

"Our long term plan is like our short term plan, only longer."

Humanity should think about developing a plan longer than the next election cycle. We don't need 5 year plans, we need 5,000 year plans. Preferably two of them.

A solid 10,000 year plan would go a long way toward figuring out where we want to go with this petri dish known as Earth. I love the idea of thinking ahead 7 generations, but how about extending that to 500? Supposedly we are the smartest creatures on Earth (and the known Universe according to some), so we should be able to get our big brains together and do this thing.

In order to reduce the chance of repeating the thousands of years of blind bumbling that we have been experiencing so far, we should come up with an overall plan for humans (and everything else) on our shared petri-planet home. Surely, considering the importance of my proposal, we can get some consensus towards a set of common goals and outcomes.

Like survival at first, looking at our increasingly grim short term prospects.

Then we can proceed from there and start planning for things like ridding the environment of human-created radiation produced during our misguided experiment with nuclear energy. That alone is a project that will take thousands of years. We should have one of those already, shouldn't we?

Next in The Big Plan we can look out over the next few hundred years. Where do we see ourselves as a species? What do we want to achieve in this time? I for one would like to see something more substantial than the planet's first trillionare.

A lot can happen in one year, let alone a hundred or a thousand. We should have a plan to help direct where we are going. Many of us can imagine a better world, and if we can imagine it, we can achieve it. We can put it in the plan.

As an ex-teacher I know the importance and the challenges of planning. It will take a different way of thinking to extend our imaginations past the next election, or our own brief existence. But we do care about our kids, don't we? And their kids? And theirs? And so on all the way up the line?

We have already had many thousands of years to get this thing right, and it feels like we aren't quite there yet. Let's get The Big Plan started.

How do you see humanity developing over 10,000 years? The glorious possibilities are endless.

We Are More Than Consumers

Are we acting as destroyers of the Earth?  Photo credit: Chris Jordan

It is easy being a consumer, as unflattering as that designation is, since we have made spending money and buying things as painless and enjoyable as possible. By contrast, acting as a citizen takes some doing.

Being only a consumer is not enough - we have an innate desire to be more than a passive vessel ready to receive an overabundance of stuff. If we can't fulfill our role as citizens, things begin to break down, including our own mental health.


consumer noun \kənˈsjuːmer\

: one that destroys, exhausts, annihilates
: one that devours, finishes, squanders
: one that devastates, depletes, overwhelms
: one that wastes

Desirable Qualities of a Consumer

1. A strong desire to shop, buy, and acquire.

cit·i·zen noun \ˈsi-tə-zən\

: a person that acts as a responsible member of a community

Desirable Qualities of a Citizen


1. Be of sound health.

2. Be an intelligent life-long learner.

3. Have self control and self confidence.

4. Show a positive public spirit.

5. Able to endure self-sacrifice for the good of the whole.

6. Take the right and responsibility to vote seriously.

7. Participate wholeheartedly.

8. Be loyal to the community.

No wonder citizenship has gone out of favour in recent years. On paper it does not look like as much fun as our role as consumers.

Often it is not fun being a citizen - it is mostly a lot of hard work and compromise. But the payoffs of putting in the effort to be more than a consumer are endless. Citizenship is the glue that binds our communities together.

We must rise above being destroyers of the earth and acknowledge the responsibilities we have to each other and the planet as global citizens.

We must be more than consumers if we are to save ourselves.