On Fri, Sep 09, 2011 at 01:52:13AM +0200, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 4:52 PM, Udhay Shankar N <ud...@pobox.com> wrote: > > Stripped out one additional layer of forwards. > > > > ----- Forwarded message from Kragen Javier Sitaker > > <kra...@canonical.org> ----- > > Thread drift time: what's the role of consumerism in the modern world? > > Among other motivations, in minor part instigated by this thread, but > also partly by an exhortation from Thaths to explain some of my > incomprehensible thoughts on the idea of 'a tribe of one' I wrote this > tonight > > http://cheeni.posterous.com/whats-the-role-of-consumerism-in-the-modern-w
That's very interesting! > No doubt your eagle eyes will find any logical flaws, but also ask me > a bunch of questions, and tell me where I'm wrong. Does religion really "play the freedom game"? Maybe it depends on the religion, but a lot of religions seem to be at the opposite end of the spectrum: here is a list of rules for how to live your life, down to such details as what sex positions to use, what clothes to wear, and what time to get up, and all of this is ordained by the almighty creator of the Universe, so there is no escape from enforcement and no possibility that these rules might be fallible. I'm not sure what capitalism has to do with being free. Isn't capitalism the economic system in which investors own the means of production in order to save their wealth, while workers are alienated from their meaningless labor, while the price of everything is set by supply and demand so that the prices of commodities are the same everywhere, except for tiny variations? How does that make people more or less free? I don't know that I agree that "we hate [the idea of a tribe] deep down, to the last human being." Certainly conflict between the interests of the individual and of the collective is a universal part of the human condition; but many people yearn for more connection to a tribe, not less. Maybe you and the people you know best happen to be in a situation where you yearn for less, not more, but I assure you that's not a universal part of the human condition. Think about old people in nursing homes, for example. > And then where would we go? What's the alternative? Aren't there a lot of alternatives to consumerism? You can study under a sadhu, live in an ashram, move to a kibbutz, turn into a housewife, become a Mennonite, go raise goats, work a 9-5 job and bequeath your riches to a scholarship fund instead of spending them during your lifetime, live alone in the forest on saved money, etc. None of these free you from the task of balancing individual with collective desires. Myself, I aspire to servitude to a tribe, the tribe of humanity, but I don't think consumerism is a very good way to do it, both because it would make me unhappy and because it doesn't have a solution to many of the biggest problems we're facing today. Consumerism didn't stop Hosni Mubarak and it won't stop Naxals or Marines or Lashkar-e-Taiba or global warming. Consumer boycotts are usually ineffective. > I have similar texts but in various states of edibility in my head and > laptop, if this goes down well I may be tempted to bake them for > general consumption over time. That would be great! Kragen
