[Grovenet] consumerism

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

This is great but, what will it take to get people 
interested and involved?
Ed

-----------------------

Running out of stuff <G>. 

I don't know much about Annie Leonard and I couldn't find much on the 'net
but I thought her presentation was very good. Simplistic and biased at times
but, truth to tell, so am I ;-)

She comments of government, "I thought 'they' were looking out for us!" If
she's as intelligent as she sounds, she was pandering to the "common
people". Surely she knows that Government's job was *never* to look out for
"us" but to ensure the survival of the state. That's why it's okay to
sacrifice millions of Americans in a war to help the state survive. It's
fealty and reverence for the state that makes millions of Americans willing
to die if must be. It's a commitment easily and often abused by governments,
including our own. 

Victor Lebow was interesting. I never heard of him, but I'm not an economist
either. He wrote an article for Harper's in July 1945 titled "Who Will Get
What, Where? New Kinds of Stores for American Shoppers". I needed to pony up
$16.95 for a copy. I chose not to "consume". 

Still, I can absolutely believe the content of the quote Ms. Leonard
attributes to him from the early 1950's:

"Our enormously productive economy...
Demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying
and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our
ego satisfaction, in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up,
replaced and discarded at an ever accelerating rate."

Clearly that worked on some levels in the 1950's, although she claims the
1950's was the peak of American satisfaction in our lives - that it's gone
down ever since. Still it seems to have worked. But the 1950's was half a
century ago. There's no suggestion that the solution was anything but a
short-term 'fix'. 

There's no evidence that the solutions to the problems of those days are
applicable today, even if the problems themselves appear to be the same.
It's a different world with different opportunities and different needs
today. 

Getting back to Ed's question, first people need to understand that "they"
(government) are NOT 'looking out for us'!!

Ron D'Eau Claire  






-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Ed Davie
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 4:24 PM
To: Forest Grove local interests list
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] consumerism


This is great but, what will it take to get people 
interested and involved?
Ed
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Martha Khoury
  To: 'Forest Grove local interests list'
  Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 3:49 PM
  Subject: [Grovenet] consumerism


  Check out

  www.storyofstuff.com

  Happy holidays, everyone.

  --Martha K.


  _______________________________________________
  GroveNet mailing list
  GroveNet at rdrop.com
  http://www.rdrop.com/mailman/listinfo/grovenet
_______________________________________________
GroveNet mailing list
GroveNet at rdrop.com http://www.rdrop.com/mailman/listinfo/grovenet