Within a society where physical consumerism has been the norm, consuming events — we might call it intellectual consumerism — is a real issue. I see it a lot in my native Los Angeles, particularly within the old-style environmental circles. People show up for a meeting or a movie or a political rally, but it doesn’t scratch the surface. There’s no lifestyle change, or there’s negligible lifestyle change to go with it. They show up for the meetings but then go home to same-old, same-old. It’s revealed by their small talk, by the THINGS they admire and coo over. There are some people who are massive consumers of environmental events.
Intellectual consumerism is also revealed by people who shift their allegience to green consumerism. Technology will take care of it (renewable energy, to enable my five-planets-worth-of-consumption lifestyle), so give me my electric car and my solar-powered cell phone. Green business will take care of it — I’ll buy organic at Whole Foods (regardless of whether that pepper was imported by airflight from Chile; regardless of whether Whole Foods participates wholeheartedly on the NYSE within the grow-grow-grow paradigm). Sorry, I can’t help, I’ll be off on my “eco-travel” vacation (consuming oil and emitting greenhouse gasses, but that’s ok, I bought carbon credits which should cover them … right?).
It’s a way of sidestepping responsibility, foisting that responsibility for change onto someone else (politicians, business, the education system, etc.). In many cases, the intellectual consumer reserves the right to complain about how nothing meaningful is getting done.
Love me I’m a Liberal. This is one of the roots at the heart of the liberal/environmental movement. There’s millions of people who believe that we can maintain the industrial-consumer-perpetual growth economy without having any of the bad side effects. All that needs to happen is for someone else to do something. We don’t even have to sacrifice anything. I can go on enjoying all my swag as long as the government regulates my way out of it.
Sorry guys but to solve these problems we might actually have to change our lives some how.
