You actually need to end the consumerism, not just greenwash it.
I haven’t bought a TV in over a decade and I don’t drink soda, I also grow a lot of my own food - without chemical fertilizers. When I started all I had was a little window for sickly herbs, but for years it was a priority to carry my own burden, and with time and commitment many things are possible.
The problem is that most people who are in a position to change, aren’t willing to make any sacrifices. If they prioritized leading a life that respected the life around them there would be revolutionary change without the need to even visit the polling booth. When the petite bourgeois and other comfortable elements of society act on the change they are able to implement, then it will open up realistic opportunities for the disadvantaged as it would lead to systemic changes. But we’ll be waiting on them forever.
Well, not quite forever, but right up until termination shock.
Hypothetically, if everyone decided right now to stop buying as much as possible, it would take years of companies continuing to manufacture and try to push these items on us. that’s also a lot to consider that everyone could drastically change their lifestyle like this. What would an in-between look like? If we are currently buying phones as they come out, and on the other extreme, we could just all use ham radio to talk to one another using a station that we maintained over our lifetime, I imagine an in-between might be buying a phone and using it well past it’s planned lifetime if possible via rooting and trying to install a light-weight OS.
People need to eat and live in shelter to survive. Living off the land requires owned land to live off of. Some of the things we want to buy and use are the things that make life easier or worth living.
I’m very well aware of what people need to survive, having lacked all of them individually at times…
it would take years of companies continuing to manufacture and try to push these items on us.
Their valuations would tank after 1 quarter and demand reorganization or bankruptcy. I know I would pull my money out asap - it would be a race to the bottom. They also wouldn’t be manufacturing stock for years and years when they can’t even get stock off the shelf. The only major exception to that is the MIC.
What would an in-between look like?
An exodus from cities, adoption of traditional farming methods decentralizing the food supply chain, housing detached from markets, the end of bullshit jobs, end of consumerism, free family planning services.
I’m pretty far on the doomer side of things lately, but iirc I used to link this to help people break free from capitalist realism when it was published 8 years ago: https://crimethinc.com/tce
I think it can be a valuable starting point for these thought experiments.
You actually need to end the consumerism, not just greenwash it.
I haven’t bought a TV in over a decade and I don’t drink soda, I also grow a lot of my own food - without chemical fertilizers. When I started all I had was a little window for sickly herbs, but for years it was a priority to carry my own burden, and with time and commitment many things are possible.
The problem is that most people who are in a position to change, aren’t willing to make any sacrifices. If they prioritized leading a life that respected the life around them there would be revolutionary change without the need to even visit the polling booth. When the petite bourgeois and other comfortable elements of society act on the change they are able to implement, then it will open up realistic opportunities for the disadvantaged as it would lead to systemic changes. But we’ll be waiting on them forever.
Well, not quite forever, but right up until termination shock.
Hypothetically, if everyone decided right now to stop buying as much as possible, it would take years of companies continuing to manufacture and try to push these items on us. that’s also a lot to consider that everyone could drastically change their lifestyle like this. What would an in-between look like? If we are currently buying phones as they come out, and on the other extreme, we could just all use ham radio to talk to one another using a station that we maintained over our lifetime, I imagine an in-between might be buying a phone and using it well past it’s planned lifetime if possible via rooting and trying to install a light-weight OS.
People need to eat and live in shelter to survive. Living off the land requires owned land to live off of. Some of the things we want to buy and use are the things that make life easier or worth living.
I’m very well aware of what people need to survive, having lacked all of them individually at times…
Their valuations would tank after 1 quarter and demand reorganization or bankruptcy. I know I would pull my money out asap - it would be a race to the bottom. They also wouldn’t be manufacturing stock for years and years when they can’t even get stock off the shelf. The only major exception to that is the MIC.
An exodus from cities, adoption of traditional farming methods decentralizing the food supply chain, housing detached from markets, the end of bullshit jobs, end of consumerism, free family planning services.
I’m pretty far on the doomer side of things lately, but iirc I used to link this to help people break free from capitalist realism when it was published 8 years ago: https://crimethinc.com/tce
I think it can be a valuable starting point for these thought experiments.