Saved by kev and
The Consumerism Curse
In a recent newsletter, “The Shopping Cure,” Anne Helen Petersen explored the compulsion to buy and accumulate stuff that’s been fostered by technologies of frictionless consumption. Every conceivable activity or hobby one sets out to enjoy becomes an occasion to buy stuff: “They transform from sites of actual pleasure and diversion to means of sel
... See moretheconvivialsociety.substack.com • Ill With Want
Andreas Vlach added
Same day shipping. Buy it without seeing it in person first. Free returns. The speed of commerce quickening at the same pace the cost and quality of the goods are decreasing. And the amount of things we keep buying shows no sign of abating. Amazon is on its way to selling half a trillion dollars worth of goods in America this year. And with new bar
... See moreJustin Mather added
Some content that I wanted to save that got pulled from final version of the essay
Hence the irony that consumerism, which we often denounce as “materialism,” is in fact quite happy to reduce things to nothingness. What makes such serial acquisition consumptive is precisely this treatment of things as disposable. While on the one hand this practice invests things with redemptive promise, on the other hand they can never measure u
... See moreJames K. A. Smith • You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit
kev added
correlation between consumerism & stress
Consumerism is a word often associated with the mindless accumulation of stuff that marketers convinced you to buy. The "le new consumer" manifesto is about each person intentionally curating a small set of objects that bring them closer to their own idiosyncratic sense of being and identity, and sharing stories to shows others the power of analog.
Michael Dean added
Consumerism tells us that in order to be happy we must consume as many products and services as possible. If we feel that something is missing or not quite right, then we probably need to buy a product (a car, new clothes, organic food) or a service (housekeeping, relationship therapy, yoga classes). Every television commercial is another little le
... See moreYuval Noah Harari • Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Consumerism has worked very hard, with the help of popular psychology (‘Just do it!’) to convince people that indulgence is good for you, whereas frugality is self-oppression.
Yuval Noah Harari • Sapiens
Dans son livre La Société de consommation, publié en 1970, Jean Baudrillard notait déjà combien « le bonheur, inscrit en lettres de feu derrière la moindre publicité pour les Canaries ou les sels de bain, c’est la référence absolue de la société de consommation : c’est proprement l’équivalent du Salut. » Il soulignait ainsi que depuis que « Dieu es
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