lies, damn consumerism, and statistics
I happened across a couple of good links on consumerism today, just as i contemplate the new upcoming household budget.
First, and excellent article from Orion magazine about the history and rise of consumerism. It does a good job of showing the connection of big business to the rise of the consumer culture in our country. I find these sort of articles fascinating not least because of the sort of big-picture societal thinking that was going on. It’s creepy as hell and greedy, but it’s comforting that even in that sense, someone is thinking about this stuff. It would be better if it were done in an academic sense rather than capitalist, but there you go. How differently our society could have turned out if everyone had gone with the Kellogg model of just enough work and more time for play.
The related link is work from the artist Chris Jordan, who makes very large scale images depicting various statistics (small section of a million plastic cups above). The images must be amazing in person, but even in an online jpg (with accompanying zooms), the scale is staggering. I want to put one on the wall right next to the stack of styrofoam coffee cups that people at work use every single day, and have for decades. Is it really so hard to rinse a flippin’ coffee cup?
2 Responses to “lies, damn consumerism, and statistics”
[...] (And another h/t to midway bikelog) [...]
[...] I didn’t realize how close we were to institutionalizing the 6-hour workday, how very close we were to institutionalizing the idea that people need time in their lives to be part of their families and citizens of their country, more than they needed consumable goods. How different things could’ve been… (h/t midway bikelog) [...]