The Greening of Gavin

My Consumerism Meltdown (But I Got Better)

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I had a weird experience that involved a visit to the town’s newly refurbished and extended shopping centre (mall).  It was very emotional and I got quite worked up.  Let me tell you about it.

Picture this.  Saturday morning, feeling quite fresh, and excited about the weekend.  This particular Saturday was the date for the annual local festival, so I knew that most people in town would be down watching the parade and visiting carnival rides.

I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to visit the new shopping centre without wall-to-wall people.  In a moment of madness, I suggested to Kim that we visit, more out of curiosity than anything else.  I think my proposal shocked her a little as it was totally out of character for me.  With Ben in tow, we headed off.

After a struggle to find a parking spot, which in itself was not a good sign, I was pleasantly surprised to find an abundance of bike racks next to the entrance (but no bikes).  Nice!  However, it was all went downhill from there.

Walking through the southern entrance, a wave of what I can only describe as dread overcame me.  I can’t explain it, but it felt terrible.  I hadn’t visited a shopping centre is such a long time, I had forgotten about our consumer culture and the way of the dollar.

The shopping centre was slickly fitted out, aesthetically pleasing to the eye, snaking like a river begging you to follow the line of shops to the very end.  It stunk of fresh paint, glue, and plastic, emitting gosh only knows what in the form of toxic volatile organic compounds.  After I mentioned it Kim could smell it too.

It was a consumer’s paradise!  Wall to wall shops full of tat and stuff that no one really needs, only existing to serve and fulfil every consumer’s wanton desire.  All stuff available on shiny credit cards, plunging the average Joe and Jolene into eternal debt, trashing the planet with every purchase.  Harsh, but that is what I thought at the time.

As we walked along, I started to feel angry, tense, and grumpy.  You don’t want to see me when I have my grumpy head on.  Kim noticed this straight away and told me to settle down.  It upset her that I felt this way, as she rarely takes the time to visit shopping centres, but she totally understood why I was so emotional.  We both knew that blatant consumerism is one of the drivers of climate change, but there it was, laid out in front of us like a naked flasher in the park.

Anyway, we walked the entire length of the mall, looking at this and that, with me feeling more and more anxious.  My only moment of reprieve was the home brew and preserving section in a large department store, which at best, was a place I felt somewhat comfortable.  I bought a can of brewing extract for my next home brew and then tried my best to follow Kim around with my happy face on, all the while dreading this vision of hell that I was engulfed in.

Call me unusual.  Call me mad, but I feel more at home at a farmers market or craft fair than I am around all this hyper-consumerism.  And the christmas decorations are even not out yet when they roll out consumerism on steroids.

Finally we made it to the exit, where I breathed a long sigh of relief.  I was not in a good place, overheated, sweaty, and had a thumping headache.  What I desperately needed was a heavy dose of normality and reality.

So what is a keen food gardener to do?  My solution was to pop into the garden centre across the road and buy some heirloom vegetable seedlings!  This calmed me down a little, however the effect lingered on.  When I got home I had to have a little lie down and nap for a couple of hours to sooth the headache.

When I arose, I headed straight for the front yard.  There is nothing so grounding as a bit of honest physical labour in the veggie patch, getting your hands dirty pulling weeds and mulching plants.  Ahh, I felt much better.  The shops were, thankfully, a distant memory.

When will this hyper-consumerism ever end?  In my lifetime, or will it just get worse until we kill the very ecosystem we depend upon for life?  I don’t know the answers, but I for one am going to avoid it like the black plague, having reduced my consumption of stuff long ago.  I hope we wake up to ourselves.  And, of course, thank the maker for gardens.

So, what do you think of my emotional reaction to this consumeristic overload?  Am I certifiable, or did I have just cause to get emotionally upset?  Have you had a similar experience?

The Diderot Effect

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“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for” -Epicurus, Greek Philosopher (341 BC – 270 BC)

I found this quote when stumbling through the web the other day, and it got me thinking. a while back I remembered reading about a psychological effect that describes this quote to a tee.

Please let me explain.

Have you ever purchased something, something you really wanted, only to discover that it made the rest of your stuff seem a bit old and dated?

Rather than accepting some variance in the style against your older possessions, have you then been tempted to upgrade your old and dated stuff?

This is called the ‘Diderot Effect’, named after the French philosopher Denis Diderot (1713–84) who first described the effect in an essay titled “Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown“. In this essay he describes how a gift of a brand new scarlet dressing gown leads to unexpected results, nearly making him bankrupt in the process. 

 
How do you become bankrupt just by receiving a gift of a new, sleek and beautiful scarlet dressing gown (aka smoking jacket)? Well the effect kind of tricks you like this. Have you ever bought nice new shirt, and thought that your old pants now look shabby against it? So you go and buy new pants to match, and shoes, and a handbag, and a belt, etc. You get the picture, right.

 The same can be said for putting a new piece of furniture into a room of existing pieces. Soon you are shopping at the mall or high street to buy new furniture and fittings to make the original purchase look at home probably to the detriment of your bank account.

The same thing happened to Diderot or so he wrote. He thought that his new robe looked so nice, that he thought that all the stuff in his apartment looked drab and ordinary against it. So he bought lots and lots of new and expensive stuff to spruce up his abode, with a big hit on his financial accounts. In the end he had this to say,

“I was absolute master of my old dressing gown, but I have become a slave to my new one … Beware of the contamination of sudden wealth. The poor man may take his ease without thinking of appearances, but the rich man is always under a strain.”

Between 2001 and 2006, I too was a victim to the Diderot Effect. I would buy a new stereo system, only to think not long afterwards that I needed a new media player or DVD player to go with it. The old one was in good working order so I was behaving irrationally. When I bought a new computer, I would also upgrade the display, even though the one I had was perfectly okay. Same goes with a lawn mower that I had, which just needed a little TLC, but I dumped it and bought a new one. My old petrol (gas) can was old and rusty, but still functional, but I bought a new one, and threw the other away with the old mower. Yes friends, I was wasteful as well.
These are just a few example of being sucked in by consumerism for consumerism’s sake. Today I would call it the ‘steak knife effect’ after all of those infomercials that start off flogging you one product, but then throw in a whole bunch of other stuff (that you never wanted anyway) just to justify the deal in your mind!

It has taken me a few years since my green epiphany, and a lot of thought after reading a book by Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss titled Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough, but I am no longer influenced by this effect or most advertising for that matter. I only replace what I need, when the old item is beyond repair, and only after I have gone without it for a few weeks to see if I can get by without it.

Case in point, my clothes dryer that broke a few months back. You can read about how we adapted in the absence of this so called laundry necessity on my post titled “Ditching the Clothes Dryer“. This is a classic example of rethinking and changing my behaviours for the better.

My warning to you all is beware the Diderot Effect and get off the consumerist treadmill which will help you stop the upward creep of material desire. Knowing how much is enough is a powerful skill to possess in this, the age of rampant consumerism.

Despite what advertisements tell us, stuff just doesn’t satisfy our desire for meaning, and it is a very poor substitute for your sense of self worth within a manipulative and demeaning society. I don’t mean to sound preachy, but it feels to me that consumerism in western society is totally out of control for all the wrong reasons.

So to sum it all up, treasure what you have. It will save your bank balance, and might just save a few resources in this ever declining, resource strapped, finite planet of ours.

Have you succumbed to this effect and regretted it later on? How did it make you feel?

Buy Nothing New Month

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Who thinks that our con$umer culture has gone crazy? Has Affluenza gone wild? Are people trying to break long ingrained spending habits or still shop till they drop?

I know that I used to buy all sorts of stuff that never got used, or played with, or even looked at after I brought it home from the store. Thankfully those days are well behind me however it was such a waste and according to some research I was not alone in these wasteful behaviours;

A paper from the Australia Institute by Clive Hamilton, Richard Denniss, and David Baker tells us “Aussies have admitted to spending over $10 billion every year on goods we do not use: clothes and shoes we never wear, CDs we never listen to, DVDs we never watch and food we never eat and each year in Australia nearly 20 million tonnes of waste goes to landfill. By way of comparison, this amount exceeds spending by Australian governments on universities and roads.”

That was back in 2005. I dare say that because people are a little more frugal with their money now, and that the Global Financial Crisis is well into its fifth year, people are a little bit more cautious with their spending habits. With more and more retail outlets going into administration each month, this trend may be downward.

However, not one to being shy to take up a new challenge, I am going to participate in Buy Nothing New Month. Here is a blurb about the event;

“Buy Nothing New Month is the global movement for collective, conscientious consumption.

It’s a little idea that started in Melbourne and is spreading to the Netherlands and USA.

It’s a one month challenge to buy nothing new (with the exception of essentials like food, hygiene and medicines)

Buy Nothing New Month isn’t Buy Nothing New Never. Nor is it about going without.
It’s literally about taking one month off to really think, “Do I really need it?” If I do, “can I get it second-hand, borrow it or rent it? What are my alternatives? Can I borrow from a friend? Can I swap with my neighbour?”

It’s about thinking where our stuff comes from (finite resources) and where it goes when we’re done (often landfill) and what are the fantastic alternatives out there to extend the life of our ‘stuff’.

It’s easy. It’s fun. It’s moving from consumption-driven to community-driven.

It’s good for us, our wallets and our planet.

Hop on board!”

According to the website, it is easy to buy nothing new for a month. There are simple some rules and exceptions to help you get through.

Pledge to Buy Nothing New during October, then with the exception of essentials (food, drink, medications, hygiene products) you can beg, borrow, barter, swap or buy second hand whatever you need.

You just buy nothing new.

So now that I have submitted my pledge and let it known to the world that I am participating, I need a few virtual friends to join in and see if they can buy nothing new for the month of October.

You can pledge at Buy Nothing New Month, and also share with friends.

Are you up for the challenge?