Are we human beings or consumers?

The so-called ‘democratic countries’ are consumer driven societies. This means your status, influence and value as a citizen depends on your ability to consume. The more you are capable of exercising conspicuous consumption the greater your influence and importance.

Now, with COVID-19 things seem to have changed slightly. We somehow forgot to consume as much as possible and started to think more instead. Could this be the death sentence for debt and capital driven hyper-consumerism and the beginning of a new era of eudaimonia and humanism where people rather than consumers and customers are at the center of all activity? What if we started spending more of our time on thinking than on consuming social media posts?

PS: Here in Germany our government expects from its citizens to dig deep into their pockets to save Volkswagen, the company that was founded by the Nazis and has since caused more damage to the environment than WWII. I’m afraid I won’t be part of the effort because I like the concept of #post-growth and #degrowth and combination with #freedomdividend much more.

Perpetual and exponential economic growth used to the global civil religion large parts of the world’s population were engulfed in. What if the secularization of this religion leads to a new form of civilization? Does evolution of society exist after all?

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Very interesting message, Torsten, but I didn’t know Volkwagen was founded by the Nazis.

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Volkswagen was created by the DAF: The German Labour Front (German: Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF) was the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (“Nazis”) labour organisation which replaced the various independent trade unions in Germany after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.

Even today you can still see and feel that Volkswagen has been an organization founded, owned and run by fascists and it’s quite likely that it will vanish within the next few years.

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Evolution of society does exist. But the possibility of evolving from consumerism is slim. Consumerism/capitalism is only a subset of Western ideology, which also includes Christianity, western education, and other practices. Western ideology and it’s flawed practices have been well-designed to withstand various forms of overthrow, making it seem almost immortal. So as much as evolution of society does exist, its chances against the capitalist system are insignificant—nonetheless, still a chance.

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Dear Torsten Sir,

How you people there? Due to Covid-19, have you people faced any problem, Hope that you people are safety side. Of course, our country India is affected due to the problem, even then we are surviving by God’s Grace to some extent.

Thank you
S.Shanthi

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Torsten, you have raised a good point about consumption.

Now that most countries are on lockdown, production is suspended. Post Covid days may face scarcity of commodities. Some people predict affliction of famine. This, I am sure, will take all countries back to production - agricultural and industrial - and will redefine consumption.

But when we are locked down, we resort to various pastimes. One of them is the social media without which we would have suffocated more than the Covid-19 patients!. People are engaged in more online activities than ever before. We schedule vacation classes and coach students far and near. Personally, I am spending more time on social media these days.

So, in my view, how long we could spend time on thinking when alternatives are available aplenty is a valid question to mull over!

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Hi Lawrence, I’m not sure about India but in Germany there never has been a real ‘lockdown’ nor has production been ‘suspended’. The German government estimates that GDP might fall by 7% this year which means that our GDP will reach the level it was at about 3 to 4 years ago. We are still producing way more than we really need consuming several times the amount of resources we are entitled to. We still confuse consumption with happiness. Elida has shared an excellent article on inequality here.

By the way, Germany has already passed its overshoot day.

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Congratulations! Germany is already a developed country. You can move faster than most other countries. India has had a real lockdown for 40 days till today. However, with some relaxations except in hotspot regions, it has been extended till May 7, 2020. Our GDP has also fallen. Production is being slowly resumed.

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Unfortunately Germany is not a developed nation. If we were, we wouldn’t continue fooling ourselves that perpetual economic growth through an ever rising rate of consumption is possible. We belong to the nations of plunderers who have been extracting more and more resources from our planet ignoring the fact that those resources are finite.

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Torsten, if I am to believe the Wikipedia, this extract proves otherwise: Germany is a great power with a strong economy; it has the largest economy in Europe, the world’s fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP, and the fifth-largest by PPP. As a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the world’s third-largest exporter and importer of goods. A highly developed country with a very high standard of living, it offers social security and a universal health care system, environmental protections, and a tuition-free university education. Germany is also a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G7, the G20, and the OECD. Known for its long and rich cultural history, Germany has many World Heritage sites and is among the top tourism destinations in the world.

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Lawrence do you honestly not understand that Germany per capita is extracting more resources from the planet than it is entitled to? Do you really not see any connection between ‘a strong economy’ and the climate crises that has now also reached Germany? I mean, you are a very educated person who has apparently has spent years educating people. Do you really believe perpetual economic is possible?

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Now I cannot but accept what comes from the horse’s mouth. Your words are most reliable of all sources. The Covid crisis has already impacted the economy the world over. I agree that the climate crises have also begun to affect even strong economies. I don’t believe in the Utopian concept of perpetual economic strength either.

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Here is another quotey Jason Hickel that illustrates the perversity of our system:

Nearly half of all the food that’s produced in the world each year gets wasted, mostly by farms and supermarkets. There’s a big opportunity here. By ending food waste, we could in theory cut global emissions by 14%, and rewild 2.4 billion hectares of land.

Since we have not fixed this problem and wouldn’t classify countries the likes of Germany as ‘developed’.

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I’m in full accord with you, Torsten. It is as criminal an offence to waste food as it is to leave fertile land uncultivated. Personally, I’m dead against both.

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