The Myth & Arrogance of Consumer Absolution
The Chinese curse says, “May you live in interesting times.” There is something poignant about that statement in a world facing the dire consequences of human induced global warming, compounding fresh water scarcity, the loss of all currently eaten species in our oceans by 2048, depleting mineral resources, global pollution and corporations that drive economies with larger footprints than UN membership.
The Problem with our Current Frame of Reference
We do live in interesting times. We live in times that are framed by the way we’ve been taught to look at the world around us – whether by religion, the State or simple arrogance at having been born into a family of the advanced economies. It’s a dangerous perspective because there is no right to take more than our share and to exploit the rest of the world… it’s something we do simply because we can.
We’ve been duped into believing that economics drives the world… and that consumption drives economics… and that everybody dies if the credit cards get screwed by a pair of giant scissors. Hey it works for us, right? Only this afternoon I purchased $250 of clothes at a Myer sale.
What I mean by Complicity in the Crime
When I say that consumers have complicity in the crimes being perpetrated in the early part of a product’s supply chain it’s just not good enough to say it’s nothing to do with us… even worse to say the supply chain can never be held accountable so let’s look the other way. In that argument we’re deferring to economics and corporations the power to hand feed us atrocity and injustice at bargain basement prices.
In our current frame of collective reference… at least for the majority of advanced economy consumers… there is no concept of being held responsible for the products we consume. Neither for how they were created or where they disappear to after the honeymoon [because the majority of us believe that paying for a product with money absolves us of the product's pre-and-post-lifecycle realities].
Everything Comes from Somewhere
This is an old drum to beat but a solid one. Everything is made out of something… the paint, the glass, the wires, the ink, everything. Your fish. Your newspaper. Your cotton shirt. Your milk and coffee all came from somewhere and used resources to make it into your fridge, wardrobe or living room.
That’s another mental shift that we need to make – moving the consciousness of the many to appreciate that an object or service is the sum of it’s parts to date and through to it’s end of days. You don’t just buy a computer… you buy the tantulum that went into the capacitors, the tin, the plastic, the tiny parts and the fuel that drove the factory where it was assembled.
We don’t drink a litre of milk, we drink 1600 litres of fresh water and a litre of milk. We don’t drink coffee and cocoa, we also drink complicity in the child labour and exploitation that brought that coffee to your lips at a low market price. We have to let go of this idea that the benefits of globalisation are exclusive… we need sustainable inclusive globalisation and that starts from the grass roots and hopefully adjusts public perception over time.
Its about accepting a Footprint
I mentioned the Myer Sale… I need to look presentable for interviews. I have a computer with two monitors. My shirt is made of cotton. I’m drinking a milk coffee that may well be FairTrade but it certainly isn’t fair trade. I’m eating cow for dinner and I certainly use my mobile phone (although it’s about four years old now and refuses to die so I can upgrade). That’s just a part of my footprint.
All I am saying is that people need to look at themselves, what they eat and how they move around in terms of their overall resource footprint.
So What Can you Do?
So am I saying that you are all bastards who knowingly murder babies and pay rapists and squander whole rivers to make plastic toys? No. I’m not saying you should not have a mobile phone because it’s a reality of our world that we need to survive in our society and economy over the long-term.
However, you can accept your footprint. You can avoid buying frivalous upgrades to tech like the latest iPad or iPhone when the one you have works perfectly. You can also lobby your government, companies like Nokia and Apple, and you can put consumer pressure (one-by-one) onto corporations to resist these practices. Do your best where you can to make better informed consumer decisions.
Which Means…
Which means that the first step is accepting you’re a part of a large group of people used to the idea of taking and using way more than your share. It’s not a right. Don’t treat it that way. That goes for me, too. We were raised to believe and to justify this inequity… but it’s fundamentally flawed.
Sustainable business comes from win-win scenarios… not just hiding your corporate costs by moving off-shore where labour and environmental laws are weaker. Not by sourcing dirt cheap inputs from dirty shitty wars in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo.
