Can You Opt Out of Consumerism?

Lets take a moment to put our desire to get rich into perspective. I stumbled across Freegan.info and it was kind of a sobering site to visit. It’s fine to want to make money and all, but lets not lose sight of the effects that a globe full of rampant consumers is having on the Earth that we are dependent on.

Here’s the definition of a Freegan:

Freeganism is a total boycott of an economic system where the profit motive has eclipsed ethical considerations and where massively complex systems of productions ensure that all the products we buy will have detrimental impacts most of which we may never even consider. Thus, instead of avoiding the purchase of products from one bad company only to support another, we avoid buying anything to the greatest degree we are able.

And when they say “total boycott of the economic system” they mean it…looking down the list of categories on their website you’ll find a list of “foraging sites” ie. Dumpsters, including pictures of the coveted goodies found within.

Personally I know this extreme approach would not be for me although I totally see the merit in their message. Also I’ve never really believed in boycotting as an effective method of change, it only works if you can reach a ‘critical mass’ of participation. Besides that trying to inflict pain on someone or something [even a corporation] in order to get them to stop inflicting pain seems counter productive and a bit hippocritical.

To me the economic system, as messed up as it currently is, presents many opportunities to be worked with and to be channeled towards goodness. It’s worth having a look at the Freegan site though and trying their message on for size, but you probably won’t be bumping into me during your next dumpster dive.

This post was written by Jon Symons, see my short bio. Or use the contact page to get in touch.