The frack attack and rabid consumerism are connected

I think the first step in curing rabid consumerism is to realize that corporations pay messaging gurus millions to lure us into The American Cult of Consumerism. Learn the difference between advertising, propaganda, lies and reality.

Own less and live more.  Psychologists say that people today own more objects than previous generations but many are “deeply unhappy.”

Advertisers spend millions researching how to induce us to purchase, says Vyse, a Connecticut College psychology professor. Their findings often lead to increasingly innovative, and sometimes intrusive, ways to market their products, he adds.

Doesn’t it make you angry to know that you have been manipulated?

Question everything! This is one of the first things I taught my children and they learned it quite well which often made parenting more challenging but also taught me how to say, “Okay, I got that one wrong.”  In Texas where children are required to show respect to adults even if they are not deserving of respect, it takes a brave child to face the persecution of questioning. I am proud to say they both have  a “very low tolerance for stupid bullshit.”

One of the best solutions toward a sustainable future is to replace the idea of ownership with access. Do you agree or disagree? ~Sustainable Man

Through firsthand experience watching isolated communities become a part of globalization, via industrial agriculture, plastics, etc., the filmmakers have compiled evidence to show that our consumer culture has played a huge role in our loss of general happiness. Before this “Western modernization,” traditional communities had more leisure time, participated in work and labor that had a visible, meaningful impact in their lives, and relied on neighbors and community members for help when it was needed. Economic globalization replaced these qualities with conflict, financial instability, and the idea that nothing was ever quite good enough. Mother Earth News review

10 Steps to Escape Consumerism

An ethical step: If your electricity provider offers the choice to use only 100% wind or solar generated power, please make that choice. The cost is only pennies more but the cost will come down as more people make that choice. Take this small step so you aren’t participating in Sacrifice Zones of Extraction. Thanks!

Let’s STOP THE FRACK ATTACK.