The Feeding Frenzy of Consumerism and Environmental Destruction

Martin Luther King, Jr. believed that consumerism was one of the major shortcomings of US society. The other issues were militarism and racism. Those were the three major themes King raised in his famous “Beyond Vietnam” speech delivered in April 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City. King spoke against the ongoing debacle of the US war in Southeast Asia.

The apron of the big-box store in western Massachusetts was populated and littered with all manner of consumer goods, both big and small on the first day of the state’s tax-free weekend. There are usually lots of people in this area outside the store, but the huge dollies and trucks parked at the perimeter of the store spoke to the feeding frenzy of shopping.

Many of the items were big-ticket items: huge flat-screen TVs, masses of furniture such as chairs and sectional couches, and a whole host of other consumer goods. The clutch of people and trucks carrying away these items made it difficult to walk unimpeded on the sidewalk without having to step out onto the road at the edge of the big-box parking lot.

Consumerism is a way for people in the US and other so-called developed societies to assuage a number of issues. The feel-good reaction to grabbing all that a person can is like a scene out of the children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1972) where a character can be sated with all of the chocolate he ever dreamed of eating.

Recall George W. Bush’s advice to go out and shop as a way of responding to the September 11, 2001 attacks.

“This version of patriotism — consumer patriotism — was on full display after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93 in 2001. The message from political leaders was that the way for Americans to move past the tragedy and overcome their fears was to spend money and spur the economy.

“In an address to the nation on the evening of the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush reassured the public that “our financial institutions remain strong” and the American economy was still “open for business.” He would go on to tell people to “get down to Disney World in Florida” to help shore up the country’s hurting airlines. “Take your families and enjoy life the way we want it to be enjoyed,” he said. Vice President Dick Cheney called for the public to “stick their thumb in the eye of the terrorists” by not letting what had happened “in any way throw off their normal level of activity.” Political leaders declared that the terrorists “hate our freedoms” — of religion, of speech, and, apparently, of the ability to snap a picture with Minnie and Mickey and buy stock in Exxon (Vox, September 9, 2021).”

As a society we need to pay attention to the big-ticket consumer items that would slow climate destruction. Stopping that destruction may be beyond those efforts at this point. In relatively wind-rich western Massachusetts, the same paltry number of wind turbines from over a decade ago are the same ones I see today. There has been an effort to build some solar arrays and some homes have solar panels, but the cost of installing a solar system, even with state and federal government assistance, is prohibitive. Electricity is expensive, as can be seen in cooling costs for the current hot summer. The major electric company and state will help with energy efficiency, but will not buck fossil fuel generated electricity production. Other sources of energy efficient energy production are not considered. Electric or hybrid cars and trucks remain expensive compared to gasoline driven engines.

I’ve learned what I call the two-week test about consumerism. I imagine what a particular consumer good would look like after two weeks of having indulged in its purchase. This behavior change has resulted in remarkable results, as I put a consumer item back on its rack after applying the two-week consumer test inside the big-box store on this tax-free weekend. I neither needed nor wanted the item. The two-week consumer-resistance test is arbitrary, but any time frame will do. In relation to the environment, where consumer goods are particularly destructive of the climate, vegetarianism and veganism are perhaps the greatest single behavior change a person can make toward returning to a more sustainable world (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine). Countering the raising and slaughter of animals, besides the cruelty involved, is the area a person can make the greatest contribution in reversing climate destruction.

Consumerism cannot begin to compare to the enormous use of fossil fuels in war. No personal change of behavior can begin to address the addiction to war, both overt and covert. Wars are CO2 producing catastrophes. Heating of the environment releases methane, a more potent source of destructive warming than CO2, from former frigid areas of permafrost. The loops of destruction increase and intensify.

Growing food in a vegetable garden is also an important pushback against environmental ruin, but it is only a baby step in that direction in a society seemingly unconcerned about environmental destruction and committed to incessant economic “growth.” A vegetable garden, while enviable, is tinkering around the edges of the environmental catastrophe.

Only days after this tax-free weekend, skies in western Massachusetts were darkened by wildfire smoke creating an unhealthy level of pollution.

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