User talk:Consumercide

Consumercide
''Shut up. Consume. Shut up. Die.''

to consumercide.com

Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so. -Bertrand Russell

Consumercide is a neologism... a word that combines not just two but rather many words: consumer or consumerism meets suicide, homicide, envirocide, and so forth... the suffix ‘cide’ which from the Latin caedo means "to kill", is the perfect partner to consumer culture.

Consumercide, consumercidal: Consumerism as a cause of death, i.e., death of the individual (~suicide) or of others (~homicide) or, more broadly, the environment & planet, through an excess of the combination of affluenza and ignorance.

Consumercide is a little more serious than affluenza. Being 'sick' through automaton-like consumption for it's own sake is not the same as dying from it: the latter (somewhat more serious condition) is what this website is about. The site (link above) exists because many unnecessary deaths are being experienced every day, with consumercide as catalyst.

This is not a simplistic argument whereby consumption of material goods is given as the one avenue to consumercide; neither is it purely antimaterialist, or an elaborate statement in luddism. Consumercide defines many human behaviours (loosely categorisable as consumerist) as being important in sending us down the path of self, neighbourly and planetary destruction. Psychological addictions based upon power, sex, or security needs... all that manifest in myriad ways (including sporting, political or brand allegiances and other irrational jingoisms) are just some of the patterns of individual consciousness and/or socio-cultural pathologies that lead to consumercide. In fact, any behaviour of a potentially addictive/destructive nature could be added to the list, and as a species we certainly have a few.

The consequences of consumercidal action are not limited to the harm of self. The danger is spread to other humans and ultimately to all life upon this planet, which regrettably has to collectively suffer under the burden of humanity's gigantic and wayward egos. This is not a statement against ego per se, for ego can be a powerful force for reconciling such problems, but when teamed with the ignorance of consumercide (and its adverse effects) it leads to the destructiveness that you can witness by briefly surveying any newspaper, on any day.

"...Survival is a word we all understand: I would like to know whether there is going to be a decent world in which, say, my grandchildren can live: that's the question of survival. The survival of the human species is by no means an obvious thing: there are very severe threats to survival and we learn about them all the time. The threat of environmental destruction is much too real to put to the side: the threat of destruction by the weapons of mass destruction --that has come very close many times... major threats are predicted in large part as a consequence of government policies... so [decent] survival of the species is by no means a sure thing..."

-Chomsky speaking about his latest book, Hegemony or Survival

Consumercide is a marker of ignorance. It might be obvious and a truism to some, but there is a proportional relationship between a society's indulgence upon blind overconsumption and its' ignorance or denial of the adverse effects that this consumption breeds. The ignorance/denial is inevitably towards things that are nevertheless profoundly important: things that one needs to know to prevent the 'untimely demise' of one's self and, ultimately, one's world. Hence we have consumercide.

A central thesis of consumercide (and its' site) is that whilst we are otherwise engulfed in alpha suggestibility states at the mall, the screen or the stadium, we are not paying attention to matters of real importance in our world.

"Look, the average American doesn't mind the Defense Department tracking their credit card transactions, bank accounts, medical records, veterinary records, methods of transportation, travels taken, their housing information, or tracking every phone call they make. Of course, the average American knows more about an episode of 'Friends' than about what their own government is up to." -Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, defending DARPA's Information Awareness Office. website source: The Madness of King George.

There is no human arena of activity in which consumercide is rendered more clearly than in the battle for health, set as it is amidst the battle for the health dollar: it is where we see the decimation of the 'traditional view' of science, made prostitute to all-encompassing corporatism, rendering impotent the peer review process, and violating all standards of medical ethics in the name of profit. It becomes worse with the destructive political intrusion of the corporate state as it violates the personal boundaries of the individual human body. This Foucauldian intrusion is mainly implicit and psychological, and yet it certainly has its coercive political manifestations, which are regrettably growing stronger all the time.

Another central tenet to consumercide is that the power drive of the most affluent world citizens is the most highly destructive of all psychological abberations... not only to the vast, enslaved masses of the 'south' (And increasingly, the 'north')... but it is also heinously damaging to the elites themselves. A committment by elites (and high income, powerful people) to altruistic ends rather than personal aggrandisement and materialistic overindulgences would make the world a far better place for all of us... elites included. This seems to be a statement of the obvious but it is one that is obviously a point that is frequently missed: probably becasue it would require a uniform re-evaluation and change by the relevant parties.

If we wish to truly progress as a race, humanity must somehow perceive and then eliminate consumercide: at present it remains a relatively unrecognised but nevertheless insidious and ever-present threat to humanity and to our entire planet's future. Those who hold the key to overcoming this hurdle--and to whom the idea of consmercide should speak loudest--are those who are of the richest nations: the most powerful people of those nations are those who most need to see the destructive error of oppression and greed for power's sake. And those of the shrinking middle classes, who are rich enough to wield disposable income within this sea of vast inequality, need to rethink their support of the corporations, governments and mindsets that propagate consumercide.

other links: adbusters anticonsumerism blog

Consumercide 12:48, 14 January 2006 (UTC)