Monday, February 16, 2009
Greed and Voluntary Simplicity
As we have discussed in class, Greed is something that many people are infected by. With this said, I believe it is a "disease" that is all too often over-diagnosed. As previous posts have stated, money is something we all have to have to survive. It is no longer possible to depend solely off the Earth. There are many people who have a strong desire to gain wealth exponentially without any regard to the negative consequences it might impose on the environment or other humans. I believe we have a predisposition as humans to always push our boundaries and expand. It is an innate quality we share with no other species on this planet. Exploring "new lands" has come to and end because we have been everywhere. If we cant expand outward, what do we do? Expand upward with the construction of skyscrapers and other mega structures that would have never even entered the dreams of our ancestors. As far as voluntary simplicity goes, outside of a few environmentalist and naturalists, I strongly believe it is not something we desire. One example of this is the economy. It is well known that the economy has totally derailed. Today, every news station, media outlet, and government official talk of nothing other than "fixing the economy". Sure it has to be fixed, but why are we so desperately trying new repair schemes? Why is it such a big deal that so many people are now jobless? If we lived in a more self-sustaining world, one with more voluntary simplicity, this would not be such a big deal. But we do not live in such a world. We are not meant to live in such a world. As I said before, we as humans are hardwired to always be moving forward. Stepping back in time would go against our natural drives and instincts. We are fixing the economy, making new jobs, all to be able to buy more stuff. In our world with the frontiers already explored, purchasing stuff to move up in the world is equivalent to exploring new territories. Humans have a drive to always improve and move forward, whether it is land or lifestyles.
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You make some very important points here. Thanks for highlighting some of the central issues from the class so far.
ReplyDeleteThe claim that needs to be elaborated on is the one about human beings being "hard wired" for "overconsumption." Kohak mentions that some theorists seem to believe something like this and use it as a justification for "doing nothing" about environmental problems that result from human activities. But where is the evidence that we are overconsumers by "nature"? Why isn't this mostly a cultural attitude rather than a feature of human nature? And if we are hard wired in this way, doesn't that amount to saying that we are not as free as we like to think that we are? That is to say, if we really are "hard wired" then we are apparently not free to change our way of life. But, for many philosophers (including Kohak and Kant), it is precisely "freedom" that sets us apart from the rest of the animal world in the first place. I would like to get a discussion going on this point, so please feel free to join in.
I believe that Freedom is something a human quality that humans need to strive for.
ReplyDeleteModern day American's do live in a consumerist society. This can be seen in our reality tv shows where sixteen year olds are having million dollar birthday parties. Materialism is associated with America. This is also seen because the many ideas to make the economy better is to simply buy more. However, I do not believe that every modern american is naturally "hard wired" to be this way. I believe that consumerism is a social phenonoma that can be stopped if individuals just take the time to think about their actions. Thus, greed is not natural but we do have the ability to change our way of living.