Breaking the Cycle of Consumption

The cycle of consumption that predominates modern life on our planet sort of goes like this…

Stuff is built to break…

by people (well, more and more, by machines)…

who buy and break stuff…

and then build, buy and break more stuff…

and on and on it goes.

Under a capitalistic society, capital, in its various forms, fuels the cycle and keeps it running…

it’s supposed to be allocated efficiently…

by the so-called “invisible hand“…

but it’s not.

That’s because there’s another system superimposed over the real word of building, buying and breaking stuff…

it’s called the financial system.

It’s sort of like the matrix really.

It consists of robotic-like slot machine players who gamble on various outcomes that might or might not take place in the underlying real cycle of consumption world.

All for the benefit of a select chosen few who are allowed in on this game.

And boy do they ever benefit…

at the expense of the real world (as we learned in 2008).

And, if so, how?

But I digress.

The point of this post is supposed to be about breaking the cycle of consumption.

Specifically, by implementing the three R’s…

• Recycle
• Reuse
• Repair

We all know about recycling right?

It’s that pain in the ass thing that bleeding heart liberal leaning environmental wackos (like me) do to save the planet.

Okay, granted it is a little bit of a pain to do it right. But if you look into the benefits to the planet from doing so, you’ll see that it’s worth it.

And if you’re going to recycle, put a little thought and effort into it.

First, make sure you know where your recycled trash is going and that it’s actually being, you know, recycled.

Second, separate it out yourself and clean stuff out a little before throwing it into the appropriate bin.

Someone has to sort through it all and it’s being respectful to those folks that you do this the right way.

But even better than recycling is reusing stuff.

That’s especially true when it comes to plastic. Our insatiable consumption of plastic has tremendous environmental costs.

But the cool thing is that it’s easy to reuse plastic bags and bottles. They can be conveniently cleaned and repurposed for a whole variety of household activities.

And that keeps them out of the landfill (or, even better, the ocean) as well as reducing the need for so much of this oil-based material to begin with.

That might not make you a hero to the filthy oil-rich Saudi Sheikhs…or the Bush family…

but do you really care?

Lastly let’s talk about one of my personal favorite ways to break the cycle…

Repair.

We “Americans” don’t like to repair things…we want it new.

As soon as something breaks, time to discard it and buy a new one. Hell we don’t even wait for it to break most times…

we want the new model NOW.

Talk about perpetuating the cycle!

That’s why cars diminish in value drastically as soon as they’re driven off the sales lot…at least in the good ole U.S. of A.

Here in Costa Rica it’s a different story.

There are repair shops for just about everything. Mainly because folks can’t afford to buy new stuff imported from the primary sources of the world’s cycle of consumption.

That tends to give real people jobs to do here…and admirable ones at that.

For instance, here being a mechanic is a noble and well-paid (in Costa Rican terms) profession.

I’m still driving my trusty 2000 Mitsubishi Nativa. She runs like a clock…

well, most of the time.

And any time she gets the hiccups, I have my buddy Esteban (an ace mechanic who only knows how to drive a non-motorized bike…seriously) who comes right on over to my house and fixes her up.

I’m still using an “ancient” Iphone 3GS because any time it breaks, I have my repair guy downtown that fixes it right up.

You might be thinking, but is it economically feasible to do that. That is, doesn’t it cost more to fix than it does to just buy a new one…in the long run?

A cost that we are beginning to feel more and more in our day to day lives as the planet gets hotter…

and the weather weirder.

I really like the idea of hanging onto things…fixing them. They tend to develop sentimental value that way.

I appreciate them more.

The cycle of consumption is a cruel taskmaster. It enslaves us. It exerts a life-sucking stressful need to live to work rather than work to live.

Buying all that new stuff takes time and money…and years off our lives.

And by allowing it to dominate us in this way we are playing right into the hands of the matrix.

The corporatocrasy that is behind the scenes manipulating it all for the benefit of the chosen few.

You see, to fully and competitively participate in the cycle (which is the goal of the American Dream, right?), we need those mortgages, home equity loans and credit card debt…

and they love that!

They don’t care about the environment. When you’re a gazillionaire, there are personal solutions to all that…

or so they tend to delude themselves into thinking.

I mean if there’s ever a need and opportunity to move on to another planet and start the cycle all over again…

they’ll certainly get dibs on the reservations for those interplanetary flights.

Let’s break the cycle by all means available.

And the three R’s is one good place you can start.

image credit: punk_patriot411 via Compfight cc