Thank you everyone for giving the compact experiment the good old college try. It's one thing to read about the woes of society and another to 'walk the walk'. For those who will/have not consumed in 28 days straight, you may find that you don't need to wait by the computer or mall for that 29th day to come just to order or buy something- anything.
The first week was tough, not because I wanted or needed things, but simply because it's hard not to go on automatic mode and just buy. As the weeks moved along, I am reminded once more of how much excess I have already. It makes me slightly ill and in dire need to purge, like King Kong on top of the Empire State building.
Truth be told, I don't think it will be difficult to carry on with this lifestyle. It does help that I have limited resources, and it feels good to save. I wish us all good luck in the future. At the very least, it's gratifying to have all this information and our short (long?) three weeks experience. I plan to continue posting with updates of my progress. Would be great to have your support through this journey. We don't even have to cite any more.
It seems the biggest obstacle to keeping green (compact) is not my own will but rather the reactions of those around me. Whenever I think I need something, like toys for my puppy (that I know I cannot buy), friends would say, "hey, you signed up to fight consumerism, your dog did not". Or worst still, "would hate to be you, got three cool tops this weekend". There has been lack of support and at times, full on taunting. Simply by choosing not to buy anything new in 28 days, I'm all of a sudden that odd freaky one. Should I judge people's behavior though? If you think about it, it's over 50 years of embedded consumer culture created by the US government post WWII and supported by industry through aggressive advertising and mass production (Featherstone). Consumer culture, like anything else in society and media in general, has a way of seeping into our very being. I akin the success of such campaigns to notions of standard beauty. When did the white blond woman become the standard beauty amongst people of color? As Bell Hooks and Peggy McIntosh may explain it, it has very much to do with the white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist, hetoro-normativity in our society. It is those in society that prescribe to this thinking that are allowed to produce. Their products are meant to appeal to their own kind but has successfully seeped into all other segments of our society. Impose evil master plan and watch the hapless drones obey: check!
I find this exercise revealing in many ways. I had mentioned in class that I really needed someone to go to the the Kanye concert with me, so a concerned student asked me today (also in class) if I had found someone yet. I was bummed to report all my friends are anti-hip hop, have hip problems, or simply too old to hop. Then began the pity party that poor me has to go to the concert by my lonesome. But in this moment of bourgeoise privilege whining, I thought to myself, "how much energy and other resources will this concert consume"? It didn't make me feel good at all.
But really, I was thinking about the concept of need and want. We so desperately feel we need: to be at a historical concert when we can watch it on video; get that cute pair of shoes when we have over 30 pairs already; hit a sale simply because items are cheap; keep up with a trend knowing you'll only wear the outfit once or twice before it's considered dated; keep up with our collections of shoes, jeans, brushes...What of this list do we really need?
If as Kondo discussed, the national aesthetics of Japan is western forms of modernity, I think the global aesthetic is a 'for sale' sign. It's not enough to know we can afford cheap things, a lot of cheap things, we also need to validate this reality on a daily basis. If Neissen suggests a re-orienting of fashion to include discussions from the east, I ask if we can re-orient our minds away from the culture of consumption.
One suggestion is we need to stop defending our additions like it's a nation, sports team or even our identity. We are all victims of and contributors to consumer culture, but hardly clever enough to break away from it. Instead, we use our analytical skills to justify our purchases and defend or habits.
A (really green) friend of mine lamented this evening that there are too many folks who claim to care for the environment but they haven't given up anything. They may trade in their SUV for a hybrid but their driving time remains. That's not a sacrifice. In the end, the only "sacrifice" we will make is letting go of the notions of want and need. Maybe by starting this way, we will understand what we really must give up to make a dent in our new found convictions.
Hey, David, Nike is your slave name. Remove the shackles and stop worshiping the likes of marketing ponds like Kobe (though he's one wealthy pond with his endorsements, his jump is still fake). Instead, keep in mind that there exists many genuine muses worthy of inspiration, like the "Urban Ninja". See below.
As a professor I constantly look for innovative pedagogical tools. Learning is not about regurgitation from texts but rather using the text as a springboard to gather more knowledge. Memorizing facts to later spew it out in tests may or may not ensure quality learning. So, I was not adverse to the idea of finding alternative ways to process and measure learning (in lieu of a final). We have been reading so much about capitalism and especially the effects such as consumer culture. We notice this clearly in the textiles industry. Institutions controlling ideas of fashion began probably before written texts and the history of these ideas has been well documented since then. For example, from Ko’s writings we know that in the 10th century, the state and eventually its society created class based body image by introducing footbinding for women (Ko 1997).
With the advent of capitalism, consumer culture emerged and rose to extraordinary heights in the last few decades. With mastermind marketing techniques deployed by companies such as Nike (Skoggard 1998) we are now lead to believe we ‘need’ consumer products or else we will not be happy, popular, sexy…But, in the process to create more products for the hungry consumer, capital exploitation also rises. The more affluent nations target developing ones for their labor in order to make higher profits (Palmer et al 1996).
These facts do not mean we have to shrug our shoulders feeling there’s not much we can do to fight globalization. That may be the case, but we certainly can take action to change our lifestyles. So, to be a part of The Compact movement in order to recognize how much we partake in the consumer culture is an interesting exercise. I believe connecting our experiences during this process to the readings of the course will constitute an clever pedagogical experiment. Read more about what we are doing below.
Here we are, trying to make a difference one person at a time one day at a time. We chose to participate in Be Green 101 because we care about the environment and are critical of consumer culture.
There exists many ways for us to act upon our beliefs. For this endeavor, we chose to only buy secondhand items (with a few exceptions) in line with The Compact movement that originated in San Francisco 2005.
We hope as students made aware of how consumer culture has harmed societies, we can act accordingly to make change.
