We live in a hyper polarized political era. These days when we speak of governance we speak in terms of left and right or liberal and conservative. Rhetoric in the media would have us believe that the political view a particular outlet supports is thoroughly impeded by the evil that is their counterpart. These days we hear of darkly imperial corporations taking on predatory and greedy personas or looming socialism bent on denying liberty and freedom. Modern rhetoric would pit capitalism against sustainability. As with most truths, it lies in between the extremes. The demonization of capitalism nor the condemnation of sustainability will advance us. As an elixir for this polarity to you I submit the concept of Consumer Activism. This proposal is submitted as the truth that can thrive in between our modern paradigms. Through consumer activism we as a people can use capitalistic drivers and motivation, including competition and free-market selection, to drive social change. If sustainable choices are available and consumers are mindful of what they buy and why, they can support a shift away from Affluenza and toward a more sustainable capitalistic society.
To really look at this confluence of Consumer Activism and Quality of Life in an abridged manner we must define “Quality of Life” and “Consumer Activism.” Lets start with the assigned subject matter.
According to my wife: being married, her evaluation of the meaning of quality of life is critical to my own. On asking her about what quality of life is, her education showed. You see she is in the post grad counseling program here at Boise State, so Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs1 weighed heavily in her response, but she elaborated that it was much more than that. Take for instance shelter. Arguably shelter can attend to all five levels of the hierarchy, but would a mud hut serve with the same quality of life as a new gold level energy efficient home on the bench with radiant heating floors? Clearly for a well educated American woman, frankly also for myself, the envy of the Jones’s on the bench will attend to Self Actualization Needs, Esteem Needs, Belongingness and Love Needs, Safety Needs, as well as the base of the hierarchy, Physical Needs vastly more superiorly than a mud hut. Without getting lost in the utter contextually of the term “quality of life,” I bet the vast and superior majority of americans would agree.
In fact, unless one lived in a place where such an opulent home would make one a target of violence and be impossible to build and power, all would agree with my wife’s evaluation. But I digress…
Injecting a bit of context seems vital to strengthening my point and treating the affliction belabored in Affluenza. Shall we conjecture about American and Global Demographics or geopolitic-ethno-financial mumbo jumbo? In 500 words or less we shan’t. We must rely on our own definitions, as quality of ones life can only by defined by the one living it. Mine is a varied and multifaceted definition but happiness is at the heart of it. My wife agrees as does dean of American happiness scholars Ed Diener of the university of Illinoise. In researching Q of L, I came across a rather scholarly definition that fit nicely into my concept:
“…a person is said to have high [ well-being or happiness ] if she or he experiences life satisfaction and frequent joy, and only infrequently experiences unpleasant emissions such as sadness or anger. Contrariwise, a person is said to have low [ well-being or happiness ] if she or he is dissatisfied with life, experiences little joy and affection, and frequently feels unpleasant emotions such as anger or anxiety.”2
Perhaps it is the heavy Christian indoctrination of “the Golden Rule” prevalent in my upbringing, but to be happy and therefore have a high quality of life I must know that my choices are not harming others. The self benefit to using compassionate consumerism is a beneficial sleep pattern. I am a sensitive person and if I feel I have wronged someone the offense adversely effects my wellbeing. A strong compunction to remedy the matter will rob me of REM lest it be addressed.
Maybe my earlier digression was appropriate? Who’s life are we talking about anyway when we contemplate the validity of our beliefs about a quality life? The “we” here is an english class full of young adults striving for an education presumably in order to enrich their lives and be able to buy more stuff. But what about those on the other end of the transaction?
As American consumers we are trained to obtain the most stuff for the fewest dollars. Well, how does that manner if consumerism negatively effect others? We need an example…it’s hot, I am wearing my favorite cool Patagonia cotton T; recently purchased to wear in these sweltering early months of school. Back to school clothes purchases are a staple in the American experience. In fact I will give five dollars to you in our next class if you can find anybody in the classroom that is not wearing any cotton. It is the ubiquitous fabric of our lives, and we buy tons of it. In fact according to the cotton.org website it is estimated that cotton stimulates ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY MILLION DOLLARS in revenue presumably annually.
Cotton is great stuff. It can be milled in various ways to produce durable textiles like canvas or denim. It can be spun into fine threads that are woven into some of the most sumptuous sheets ever slept on, money and even my favorite t-shirt. It has a unique property that allows it to absorb moisture and slowly evaporate it off giving it a cool,airy and refreshing feeling. But you see, when a person buys anything cotton they are essentially making an investment in the cotton industry. Let’s take a look at consumer activism and how it can support and possibly redefine the negative effects of the over consumer-ization referred to in the first 14 chapters of Affluenza. So as an example of how you have contributed to Affluenza let me ask what you know about the cotton industry that produced that garment you purchased and are wearing? Answer these carefully, remember, you freely chose to support the industry that produced it.
Do you know what country is the largest grower of cotton?
Do you know how its harvested?
Did you know that cotton is among the most toxic modern agricultural products in the world?
Did you know that many of the dies used to color cotton contain:
Cancer causing hormone disrupters like dioxin
Heavy cancer causing metals like chrome, copper, and zinc
Formaldehyde, a suspected carcinogen that according to the Journal of Applied Toxicology that…”As an aqueous solution, it causes burns on contact with the skin and eyes, and the vapor is irritating to the eyes and respiratory system.”
Did you know that do to the enormous volume of toxic compounds sprayed on cotton fields the aquatic life in one of the worlds largest fresh water lakes so profoundly contaminated that its fish are not fit for consumption? 10
Here are the dubious answers to the above Questions:
According to http://www.cotton.org “Historically, China is the largest grower. China’s 3-year average production for the years 2006 through 2008 was approximately 36 million bales of cotton. India is second, with 23.1 million bales of production for the same time period. The U.S. is third, with average production of 17.9 million bales of cotton for the years 2006 through 2008.” It is estimated by the WTO that the government run Chinese cotton syndicate receives upwards of $700 million a year in subsidies. This coupled with fairly lax environmental controls has created a boon for the industry. 6
Before three different mechanical implements can do their bidding in the plucking and combing of the plume from the stems the field is dowsed in defoliants to remove as much of the plant matter from the stems as possible. 7
25% of the worlds supply of insecticides, 10% of its pesticides are applied to cotton crops.8
According to oat.com “during the conversion of cotton into conventional clothing, many hazardous materials are used and added to the product, including silicone waxes, harsh petroleum scours, softeners, heavy metals, flame and soil retardants, ammonia, and formaldehyde-just to name a few.” 9
For a culture that relies on sustenance farming and fishing this lost resource has a devastating effect on survival let alone quality of life of locals.
Now that I’v shared a few details that the consumer is typically shielded from you may be harboring a bit of guilt for sporting your favorite tshirt. Not me. You see there is a dude out there fighting the good fight for us by providing organic cotton products. His name is Yvon Chouinard and he is a climber, environmentalist turned trend setting business man. He was frustrated by the lack of wholesome products to provide to his wildly loyal customers so he helped develop the resource to provide better products.. He established Patagonia’s Organic Cotton Movement and created a high demand for responsibly produced products that forever changed the cotton industry.
The shirt on my back helps me sleep at night knowing that I supported sustainability, monetized and positively supported those who produce products without poisoning themselves, our environment and by virtue of the world we share, avoided poisoning myself.
Yvon and Patagonia are remarkable because they were tight with their customers. They valued the relationship with their customers more than double digit proffits. That sort of connection is lost in a plutocratic society. Consider that the top earning .01% of Americans in 2007 earned as much as 120 million of the bottom earners. Plutocracy, theirs a mouthful…As defined by the Oxford English Dictionary…
plutocracy, n.
1. Government by the wealthy; a state or society governed by the wealthy.
1652 T. URQUHART 218 That poverty is an enemy to the exercise of virtue,..is not unknown to any acquainted with Plutocracy, or the sovereign power of money. 1712tr. Xenophon Memorable Things of Socrates IV. 174 When..the Magistrates were chosen according to their Revenues, it was call’d a Plutocracy. 1796 Let. to Attorney Gen. 14 Shall I rather say oligarchy or plutocracy? 1839 Morning Herald 3 Sept., Of all systems of tyranny a plutocracy is the most cruel, selfish, and grinding. 1887 W. E. GLADSTONE in 19th Cent. Jan. 17 Let us be jealous of plutocracy, and of its tendency to infect aristocracy, its elder and nobler sister. 1995 H. FAUSSET Walt Whitman ii. 93 The vicious strength of the acquisitive impulse, through which democracy in America has been persistently defeated by plutocracy.
2. An elite or ruling class whose power and position stems from its wealth.
In stark contrast to this Plutocratic status quo and at the heart of Patagonia’s development of their organic cotton line is the idea of corporate social responsibility, environmentalism and sustainability. Their success has been noticed buy large corporations who are beginning to abandon the more traditional view that a corporations only considerations should be in regard to profit. Yvon Chouinard recognized his success was due to this responsible business practice and established the 1% for the planet program and Blue Label to push the successes Patagonia’s innovations reaped to the greater clothing and fashion industries. These ideas of corporate responsibility, citizenship, stewardship and sustainability are becoming more and more popular as pioneering companies like Patagonia are proven profitable. As an example the Dow Jones has created a counterpart to the Industrial Average economic metric in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes.3
Clothing is but one of the basic needs people have. Food is another commodity we can survive only a short time without. Yet surprisingly people at large are not particularly mindful of what they eat, not that they are encouraged by vendors to think about what they stuff in their gullets. Like everything in a growth sustained economy production must continually increase. Logically 40 or 50 years of this has lead to a mantra in the food industry; Food: Fatter, Bigger, Faster. The Film Food Inc illustrates how the food industry is oriented to grow things Bigger, Fatter, Faster at the expense of our health and environment.
This continuation of the post WWII growth sustained economy coupled with the convenience demands of a motorized society lead to debacles like Walmart. Did you know that Walmart is the largest employer in Idaho and the nation fuels it’s never ending growth on the manipulation of tax laws and federal assistance programs. They are cheaper because they subsidies their operating costs by robbing our communities of tax funds. Who needs serviceable roads and livable wages for teachers when we have ten dollar Sponge Bob pjs and 99 cent bananas?
Being introduced to consumer activism by one of my personal role models obviously is an experience few will have. I met him at a product testing event in Yosemite with Patagonia were we talked about the concept of wealth displacement Are you ready for another “did you know…” There is an $800 Billion displacement of wealth to the middle east every year! The richest nation in the world per capita, Qatar, got that way by selling oil to gas reliant countries like the US. Applying what Yvon taught me to the gas I was buying led me to the distribution manager for Stinker.
According to my interview with John Tuddle, the distribution manager for Stinker Stations, Chevron and Tesoro source their fuel from a refinery in Portland that acquires 40% middle eastern crude to refine and distribute to all stations but one. Mr Tuddle also said there is only one fuel distributor that sources crude from domestic sources. Sinclair. This lead me to the thought that buying gas from any other store was like paying someone to destabilize our country. Just think about it. Displacement of Wealth reduces capital to develop alternative fuels and solidifies the reliance on cheap resources.
It occurs to me that a nation of people do not think to much differently than just one person. Recently I read in A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction by Stahl and Goldsein this line of thought.
Intention shapes our thoughts and words.
Thoughts and words mold our actions.
Thoughts, words, and actions shape behaviors.
Behaviors sculpt our bodily expressions.
Bodily expressions fashion our character.
Our character hardens into what we look like.
If we extrapolate this thought to our nation at large it is no wonder we are oil addicted, fat and unhappy. Take the thoughts I have shared in this paper to other aspects of your life. Consider carefully the next thing you buy and from whom you buy it. Do not succumb to the cannon of lowest price and look beyond the marketing ploys. We can only rely on those who profit from the status quo to maintain it. They can’t spontaneously change and stay fiscally solvent, nor can we expect to overtly regulate our way to sustainability. We as consumers must make mindful and sustainable choices in our consumption to drive the markets to respond to our demand. Find your balance in the tension in order to improve your quality of life and the lives of those who bring the things into it.Work Cited
1 Meyers, David G. Exploring Psychology 6th Edition Worth Publishers 2005 pg. 344
2 Bok, Derek The Politics of Happiness Princeton University Press 2010 pg. 9
3 Price, T. (2007, August 3). Corporate social responsibility. CQ Researcher, 17, 649-672. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/
4 Wartew, G. A. (1983), The health hazards of formaldehyde. Journal of Applied Toxicology, 3: 121–126. doi: 10.1002/jat.255003030
5 Spoor, Max (1993) Transition to Market Economies in Former Soviet Central Asia: Dependency, Cotton and Water. The European Journal of Development Research (1993) 5, 142–158; doi:10.1080/09578819308426591
6 Gillson, I, Poulton, Colin, Balcombe, Kelvin and Page, S (2004): Understanding the impact of Cotton Subsidies on developing countries. Unpublished. http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/15373/
7 EJF. (2007). The deadly chemicals in cotton. Environmental Justice Foundation in collaboration with Pesticide Action Network UK: London, UK. ISBN No. 1-904523-10-2.
8 Allen Woodburn Associates Ltd./Managing Resources Ltd., Cotton: The Crop and its Agrochemicals Market, 1995 .http://www.ota.com/organic/environment/cotton_environment.html
9 Kadolph, S. J., & Langford, A. L. (2002). Textiles (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. http://www.ota.com/organic/environment/cotton_environment.html
10 Kucklick, J. R., Harvey, H. R., Baker, J. E., Ostrom, P. H. and Ostrom, N. E. (1996), Organochlorine dynamics in the pelagic food web of lake baikal. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 15: 1388–1400. doi: 10.1002/etc.5620150819
11 Stahl, Bob. Goldstein, Elisha. A Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Workbook. New Harbinger Publications, Inc. 2010 Pg.16
Other Web Sites of Interest
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/idaho/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1522273/Top.Stories/Idaho’s.Biggest.Employers.Take.a.Guess.#
http://www.walmartmovie.com/facts.php

Click to access wmtstudy.pdf

http://www.mepc.org/whats/MIT080211.asp
http://www.macraesbluebook.com/search/product_company_list.cfm?prod_code=9007966&region=Idaho-ID

http://www.takepart.com/
http://www.buyinginfluence.com/consumer_activism.html
http://www.consumeraction.gov/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_activism
http://www.triplepundit.com/2008/05/carrot-mob-flipping-consumer-activism-on-its-head/

The formative experiences of a human’s life defines their character, provided s/he can interpret the value in the experience. Late August, 1999. -20F. >20,000 feet. Fumbling to fit borrowed crampons, Americo’s hands were being conductively robbed of their warmth and dexterity. Astonished that he was not taking precautions against this manner of heat loss by wearing “contact” gloves, I reached a polar fleece clad hand into my pack and extracted a multi-tool to adjust his crampons. What I took for granted as a fundamental piece of alpine-craft this man, that had dozens of high altitude summits, did not possess until it was revealed. And so it is with knowledge. Until we absorb it through experience or abstraction its value is unknown and we are preyed upon by ignorance.

We have no claws, or fur or feathers to protect us from this wilderness so we must rely on our intellect and ability to think to survive and thrive. Any person with the self-respect and wonder to live well will value the pursuit of a good life by virtue of the constant illumination of their previously undiscovered capabilities as well as the honing of those capabilities s/he deems of value.

Fundamentally this world exists. It is a challenging place that has been observed and lived in for an amount of time that is beyond any one individual’s capability to experience. We must rely on our senses to experience what is proximal to us and our intellect to abstract the rest from knowledge passed to us from those who have come before. This world is cleaved in two by the human experience. The tangible, physical world outside us is brought in by the sensory system and the rest is made real by our contemplation of it. This ontology of self inherently creates a self-centric view of existence so we must be wary not to fall into the illusion that the things we cannot perceive do not exist.

Our senses can be fooled and our minds can be ridged unless we seek to clarify and expand them. This vestal we inhabit, these bodies have inherent needs that only the world that sustains us can provide. Maslow most eloquently articulated the hierarchy of human needs. The base two of physical and safety needs inextricably bind us to this physical world. Yet the top three of love, belonging and self-actualization seem to push us further and further out of the natural world in today’s American society.

The extent and understanding of human experience is continually evolving and expanding through our experience and absorption of knowledge passed to us. Ultimately it is up to us to assign understanding about our environment based on our individual interpretive authorities. This is a slippery slope, as we cannot chose to redefine the elemental world but we can select what the elements truly mean.

All things are absolute until we experience otherwise, therefore we must seek out the limits of our ignorance so that we may make a well informed assumption on the validity of “truth.”  We must seek out alternate perspectives and grind theme against one another to reduce them to what is elemental and foundational according to ourselves. Most in this world rely on an interpretive authority or some manner of historicism to determine morality. And this is sound so long as the source is vetted and challenged. Our values are ultimately self-determinant and reliant on well investigated perspective. It is our lot to associate everything with our movement through the world. This life’s journey through the howling winter wilderness will claim us lest we prepare against its thievery by seeking to understand it.