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Shareable / Op-Ed
Published: Sunday 22 July 2012
“Ever feel frustrated that, no matter how hard you try to make responsible choices, live in harmony with your community, or take care of the planet, there are 7 billion other humans who just don’t give a crap?”
The “Story of Change” Told by Citizens, Not Consumers
Do you ever feel like your efforts to make the world a better place just aren't working?
Ever feel frustrated that, no matter how hard you try to make responsible choices, live in harmony with your community, or take care of the planet, there are 7 billion other humans who just don't give a crap?
Annie Leonard, creator of "The Story of Stuff" and other animated exposés, knows exactly how you feel. "Like many who care about the environment, I spent years thinking that information would lead to change," wrote Leonard in a recent blog post. "So I wrote reports, gave speeches, even testified before Congress. Some things changed. Sadly, the big picture didn’t."
After a few years of reflection, Leonard started to see the problem. It wasn't that people aren't aware that they need to change, they just don't have the strength to take action. We've been told that we can buy everything we need to be happy, so when buying things doesn't fix the problem, we're lost.
I’ve come to see that we have two parts to ourselves; it’s almost like two muscles – a consumer muscle and a citizen muscle. Our consumer muscle, which is fed and exercised constantly, has grown strong. So strong that “consumer” has become our primary identity, our reason for being. We’re told so often that we’re a nation of consumers that we don’t blink when the media use “consumer” and “person” interchangeably. Meanwhile, our citizen muscle has gotten flabby. There’s no marketing campaign reminding us to engage as citizens. On the contrary, we’re bombarded with lists of simple things we can buy or do to save the planet, without going out of our way or breaking a sweat.
Consumerism can't get us out of the social, economic, and environmental mess that we've created, Leonard points out in her newest video, "The Story of Change". Only by getting engaged and working cooperatively can we flex our "citizen muscles" and start to catalyze real change in our communities.
So why wait? Tell us your big idea of how things could be better and what it will take to make it happen.
5 comments on "The “Story of Change” Told by Citizens, Not Consumers"
July 22, 2012 5:04pm
What is wrong with being a Citizen-Consumer. What is wrong with teaching free enterprise capitalism which used to be taught by groups like Junior Achievement? Why is it that we have allowed business to dictate to us what we can an should buy? The whole consumer/suppler thing is backwards from how it should be.
The first thing we learned is that there has to be demand for your idea. Then you have to set a fair price, pay fair wages, and take a fair profit. Once all that is done, then you build a quality product and deliver it on time with great customer service. If consumers like it, they will buy more. If they don't, back to the drawing board. Was that all just BS? Consumers don't rule?
What I see is companies like Apple telling us that to be part of the in crowd we have to have all of their i-Crap. We have to wear certain clothes, drive certain cars, etc. We are subjects of marketing dictators.
When consumers do stand up and demand what THEY want, companies ignore them. Take our junk or be outcasts. To avoid that, they buy whatever even if they don't want it.
To remedy this, we need to tell people it is okay to be cast out of the in-crowd. Life will go on and actually will be better. We also need to tell/teach people not to buy from companies who do not support their beliefs in sustainability or any other belief they set as a pre-req for doing business. Companies and their shareholders need you FAR more than you need them.
If we offer sustainable products, then we must get this information out there and Citizen-consumers must seek out this information. Other countries seem to have the consumer supplier relationship right. Germany has zero engergy buildings that use only 150 kilowatts per year of electricity. Why can't we find subdivisions of these homes?
The American Citizen-Consumer has been brainwashed into thinking they do not matter, that they are not the boss. It will be a difficult and dangerous process to restore Citizen-Consumers to their rightful position, in control of what gets made and what they are willing to buy but it must be done.
July 22, 2012 2:32pm
Beth, I'm a co-founder of Sustainability Education Network and an advisory director of Greenhouse Neutral Foundation. SEN at sen4earth.org shouts ferociously for citizen action to mitigate the approaching convergence of resource depletions and exhaustions (fisheries, genetic diversity, aquifers, oil, arable land, climate-moderating atmosphere, etc) that dictate a catastrophic population purge commencing in as few as 25 years. However we're familiar with Annie Leonard's calmer work, some of which is posted on our site, and commend it highly. We need all perspectives and hands on deck, and we hope Annie's uniquely smiling style and positive re-framing brings many.
We ourselves have downsized dramatically, consuming less than a fourth of what we once did. We office at home, earning less but also preserving the life of our vehicles and reducing gasoline consumption and time wasted commuting. We buy almost all of our clothing etc at Goodwill, which recycles the resources that went into their manufacture and supports employment of local people. Our favorite personal tactic is vegetable gardening, which yields satisfaction as well as fresh food, and reduces our personal contribution to the oil required to distribute food. When we have a few dollars to spare, we prioritize things that yield a return from lower electricity bills.
While I should emphasize that one can have a richer, happier and far more meaningful life overcoming addiction to maximum earnings, consumption and convenience, I feel compelled to say that many will discover this only as it is forced upon them. It is inevitable that it will be, as it is now, on ever more of our generation, and on still more of the next.
And that's reason for all to learn and do more as citizens. The more we do as citizens, and the sooner we do it -- atop whatever we do as parents and individuals in our personal lives -- the less severe and pervasive will be the consequences of "too little too late" to ourselves and our children and grandchildren.
July 22, 2012 1:10pm
I completely disagree. I don't necessarily fault her, because EVERYONE fell prey to it for quite a while (and many are completely unaware of) - the delusion of thinking giving people INFORMATION will change their BEHAVIOR. It doesn't. Information is sufficient to change behaviors in less than 10% of people. And I also disagree that the problem is that we've been socialized to be consumers, and that there is a difference between consumption and citizenship. The problem is with HOW we consume, WHAT we consume, how MUCH we consume, not THAT we consume. In an ideal world we would consume much much less. But this is not an ideal world. This is "America". The land of the uber-consumer. It will take decades to change everyone's minds. We can't wait. Since people are socialized to consume, we should USE that. What appeals to consumers? Saving money, saving time. We should use those things to make sustainable choices more economically attractive to consumers. We should stop wasting our breath trying to CHANGE THEIR MINDS. It doesn't matter what they think. It matters what they DO.
July 22, 2012 5:36pm
I hear you, Shellgirl. But I hope that you could see a possibility in helping people change because they know that saving money and time (based upon information) will not only contribute to the solution but also be good for their own well-being (the behavioral part 0f the solution.
Consider that it is not EITHER OR, but BOTH approaches that will make a difference.
As Margaret Mead famously said, (paraphrasing) "All social change begins with a conversation."
We are in Violent Agreement, I beleive.
July 22, 2012 12:45pm
I AM FLEXING MY MUSCLE AS A PERSON BY TEACHING OTHERS HOW TO GET OUT OF THEMSELVES, HOW TO SING OUR PAIN AND HOLD OUR HOPE IN SONG......BY SINGING TOGETHER.
these days my consumer muscle is gradually shrinking!