“But the meaning of life is not . . . explained by one's business life, nor is the deep desire of the human heart answered by a bank account.” HumansHeartLife IsDesireAccountsMeaning Of LifeConsumerismHuman HeartOverconsumptionBank AccountsBusiness LifeDeep Desire Author:Carl Jung
“Economists use the word consume to mean "utilize economic goods," but the Shorter Oxford Dictionary's definition is more appropriate to ecologists: "To make away with or destroy; to waste or to squander; to use up." The economies that cater to the global consumer society are responsible for the lion's share of the damage that humans have inflicted on common global resources.” HumansMeanUseCommonEconomyShareEconomicWasteResourcesResponsibleDefinitionsConsumersDamageAppropriateGoodsLionsConsumerismEconomistDictionaryOverconsumptionOxford Author:Alan Thein Durning
“Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a “disposable” culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers”.” HumansMeanUsedCultureHuman BeingsOppressionConsumersSomething NewGoodsExploitationConsumerismFringeExclusionOutcastExcludedOverconsumptionDiscardedDisposableLeftoversDisenfranchised Author:Pope Francis
“We did not choose to believe that personal choice is the highest human virtue. Rather, we were taught, formed, forced to believe nothing is important in life other than that which we have personally chosen. The irony is that the belief that nothing is important in life other than that which we have personally chosen is a belief that we have not personally chosen! The supermarket and shopping mall have been our school.” BelieveHumansHas BeensImportantSchoolChoicesBeliefVirtueTaughtHighestChosenIronyShoppingConsumerismMallsOverconsumptionSupermarketsPersonal Choice Author:William Henry Willimon
“We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.” MenNeedsHumansRealPurposeHuman BeingsEconomyWorshipConcernCrisisLaysAncientGoldenFinanceIdolsDictatorshipConsumptionConsumerismLackingExesRuthlessIdolatryOverconsumptionGuiseImbalanceCfsCalves Author:Pope Francis
“When humans act like animals, they become the most dangerous of animals to themselves and other humans, and this is because of another critical difference between humans and animals: Whereas animals are usually restrained by the limits of physical appetites, humans have mental appetites that can be far more gross and capacious than physical ones. Only humans squander and hoard, murder and pillage because of notions.” HumansDifferencesAnimalDangerousLimitsMurderNotionCriticalAppetiteConsumerismGrossOverconsumptionHumans And Animals Author:Wendell Berry
“The answers to the human problems of ecology are to be found in economy. And the answers to the problems of economy are to be found in culture and character. To fail to see this is to go on dividing the world falsely between guilty producers and innocent consumers.” WorldHumansCharacterProblemCultureFoundAnswersEconomyFailingGoes OnInnocentProducersGuiltyConsumersConsumerismEcologyOverconsumptionDividingHuman Problems Book:What Are People For?: Essays Source: What Are People For?: Essays
“The contemporary tendency in our society is to base our distribution on scarcity, which has vanished, and to compress our abundance into the overfed mouths of the middle and upper classes until they gag with superfluity. If democracy is to have breadth of meaning, it is necessary to adjust this inequity. It is not only moral, but it is also intelligent. We are wasting and degrading human life by clinging to archaic thinking.” IfsThinkingHumansMoralClassDemocracyMiddleMouthsIntelligentContemporaryTendenciesHuman LifeAbundanceOur SocietyConsumerismDistributionClingingScarcityOverconsumptionBreadthDegradingUpper ClassGags Book:All Labor Has Dignity Source: All Labor Has Dignity