Revising What it Means to Be a "Consumer"

In his piece, “The Rise and Fall of Consumer Cultures,” Erik Assadourian asserts that “cultural transformation” is demanded in order to address the current environmental situation when he suggest that the state of the environment has become so dire that we can no longer realistically combat environmental degradation with legislation or by creating the so-called “green” products that we find on shelves today. Instead, Assadourian argues that a complete shift of our consumerist paradigm is required in order to transform our habits in any way that could possibly have an effect on the unsustainable practices that lead to climate change. 

In practice, Assadourian suggests that the new culture we must create should be centered around the ideas that deriving happiness from helping to restore the planet should feel natural to people, that our society should be more equitable, that consumption that undermines well-being should be discourage, that we should limit our private consumption relative to public consumption, and that goods should be designed to last a long time using renewable sources, and be completely recyclable. He goes on to describe a six-step process to effect this change, which he believes will come from education, business practices, the government, the media, social movements and sustainable traditions.

I find Assadourian’s vision of a new culture to be a very refreshing take on the environmental conversation. I agree with his assertion that making simple changes within our current framework will probably not ever make a lasting impact on OUR impact. Rather, we must overhaul our belief and value systems in order to create the types of changes necessary to reduce our consumption. What I find most interesting about Assadourian’s argument is that he does not necessarily advocate doing away with the ideology of consumerism completely. Instead, Assadourian seems to argue that it is a matter of redefining consumerism and what it means to be a consumer within that framework. I find this idea of deconstructing consumerism much more realistic than the alternative – attempting to construct a new system entirely – because where would we begin?