The American Hologram We suffer under a mass national hallucination. Americans, regardless of income or social position, now live in a culture entirely perceived inside a self-referential media hologram of a nation and world that does not exist. Our national reality is staged and held together by media, chiefly movie and television images. We live in a “theater state.”
posted by idixon on Apr 23, 2009 - 207 comments

Perhaps more widely known as the New York Times' "The Minimalist", Mark Bittman implores us to change the way we think about and consume food during his December 2007 talk at TED. The related NYTimes article. His NYTimes blog, "Bitten".
posted by blatant gizmo on May 31, 2008 - 9 comments

This guy saved all his trash for an entire year. It amounted to 96 cubic feet. Perhaps not surprisingly, his message is conservation.
posted by desjardins on Dec 31, 2007 - 22 comments

...you cannot run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely. The story of stuff.
posted by allkindsoftime on Dec 5, 2007 - 61 comments

Orion Magazine hosts a two-part essay on the environmentalism movement's attempts to fit within free market capitalism, and the problems therein. Part one, The Idols of Environmentalism, focuses on the cross purposes of capitalism and environmentalism, and the apparent impossibility of the two working together. In part two, The Ecology of Work, the focus is on the human impact of the work and consumption culture.
posted by knave on Apr 29, 2007 - 27 comments

Proported [Leaked] Walmart Internal-Marketing Presentation. Hate Walmart? Well, you're now a Conscientuous Objector (14% of their market). Read up on the Price-Value Shopper, the Brand Aspirationals, and the Price Sensitive Affluents, and see if you can figure out where you are in the Walmart Universe.
posted by rzklkng on Mar 6, 2007 - 46 comments

Running The Numbers. This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. [via]
posted by Armitage Shanks on Feb 28, 2007 - 20 comments

Water footprint - "of an individual, business or nation is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual, business or nation"
posted by Gyan on Jan 11, 2007 - 9 comments

Some people keep track of their receipts. Others keep track of their goals. And then there's Nicholas, an artist/designer and DJ who chronicled his 26,059 iTunes tracks played, his 859.5 social drinks (including 293 Stella Artois) consumed, his 30,724 airmiles traveled, and, yes, his 49 cat photos in his own personal 2006 Annual Report. (via Coudal)
posted by Alt F4 on Jan 10, 2007 - 27 comments

"Our dress, therefore, in order to serve its purpose effectually, should not only be expensive, but it should also make plain to all observers that the wearer is not engaged in any kind of productive labor." The Piracy Paradox: why weak IP laws drive the fashion industry. Headscarves on the catwalk in Jakarta; Almaty Fashion Week draws to a close.
posted by stammer on Nov 29, 2006 - 5 comments

To be a Sapeur in Kinshasa is to treat every trash-strewn alley or muddy street as a fashion catwalk. Inspired by Congolese rumba star Papa Wemba* and his Société des Ambianceurs et Persons Élégants* (le Sape), urban peacocks cheerfully adopted "Religion Kitembo”, literally the worship of clothes. "The Pope of the Sapes" himself appears to have undergone a conversion since his recent legal troubles. Photo gallery by Héctor Mediavilla. *sound
posted by maryh on Nov 28, 2006 - 21 comments

My name is Henry, and I am addicted to public radio. It's pledge drive time again here. If the 1-800 number for your local public radio station scrolls through your consciousness for weeks after the drive is over, or you have bad dreams about contribution gifts, you might want to see this site for a diagnosis. As for treatment, no support groups have yet been found.
posted by localhuman on Oct 21, 2006 - 29 comments

Obsessive Consumption wants to know what you buy. Obsessive Consumption wants to know what you owe. Created by Kate Bingaman to showcase her love/hate relationship with money, shopping, branding, credit cards, celebrity, advertising and marketing, she documented all of her purchases for 28 months starting on January 22nd, 2002 and ending on April 22nd, 2004. Currently she is drawing a lot of her purchases and all of her credit card statements until they are paid off. Her Obsessive Consumption installation in Kansas City is particularly impressive.
posted by dead_ on Jul 28, 2006 - 9 comments

Resource wars and gas rations, what will be next ? I bet you didn't know we gobble oil like two-legged SUV's.
posted by graytopia on Aug 31, 2005 - 20 comments

Psyop Anthem You'll never notice you are dyin' just as long as you keep buyin'. Unabashed pro-consumption animated short. [warning: 34MB mpeg. via everlasting blort]
posted by eddydamascene on Dec 5, 2003 - 16 comments

Americans are not going broke over lattes! Salon (warning: ad click-through required) interviews the author of a book who contends that American middle class overconsumption is a myth. This made me really think about how I relate to my $$$, and what I think is pushing me deeper into a hole. According to this author, kids are forcing people into bankruptcy, and it's not because we buy them gameboys and expensive clothes. The author also claims that credit card companies and mortgage lenders need to be regulated by the govt., as they are feeding off of middle class hardships. It's also making me wonder why real estate developers aren't building small homes anymore, at least in my state of the union.
posted by archimago on Oct 14, 2003 - 91 comments

Thorstein Veblen , Economist and Social Commentator, who contributed to the common tongue the phrase conspicuous consumption.

Who was Thorstein Veblen--and why should anyone care?

I should like him for his writing style alone:

The appreciation of those evidences of honorific crudeness to which hand-wrought goods owe their superior worth and charm in the eyes of well-bred people is a matter of nice discrimination. It requires training and the formation of right habits of thought with respect to what may be called the physiognomy of goods. Machine-made goods of daily use are often admired and preferred precisely on account of their excessive perfection by the vulgar and the underbred who have not given due thought to the punctilios of elegant consumption. The ceremonial inferiority of machine products goes to show that the perfection of skill and workmanship embodied in any costly innovations in the finish of goods is not sufficient of itself to secure them acceptance and permanent favor. The innovation must have the support of the canon of conspicuous waste. Any feature in the physiognomy of goods, however pleasing in itself, and however well it may approve itself to the taste for effective work, will not be tolerated if it proves obnoxious to this norm of pecuniary reputability.

From Chapter Six - Pecuniary Canons of Taste of the work entire, The Theory of The Leisure Class. Feel free to consume conspicuously.
posted by y2karl on Oct 29, 2002 - 7 comments

Disposable Planet? Find out how many planets we would need if everyone lived like you.
posted by zoid on Aug 21, 2002 - 62 comments

No shopping, no presents, no guilt! End compulsory consumption by resisting xmas. It's never too early to start campaigning for next year.
posted by mathowie on Dec 29, 2001 - 65 comments

Buy Nothing Day is November 24th. What do you think? Is this the right way to protest overconsumption?
posted by snakey on Nov 17, 2000 - 27 comments