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What I buy

Consumption and Materialism  Part 1      

  Normally, I am not a big consumer - I would say I’m somewhat of a snob about NOT being a big consumer. But my dependency on first-world creature comforts became a sobering realization during the power outage. It’s only when you don’t have something that you realize how much of a consumer you really are. Food, water, utilities, information sources - and most of all, the extra cognitive processing energy consumption as I scrambled to arrange for my parents’ and my basic needs during the outage. It’s not like I haven’t dealt with power outages before - I lived on the Long Island Sound and hurricanes happened - but I wasn’t taking care of elders. 

Here is what the village wharf looked like during the storm. You don’t have to watch for very long to get the idea:

https://www.facebook.com/cindy.horsfall.3/videos/pcb.10159650482658868/10206818968630318/?type=3&theater&ifg=1

 Being on the phone with Hydro-Quebec’s automated message, I couldn’t help but think of the Eubanks & Schaeffer (2008) article that refers to Laura Penny’s book, Your Call is Important to Us. It makes you want to shake them by their virtual shoulders to have to listen to an endless stream of useless information such as HQ touting their phone app for power outages (what if my phone battery is dead?) or to go online to their website (fat chance with no internet). That is, if they were even accepting calls. At one point, I had to call 911 because the powerline across the street had snapped, spiralling and sparking, into the woods, road, and neighbour’s driveway. I knew it was pointless to try calling HQ. 

  Our entire village was out of power but fortunately, our community centre has a generator so I could go there to charge my cell phone, computers, lanterns, and to cook food. There is a generator available for our home’s use but the owner of the generator was tag-teaming it around to 3 other locations and besides, it didn’t help with our heat. Simultaneously, my father had a severe attack of vertigo and was bedridden. Seeing our neighbours at the community centre was heartening in the way that a crisis can bring everyone together. Perhaps this will be the way affluenza can be tamed, by really learning first hand “the rewards that come from community involvement” (Mattison, 2012). 

My consumption journal. 

 I shop for three people.  My consumerism is mostly based on optimum healthy food choices for the parents, and also what I call ‘mood-food’ - things they like to eat that help keep their weight up. It is a fairly prosaic list. * by an item means a commentary will follow. The commentaries are to illustrate what is going on in my head as a consumer.

Oct. 26. The usual stuff. Groceries: Milk, soy milk, tofu, ham, BBQ chicken *, carrots, onion, sweet potatoes, rutabaga, lettuce, parsley, bananas, pears, chips (potato and nacho, whole grain) cheetos, cookies, graham crackers, ice cream, tartar sauce, horseradish sauce, applesauce, peaches, white beans, soup, canned pumpkin, canned cherries, corn meal, brown rice flour.

*BBQ chicken. I resort to buying these now and then, but I feel guilty every time because (1) the idea of mass-produced chicken is too depressing - “nasty, brutish and short” (Hobbes, 1651) are their lives (2) the packaging. I wash it and put it in recycle but I would wager that for every one that gets recycled, three get put in the trash. It gets the fast-consumption treatment from start to finish. (3) the food quality. Although they taste good, there is a lot of salt and a lot of fat.

Unusual stuff: 2 bottles of white wine (one for home, one for Jacques) The aforementioned reusable produce bags, 3 shirts (Jacques’ birthday present) a pair of shoes for Dad.*

*The bags, shirts and shoes were purchased through Amazon. This company makes it way too easy to shop there and they are very, very good at staying in touch and getting you your stuff fast, but it still makes me uncomfortable. I was brought up by children of the Depression (one a New England Yankee; renown for, and proud of, their frugality). My sister and I wore lots of clothes purchased at church rummage sales. But see how the mighty have fallen - now I shop online. Amazon specializes in immediate gratification. While you shop, they suggest other things you might like and so help me, I have ended up buying more stuff that way. My weakness is event clothes, especially costumes for plays. 

Oct. 28. (Canadian Tire)* Gallon of grey paint, toilet paper, paper towels, baking soda, Mrs. Meyers’ all-purpose cleaning fluid, batteries., gas for car.

* I like Canadian Tire, although the excessive merchandise annoys me. The commentator for the video, “The Story of Stuff,” reminds me of the inner monologue that runs in my head while I’m shopping. For example, looking at those awful Keurig coffee single serving containers makes me furious. But I like CT because they have a decent website that actually tells you what aisle something is in, so that if you’re not the type of shopper to linger and hang out (I’m not) you can get in and get out in fairly short order. The other thing I like about them is that you can apply your points at the checkout (they show on the screen) and as they also have a gas station, I get my gas there, too. About the car - yes, it uses gas. It is my father’s former car, which I took over when he stopped driving and after I sent my dear Fit back to the States because (1) no point in having 2 cars, since I’m the only one driving, and (2) too expensive and time-consuming to bring it over the border permanently.  I talk to my car and keep him reasonably clean - I think things like buildings and cars, while not being exactly sentient, absorb the energy we put towards them and ‘know’ that they are cared for. Ironically, this is what builds an image for advertising. The history of the ‘relationship’ someone has with a certain brand of car is carried forward and burnished to a high nostalgic sheen to keep you loyal to that brand. The following link is to show what I mean, NOT because I drive a Mustang!

https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/16/16892736/ford-mustang-bullitt-detroit-auto-show-2018

(Jean Coutu Pharmacy)* Prescription drugs for the household. My parents don’t take too many, but nevertheless I am still going to the pharmacy 1-2x a week. I order prescriptions over the phone via their automated service, but I usually have to wait in line for them. There are large and scary photos of women’s faces with fake eyelashes and pink lips that I try not to look at while I’m waiting. I have nothing against makeup -I wear it - and decorating one’s face and body is as old as humankind - but the advertising is appalling. It’s not artistic, it’s depressing and vapid and completely negates any sense of human-ness. And what the labels say -! My sister claims to have seen a bottle of foundation with ‘resurfacing’ written on it. Great, just what I want to be told, that my face needs to be resurfaced.

Here is the view from the pharmacy:

Groceries: Halloween candy*, flour, mango salsa,* grapeseed oil, eggs, cheese, yogourt, apples, bread.

*Halloween candy: we had no trick-or-treaters because of the weather, so we ate it instead. Holiday-sanctioned junk food! * Mango salsa was strictly an impulse buy, as what I really wanted was lemon yogourt but realized I couldn’t have it then as it would interfere with my synthroid rx (calcium blocks a lot of meds) - so, I was a primed sitting duck for the salsa in the next aisle, justifying my purchase because it was ‘on sale!’

Nov. 2. Been without power for 12h. 

Groceries: Napkins, pickles, cookies, tea, maple syrup, chicken broth, graham crackers, canned cherries, peanut butter, buckwheat flour, orange juice, milk, eggs, cheese, soy milk, grapes, apples, chicken, deli sandwiches,* cotton squares.

* Deli sandwiches were a concession to the storm so I didn’t have to cook. I don’t visit the deli much because it’s an expensive way to buy meat. I did cook the chicken at the community centre, and I think I blew a fuse with the skillet. 

Canadian Tire: Gas for the car. Camp stove and fluid. Definitely an unusual purchase, but desperate times call for desperate (expensive) measures. Financial conscience assuaged by more CT points. 

Pharmacy: More prescriptions. Cetaphil cream (a must for keeping my mother’s paper-thin skin hydrated), latex biodegradable gloves (I use these one-use gloves for applying my mother’s skin medications - she has a rare genetic skin condition.) I don’t like using single-use anything, but I need to protect my hands. When the CLSC nurses come, they throw  away everything they use - gloves, tweezers, scissors, saline bottles. They have to. I used to rinse off the tweezers and scissors and save them with the extra bandages the nurses leave.

Razor blade replacements for Dad’s electric razor.

Nov. 3. Power restored late in the day. I went into consumer overdrive: rushed around using every appliance in sight - three loads of laundry, the dishwasher, the vacuum cleaner, and I went to the store, too. Threw away everything in the refrigerator, just to be on the safe side with my parents. I hate the waste, as so many go without - and although there wasn’t a lot to throw out, it’s still a financial loss. I read somewhere that most food waste is from households, not restaurants - I have not researched this but if this is accurate, it’s a frightening indictment against us wasteful Westerners.

Groceries: Water,* mayonnaise, tartar sauce, beef and chicken broth, chips, butter, one beer, cheese, deli meat.

*Water was purchased mainly for the container. Jacques had given us a huge water container with hand pump but the smaller gallon containers are easier for the parents to pick up. 

Nov. 4. Groceries: Peanuts, baked beans, ice cream, frozen fish, tofu, grapes, bananas, celery, hummus, bacon, chicken, veggie burgers. 

Nov. 5. Haircut and highlight, 2x a year. I am not clever about cutting /highlighting my hair and have learned it’s best to leave it to a professional. Justified by only going twice a year.

Pharmacy (next to hairdresser) more batteries. I return used batteries and ink cartridges to Bureau en Gros recycle in Magog.

To sum up my consumer patterns: in the plus column, I coordinate my errands so I am not making several trips to Magog (10m. From Georgeville). During the summer, there is a nice farmer’s market in the village where I can buy vegetables and eggs. There is a village market, but it is expensive so I don’t go there often. I take my parents out for breakfast once in a while to the village restaurant. They make their own bread and use locally sourced food. I realize that it is a privilege to live in a place like Georgeville. It gives me a deep sense of serenity that people would spend a great deal of money to replicate in a vacation.

In the negative column: if I were not as happy with where I lived, or felt that my social life was missing something special, or if I was lonely - and if I had the money -  I would consume a lot more. Almost all of the readings point to people spending money they don’t have to buy things to fill that void inside. That would not be my situation, but I would spend money for things like nicer art supplies, going out and traveling. I am aware that I have consumer weaknesses but I try not to give in to them too often. 

Behaviour Shift: Part 2

 My pivotal moment was actually a thought on the back burner that got moved to the front burner; this thought being, I/we have got to get off the grid. That slender thread that brings power into this house is something I have no control over if it breaks, and I have to be in a position to take care of the folks. This is a project that needs to be carefully planned, but the time to start planning is now. Working on the solar curricula really got me thinking about it.

 My one concrete behavioural shift was to purchase reusable produce bags so that I won’t be taking the single-use plastic bags in the store anymore. I have been thinking about it, but finally decided to do it, motivated in part by this assignment. It is embarrassing to admit that it took this long to make the change, as I had written a paper in 2014 on the effects of plastic in the oceans.

https://www.fws.gov/news/blog/index.cfm/2012/10/24/Discarded-plastics-distress-albatross-chicks

 Another shift was away from plastic water bottles. They have been banned from the community centre in the village and it was my dad who said he wanted metal bottles for us - and now we have them.

 Challenges with changes - any new behaviour takes some time for adjustment. For example, I finally stopped chewing gum about 4 years ago. It took awhile, but I finally did it. Such a waste of money! I also stopped drinking carbonated water, but I still crave it now and then. I am trying to improve my recycling habits. Starting a compost this coming spring will be my next venture.

A small postscript: Some of my notes from Trevor Norris, from authors he cites

Arthur Brittan: “Advertisers sell privatization - individuals isolate themselves from demands and obligations of political and social relationships.” It sounds like the advertisers are implying that dependency on a community makes you weak. This is really disturbing. 

Zygmunt Bauman: “quick-fix world of consumerism.” Spending time in the pharmacy has me dwelling on the quick-fix world of pharmaceuticals - that, and living near Pfizer headquarters in Connecticut. The way pharmaceutical companies advertise their wares is its own creepshow; the barrage on TV relentless. My parents watch a lot of news, and as the viewing public at that time of day are generally retirees, the pharmaceutical ads are prolific. Serious-looking actors in white lab coats touting pills galore.

Barber: “McWorld in tandem with the global market economy has globalized many of our vices and almost none of our virtues” - “Consumerism as imperial project of global expansion of cultural uniformity” - In 2006, I went to a rural part of Bulgaria for a month on an artist exchange program - photos of Rocky, Madonna and J-Lo abounded, among other American pop culture icons. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Ivan Illich - “Schools are the reproductive organ of a consumer society” - my mother was really into Illich in the 1960s and his views, considered radical then, turned out to be most prescient. Consumerism indoctrination starts in earlier grade levels now, however. The tweens market comes to mind - pre-teenage girls being forced to think about their looks way too soon. 

      References

Eubanks, P., Schaeffer, J.D. (2008). A kind word for bullshit: the problem of academic 

writing. CCC[College Composition and Communication] 59:3

Horsfall, C. (2019). Video from Georgeville. Retrieved on November 4, 2019, from 

https://www.facebook.com/cindy.horsfall.3/videos/pcb.10159650482658868/10206

818968630318/?type=3&theater&ifg=1

Klavitter, J. (2012). Discarded plastics distress albatross chicks. [U.S.Fish & Wildlife Service, 

Open Spaces: A talk on the wild side]. Retrieved from 

https://www.fws.gov/news/blog/index.cfm/2012/10/24/Discarded-plastics-distress-albatross-chicks

Mattison, M. (2012). “Emancipation from Affluenza: Leading Social Change in the 

Classroom.” Dissertations & Theses. Paper 116. http://aura.antioch.edu/etds/116

Norris, T. (2011). Consuming schools: commercialism and the end of politics.  Toronto: University 

of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division. eBook.

The Phrase Finder. (n.d.). The meaning and origin of the expression: nasty, brutish and short. 

Retrieved November 9, 2019, from https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/nasty-brutish-and-short.html

Warren, T. (2018). The return of Ford Mustang Bullitt tugs at auto lovers’ heart strings. 

Something new, in the spirit of something old. Retrieved from 

https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/16/16892736/ford-mustang-bullitt-detroit-auto-show-2018