Consumers vs. Citizens

Editorial

We always fight against the hopelessness of individual action. "What can I do, as one person, that will make a difference?" We don't want people to give up and do nothing, so we encourage them to do what they can: recycle more, take up composting, buy environmentally friendly products... we tell them that every bit helps.

This is true. People who conserve and try to live lightly on the earth are helping the planet, but I read something recently that has made me question if nudging people toward sustainable living is the most effective thing we can do. It was part of a Grist (grist.org) interview with American Annie Leonard, the woman who created the short animation The Story of Stuff (side note: if you haven't seen the videos, go to storyofstuff.org, there is a series now and they're pretty well done).

Grist. What would you encourage people to do on an individual level?
Annie Leonard: People ask me that a lot, and I like to see where they are so I ask them, "What can you think of to do?" They say, "I can recycle. I can ride my bike more. I can buy organic. I can buy this instead of this." Really individual actions as opposed to, "I can work with my neighbors to shut down this toxic factory." We have a consumer part of ourselves and a citizen part of ourselves. And throughout this country's history, the citizen parts of ourselves have accomplished enormously wonderful things to make this country a better place. But in recent decades, I feel like the consumer part of ourselves is spoken to and validated and nurtured so much that we've over-identified with it and the citizen part of ourself has atrophied. We just need to start reinvigorating that citizen muscle. So the number one thing to do is to hook up with others who share your values and start making some real change." (Source: www.grist.org)

I hadn't made the connection between consumerism and individualism in quite the same way before. Encouraging us to identify ourselves first as consumers (we are what we have, what we wear, what services we consume...), has shifted our thinking from we to I so much that, even when we contemplate actions that might lead to less consumption, we think "What can I do?" and "How can I do my part?"

Again, individual action is important. But it isn't the only thing, and may not even be the best thing. While it is true that individual decisions have an impact on the planet, it is also true that corporate and government actions have a MUCH larger impact. Getting them to make better decisions will get everyone to sustainability much faster than individual actions alone.

So yes, let's encourage people to adopt ways of living lightly on the earth. But let's also encourage them to act collectively, as a community of citizens, to generate solutions that benefit all of us. Let's change the question from "what can I do?" to "what can we do?"

(Source: May 2010 WasteWatch; updated Aug. 2011)

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