New World Notes - Consumed (Second of two parts)

This week on New World Notes: radio program #393, September 15, 2015, Tuesday from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. (and on Wednesday from 8:30 to 9:00 p.m.), host Kenneth Dowst looks at consumerism and overconsumption, from the perspective of "evolutionary psychology".

A radio adaptation (by yours, truly) of the video documentary, Consumed: Inside the Belly of the Beast.

It's an interesting view of our addiction to consumer products and (relatedly) of our estrangement from nature. The piece offers some very good insights from the fields of psychology, sociology, and economic history.

With additional reflections by K.D. and by philosopher/economist Charles Eisenstein

Here's a synopsis of the program (more or less)--a sonnet by William Wordsworth, published in 1807. By "the world" he means the world of business and commerce and society.

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I’d rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

One vote against paving Paradise and putting up a parking lot. Not bad for 1807.

Of interest in the documentary this week: Professor Alastair McIntosh's remarks on the admirable aspects of the "hippie" culture of the late 1960s. In the coming decades, we may need to start acting less like yuppies and more like hippies.

Thanks to Robin Upton, producer of Unwelcome Guests, for introducing me to the video documentary.

This installment was previously broadcast, as NWN #260 (February 2013).

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "first floor") of WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford.

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Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want--and what they're trying to make us settle for.

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