A visit to the local recycling centre is an eye opening experience. Local bodies forever searching for a new landfill site to dispose of the daily mega tons of waste from what were once coveted must haves of a planet destroying population.
I think you might find a lot of us hippies haven’t switched sides or changed our values. We’re still fighting for a simpler lifestyle/ saving the planet. We just don’t have the same press coverage.
Spot on thank you David. I believe that climate change is only part of the story. We need more emphasis on overconsumption, depletion of resouces and pollution. And overpopulation.
Imagine if returned clothing, footwear and household items was instead donated to charities for distribution to people rebuilding (or just building) their lives after setbacks.
While I dont think the hippies were right about much, the initial impulse that drove many, that the way of life they were being born into and expected to carry on, the consumer society was a dead end. Of course that initial didnt last long and just as Hunter Thompson described they went wildly off course into another dead end of spiritual fantasyland.
If they had just kept it simple they might have had an impact on their societies, pulled us back from the brink for a little while. But it was not to be, and that hippy movement went on to become worse consumers than their parents, who had learnt frugality thru depressions and world wars.
Now en masse we seem lost and are just following along and have allowed the worst people who should be leading us -business/finance types- to set direction for our societies.
Im not being pessimistic but that seems like a recipe for a total fuck up.
When I was at NZ Post , I felt so very sorry for our Returns team, you could only liken their role to that of being at the bottom of a drain and faster than you can clear the old stuff out more new returns are arriving, the volumes are quite staggering and it's a very labour intensive process ...
Very thought provoking piece David. What a great target it would be for any Govt. to adopt the views of Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn in the second paragraph of your quote and make them their policy.
As always, an insightful piece…thank you. I do read of these very happy countries and am in awe at of the policies that bring such a feeling of well being. Are they mainly monocultural? We could emulate free dental etc with more income (CGT for example) but I feel compelled to ask if any of these countries were colonized and indeed plundered at times by the wealth seeking English; French, Spanish, Portuguese or Dutch over the last 3 centuries? The seeds of division are constantly nurtured here unfortunately, even though we’ve made significant progress.
Great. Very happy to hear that degrowth is on your list of topics for 2023. Definitely interested to get your take. If you haven’t already, check out anything written by Jennifer Wilkins on the topic https://heliocene.org/about/
A visit to the local recycling centre is an eye opening experience. Local bodies forever searching for a new landfill site to dispose of the daily mega tons of waste from what were once coveted must haves of a planet destroying population.
I think you might find a lot of us hippies haven’t switched sides or changed our values. We’re still fighting for a simpler lifestyle/ saving the planet. We just don’t have the same press coverage.
Spot on thank you David. I believe that climate change is only part of the story. We need more emphasis on overconsumption, depletion of resouces and pollution. And overpopulation.
Imagine if returned clothing, footwear and household items was instead donated to charities for distribution to people rebuilding (or just building) their lives after setbacks.
A great conversation starter - thanks. My quick initial thoughts:
Living is growing (versus stagnating) but there are many ways to grow - economically, socially, culturally, spiritually ...
Not all tradeable works require material consumption and the generation of waste - this column, and the music it promotes is but one example.
Go to the Allbirds shop at Britomart to get a good fit - and return your worn ones for recycling.
A valuable insight thanks D’man
While I dont think the hippies were right about much, the initial impulse that drove many, that the way of life they were being born into and expected to carry on, the consumer society was a dead end. Of course that initial didnt last long and just as Hunter Thompson described they went wildly off course into another dead end of spiritual fantasyland.
If they had just kept it simple they might have had an impact on their societies, pulled us back from the brink for a little while. But it was not to be, and that hippy movement went on to become worse consumers than their parents, who had learnt frugality thru depressions and world wars.
Now en masse we seem lost and are just following along and have allowed the worst people who should be leading us -business/finance types- to set direction for our societies.
Im not being pessimistic but that seems like a recipe for a total fuck up.
When I was at NZ Post , I felt so very sorry for our Returns team, you could only liken their role to that of being at the bottom of a drain and faster than you can clear the old stuff out more new returns are arriving, the volumes are quite staggering and it's a very labour intensive process ...
Absolutely spot on the mark, once again David. Helps consolidate lots of current issues, and the way forward.
I blame TV for that growth in consumption. Feel good Fill your trolley
Very thought provoking piece David. What a great target it would be for any Govt. to adopt the views of Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn in the second paragraph of your quote and make them their policy.
“Keeping up with the Jones’s is killing me,
Gonna hang that man who said the best things in life are for free.”-Lowell George
Great song choice :) As well as being a very thought-provoking column.
As always, an insightful piece…thank you. I do read of these very happy countries and am in awe at of the policies that bring such a feeling of well being. Are they mainly monocultural? We could emulate free dental etc with more income (CGT for example) but I feel compelled to ask if any of these countries were colonized and indeed plundered at times by the wealth seeking English; French, Spanish, Portuguese or Dutch over the last 3 centuries? The seeds of division are constantly nurtured here unfortunately, even though we’ve made significant progress.
Doesn’t it seem odd that one has to suggest such things to a Labour Party?!
Interesting piece. Thank you as ever. DC
Great. Very happy to hear that degrowth is on your list of topics for 2023. Definitely interested to get your take. If you haven’t already, check out anything written by Jennifer Wilkins on the topic https://heliocene.org/about/