Denial always has been a psychological defense mechanism. It enables us to begin to accept incrementally that which we are incapable of accepting all at once.

Addicts have only taken it to an extreme. Good article and true in most points. The metaphor of addiction is a little dramatic.

The path we have gone down is one that we have been led. We have been told overtly and covertly our salvation lies in the world outside of ourselves. We eternally compare our internal feelings with what we see on the outside of others. We confuse the two. Since we believe the line we become willing participants and dedicated followers.

As a society / culture our expectations are far too high. We are incredibly spoiled and are obsessed with our own well being.

We need to learn to have realistic expectations, practice gratitude and satisfaction with what we do have and get out of ourselves by reaching out to others.

We also need to realize no material thing or any person will ever fulfill what it really is we are all looking for.

Do what you can one day at a time. That is the beginning and over time it can build in intensity and force.

Mapping Allentown 

ummmm... rural isolation means greater use of cars and trucks, which leads to more emissions. Because of population density, urban environments can be greener than rural ones, due to opportunities for public transportation and the ability to cycle everywhere (as long as you don't get flattened by traffic).

It's my own fear of living alone on a patch of earth disconnected from my friends and family that helps perpetuate me in my consumption lifestyle. Just a mere generation behind lacks the knowledge of self-sufficiency that I acquired as a child. My community is global and as such arresting my mobility cuts me off from the sacred connections I thrive on. The interconnectedness of global economies keeps me tethered to a war machine I despise yet am forced to interact with. It's just lamenting, but expression such as this becomes cathartic. I will change, I am changing as knowing can not shelter me from what is inevitable. Relax into the knowledge of the truth. If you fear it, lean into it, as fear suggests closeness to the truth.

I understand people who say the "article left us with very little to be positive about" or "where are the solutions in this article". But in my opinion doesn't hurt to just stop for a minute and reflect on our inner attitude, without having something to "do" or without getting a quick solution. This "doing and looking for solutions" is still part of the attitude which brought us the environmental disaster. I am not saying to just sit and meditate for years (though won't hurt the planet), but to give a bit of attention to the inner instead of the outer. I'd like to quote James Hillman:

"We no longer are quite sure which term carries the more ecologically negative connotation: underdeveloped or overdeveloped. Maybe it's neither, but rather that same childish view of growth as good. [...] Sitting still, reflecting, remembering, grieving ang giving in now carry the flag forward – because “forward” is not where it used to be. Going on now means going downward into the faults of our culture and backward into the griefs of its memories. Today we need heroes of descent, not masters of denial, mentors of maturity who can carry sadness, who give love to aging, who show soul without irony or embarrassment. Mentors, not cheerleaders; mentors, not boosters or Babbitts." (from James Hillman. Kinds of Power. Doubleday. New York. 1995)

How often do addicts sort themselves out? Isn't up to those in the know to change things. Is that us? I know it's not any government, elected official or business leaders.

Shame

I too agree, where are the solutions in this article, for the most part the writing is continuing to preach to the choir, far from unveiling any new information or thought points to those who spend time keeping up with the issues that plague our current societal pulse. I also offer a challenge to those hoping to ignite change, we must find a way to take it outside the circle of those in the know. Sure the message has reached key points for most mass media outlets, but even then change is still based on consumerism. Articles like this do not ignite change they suppress change and depress those who do care. Change needs to come from a more ground level of creative collective ideas that can reach the masses rather than links and bullet points asking for quick change. It will especially not come from an article like this.

Since the article left us with very little to be positive about, much like Inconvenient Truth (changing our light bulbs will not alone bring about an ecological future!) Maybe we should open up spaces to discuss new ideas?

If we're going to survive we'll probably have to pursue many different ways of stopping climate change: like getting immediate strict government regulations of carbon emissions, pushing for money to be redirected into clean energy; while also building autonomous communities that can support new ways of living in touch with the earth. There is a personal "psyche" change that needs to happen too, but by and large environmental destruction has resulted from an economic system- that pushes people to buy more, not from personal choices of consumption. Blaming each other, or middle America, for not buying the "right way," might alienate the very people who need to see that another world is possible.

Our addiction to oil can be cured like any other addiction, with any tryptamine indole psychedelic...

psilocybin, dmt, ibogaine.

Or SSRI zombification stationary replacements for humanoid thought forms manifesting clever ironies under the guise of... If you don't know then its time to grow, plant a seed, show a friend, dissolving illusions within the geomagnetic sphere of incandescent awareness beyond the piezoelectric nature of the pineal body.

If people don't fall into accordance with the resonant frequencies of the earth...come on cows do it. we can too.

Seriously concerned with what people don't know.

Dido-

what fear mongerer said...

either

a. adbusters has been bought out by big corporations or
government.

b. Their views have prevented them from ascertaining any advertising dollars in which they could fund any research or real writers.

c. They're is simpling nothing worth writing about anymore and consquently, were here waiting and reading about the imminent apocalypse.

I think the post made by 'Fear Mongering is Nutritious on Monday' is WRONG.
This article makes a clear argument that our society is always wanting something bigger or better. But when is this going to end? When are peole going to be satisfied with what they already have?
Yes, i want to help the environment too. But instead of arguing about this article, go and do something about it, bud.
Let me ask you this...do you have a hybrid car? Does your home run on solar powered energy? Do your friends and family have these things?
If you answered no to any of these, worry about THAT before bashing this article...

I'm pretty sure the media has spent the past year or so highlighting the fact that this country has an over consumption problem, and that the world is going to feel the after effects because of it .

This site has proven to be nothing but a reflection of the shit that anyone ever talks about, so it's not surprising that you're not telling us, or even suggesting ways that will help decrease this problem .

Thanks for stating the obvious, idiots .

in response to Fear Mongering
i would say that this is a good article, not a waste of time, a nice read and invoked thought, same with the Tupperware and the hipsters, in fact i laugh at all single gear bicycles i see now because of that article.
finally, swearing is just so rude. thanks for the stories.

@Fear Mongering: funny, you sound exactly like an angry addict at the heart of an intervention.

This article does seem hopeless. While we can't deny these problems, is hitting us over the head with them helping address them in any positive way? Does Adbusters want to provoke us to ask, "what the fuck can we do anyway (its going to shit)? Or "Ok, there are lots of problems, how can our generation, and older ones, deal with them, and start building a better world?"

Did I miss something? Is this really the entire article?

I agree with the above comment. Your articles should inform the audience how to reduce the amount of waste they produce. For example, they could fill one bucket with water and use that water just for taking a bath for that day. Or they could eat more satisfying foods.

Interesting, isn't it, how 'Fear Mongering [sic] is Nutritious' doesn't site exactly how AdBusters is boring or uninformative; interesting how he/she does not offer one shred of his/her hard-won wisdom on exactly what he/she feels will "help the world."

But trolls aren't here to help; they're here to attack, to tear down, to write really crappy, nearly nonsensical sentences with misplaced commas, run-on sentences, and tortured prose.

The reality (and don't go worrying about reality, FMIN; you'll hopefully learn a little about it in Basic Comp next year, after you fail it): Consumption is in fact the thing that is killing this planet. That's the reality. Consumption is in fact what drives the machinery of war--the very war you chide this site for not covering. Consumption is the very thing that is exacerbating global warming.

It seems, FMIN, that you're not quite as aware as you think you are ... which makes me wonder who's really shoveling the bullshit.

Certainly isn't this article or AdBusters.

Hmm.

Time for you to turn on the Democratic National Convention, hosted by ExxonMobil, Dupont, Chevron, Monsanto, and the corporate media. There you'll get all these wonderfully watered-down palliatives on saving the planet, all that require very little if any commitment on your part, all that ask very little if any of that battleship hull-like awareness of yours that has awed the rest of us.

Go on, now, little suburbanite. There you go.

chill-out buddy, Adbusters is still cool. The fact that they can't satisfy your inner desires does not mean that we can't rely on them anymore. They inform and educate, which is the point to make change.

I feel too that the main point about climate change and the environmental disaster is to be found inside our psyches. The origins of the compulsion for production and the resulting devastation of the planet in my opinion date back to the interpretation of the messages spread by religions, particularly the Judaeo-Christian religions. I tried to analyze the effects of those messages on our life style in a short essay http://www.indranet.org/not-being-able-to-stop/ We live to believe that technology will save us from disaster but the main point is about attitude, which rarely becomes challenged.

You know what adbusters, fuck off. Good opening? Listen, you come on here with your essays and spill the most boring uninformative garbage, could you please give us readers, seriously interested in helping the world something worth wasting our time on? This is just bullshit that we are all aware of, and it's not even your idea, you watched a documentary and now you can call america a drug addict, isn't that cool man! woah dude, deep! When is the last time you covered the war? Oh and those shoes you are selling... Come on, I once thought I liked this magazine, but the hipsters, then the tupperware and now this... If your readers are as immature and uninformed as your writers, then that is something to truly be afraid of. What a shame, this world is full of people with power too clumsy, misguided or just plain dumb to use it.