Category: consumerism

Thoreau, and the value of conscious unknowing
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Thoreau, and the value of conscious unknowing

By Kurt Heidinger on Jan 13, 2011 in Director's Notes, citizenship, consumerism, economy, sustainability, time

Walden is not Thoreau’s best creation, even though it remains one of the most valuable literary works in American cultural history. His best work is Walking. Thoreau wrote Walden to impress Emerson, and it shows in the longer passages that bore high school and college students to this day. Walking was an essai meant to [...]

Reflections Upon a Dane who Reminisced about Pickled Meat
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Reflections Upon a Dane who Reminisced about Pickled Meat

By Kurt Heidinger on Dec 20, 2010 in Director's Notes, consumerism, sustainability, time

Biocitizen has been at the New Amsterdam Market for the last 3 Sundays teaching all comers about how easy it is to make old-fashioned lactobacillus acidophilus pickles. Something an elegant, elderly Danish woman told me stuck in my mind. She said that when she was little she ate all kinds of pickled meats. It kind [...]

The Consumer vs. the Citizen, conclusion
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The Consumer vs. the Citizen, conclusion

By Kurt Heidinger on Aug 23, 2010 in Director's Notes, citizenship, consumerism, economy, endosymbiosis, sustainability, time

THE JEFFERSONIAN CITIZEN Thomas Jefferson’s definitions of citizenship and freedom were deeply informed by the Epicurean tradition of Natural Law, which he adapted to suit to the frontier perspective of the Anglo-Europeans who invaded Native America. Believing that “following nature” led to personal and collective happiness, Epicurus said: “If you do not reconcile your behavior [...]

The Consumer vs. the Citizen, part 3
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The Consumer vs. the Citizen, part 3

By Kurt Heidinger on Jul 19, 2010 in Director's Notes, Jefferson, citizenship, consumerism, economy, time

In parts 1 & 2 of this meditation, I’ve shown how our over-the-top consumerism makes us hog the world’s natural resources and invade nations so we can continue the hogging, and how our hoggishness corrupts our political, economic and legal culture. Now let’s consider Thomas Jefferson’s definitions of citizenship and freedom. Volumes have been written [...]

The Consumer vs. the Citizen, part 2
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The Consumer vs. the Citizen, part 2

By Kurt Heidinger on Jul 17, 2010 in Director's Notes, citizenship, consumerism, economy, sustainability

Yesterday I outlined the way in which our over-the-top consumerism gives our government a reason to invade other lands, and subjugate and dispossess other people, with the intention of reducing the $$ cost of the materials we “need” to perpetuate our over-the-top consumerism. Talk about a feedback loop! We have been told, even by former [...]

The Consumer vs. the Citizen, part 1
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The Consumer vs. the Citizen, part 1

By Kurt Heidinger on Jul 16, 2010 in Director's Notes, citizenship, consumerism, economy, sustainability

After 9/11, Mr. Bush had the chance to summon the country to a great nation-building project focused on breaking our addiction to oil. Instead, he told us to go shopping. Thomas Friedman, NYTs After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President Bush didn’t call for sacrifice. He called for shopping. “Get down to Disney World in Florida,” [...]

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