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The bubble of unbridled consumption against a finite resource base is ready to burst. From an Earth's perspective, the looming global recession is disregarded as warnings about the consumption machine go unheeded. We are on a trajectory to deplete most resources over a 250-year period. Reflecting on past insights by Canby and Sayers, we face the challenge of breaking free from the economic confusion based on envy and avarice. The question remains: post-war, will we continue down this path or choose a different future? Understanding how global conditions affect cultural goals, the relationship between competition and cooperation is explored. The importance of large consumption for prosperity is emphasized. The interplay of consumption, prosperity, and society's economic future are interwoven themes that demand contemplation.
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Eventually the Bubble Bursts Unbridled consumption against a finite resource base is a path we have been, for some time.
Historical Warnings About • The Consumption Machine have been vigorously made but no one actually seems to care. • As a result, we are on a trajectory of exhausting most all of earth’s resources (including fresh water) over a 250 year period (1850-2100) • This is how “culture” behaves collectively.
Henry Seidel Canby 1926 • “The outstanding fact in mass civilization as it exists in America and Western Europe to-day is that it moves with confidence in only one direction. The workers, after their escape from the industrial slavery of the last century, have only one plan for the future upon which they can unite, a greater share in material benefits. The possessors of capital have only one program upon which they agree, a further exploitation of material resources, for the greater comfort of the community and themselves. The professional classes have only one professional instinct in common, to discover new methods by which man's comfort may be made secure. “
Dorothy Sayers 1942 • I do not think we will ever escape from the appalling squirrel-cage of economic confusion in which we have been madly turning for the last three centuries – the cage in which we landed ourselves by acquiescing in a social system based upon Envy and Avarice. A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste and such a society is a house built upon sand.
Even more Prophetic • The question that I will ask you to consider today is this: When the war is over, are we likely, and do we want to keep this attitude to work and the results of work? Or are we preparing and do we want to back to our old habits of thought? Because I believe that on our answer to this question the whole economic future of society will depend. Sooner or later the moment will come when we have to make a decision about this. At the moment, we are not making it - it is being made for us (by the machine)
How Global Conditions drive the goals of culture: • Pre WW II Depression: Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off • This competition vs cooperation idea will be one of the sub-texts throughout the term
Post WW II Marching Orders • Only if we have large demands can we expect large production. Therefore, it is important that in planning for the postwar period, we give adequate consideration to the need for ever-increasing consumption on the part of our people as one of the prime requisites for prosperity. • We will also see throughout the course this repeated notion that consumption is tied directly to prosperity and in fact, is often articulated as an inalienable right.
