← Quora archive  ·  2011 Aug 22, 2011 09:16 AM PDT

Question

If it were possible to consume with zero environmental impact, would consumerism no longer pose a problem?

Answer

No.

Environmental impact is not actually the most damaging effect of consumerism. The biggest damage is done to our psyches.

Humans must fundamentally produce something of value (and I include predatory activities here, not just pure non-zero-sum product) to enjoy true well-being. Consumerism allows us to take mechanical, crank-widget jobs and just consume instead of producing as well.

I called the effects of this type of lifestyle the "Gollum Effect" in a blog post, and the people who live this kind of lifestyle "Gollumized" (after the LOTR character) and one of the commenters posted this very succinct distillation of this philosophy.

I am reminded of a quote by a programmer known only by his online
persona as ‘_why the lucky stiff’. (That adopted online identity is all
that I have to know him by enters him into this discussion):
“When you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes
rather than ability. Your tastes only narrow and exclude people. So
create.”

The full comment is at http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/0...

You can scroll up to read the post itself. tl;dr: a carbon-neutral Gollum is still a Gollum.