Consumerism and the End of Natural Resources

"You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing." (Deut. 8:25, 26)

Consumerism is a philosophy created by wealthy business owners to ensure that the economy grows. In other words, to perpetuate economic growth and create jobs society must be engrossed in the consumption of products. It is a system that teaches citizens how to worship products made by their own hands. What is worship? Worship means to devote ones time to a person or thing because one believes it to be of great value to ones self. This is why people work to make money so they can spend that money on products, which in turn, stimulates economic growth. But the Lord says not to touch or practice, or believe in the world's ideologies because those doctrines will become a snare. To be snared means to be caught in a trap unable to escape. This is what has happened to Christians. Christians have believed in a lie that greedy men have taught. And when the day comes that the religious begin to realize how far away they are from God, as a result of this worldly belief, and wish to repent, it will be difficult to turn away from that lifestyle because of how heavily addicted believers will have become. This dependence upon false teaching of humanists is the snare the Lord is referring to. Accursed is the word the Lord uses to describe idols and the admiration Christians afford them. Accursed is the same as disgusting. Why is idol admiration repugnant to God? It is what the idol does to a person on the inside that is vile to the Lord. He has made living beings to give Him pre-eminence. No other thing should take the place of His throne in human life. Idols do just that. To worship an idol is to say that what God wants does not matter, that there are other more important things to give ones attention to. Also, idols are an offense to the Lord because of what they turn people into. The religious are really worshiping themselves, in that an idol is just an inanimate thing onto which they project their mental desires and ideas; hence, they are transformed into proud, self-willed, and spurious creatures who have dismissed God. It is an awful thing to reject the Lord as King so that one may serve and worship ones self. Since many Christians have followed the destructive whims of corrupted and gobbling men uncontested, the doctrines of these poor depraved creatures have become the Christian's gods.

Here are some of the sickening consequences of worshiping the god of consumerism. According to sociologist J. Clapp,

"Americans dispose of 720 kg of garbage per person every year. This amount is greater than any other country on the planet. In 1998 this amounted to 4.5 pounds per person per day, where as in 1960 this amount was at 2.7 pounds. In developing countries like Nigeria waste was at 20 kg per person in 1990." (J. Clapp, 2001, Distancing of Waste: Over consumption in a Global Economy, UNDP, Human Development Report 1992 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp.34-36, et al.)

In 1998, some 20 million personal computers were rendered out of date. Less than 10 percent were recycled. When computers are incinerated, the high levels of heavy metals like lead and cadmium are a serious hazard. The smoke and ash created from the incineration can cause respiratory problems in humans and cancer.

Not all waste is being disposed of in a safe manner.

"Recyclables are usually sorted locally, but they travel to recycling facilities some distance away. There exists a global trade in, for example, used plastics, obsolete computers, and used lead-acid batteries which serve as raw materials for recycling operations around the world. In these cases, it is often cheaper to recycle such items in poorer countries where environmentalist regulations for recycling are more lax." J. Clapp, 2001, Distancing of Waste: Over consumption in a Global Economy.

This is what Christians are contributing to when they act like the world.

"The plastic recycling operations in Indonesia operate under extremely unsafe conditions. Plastic wastes often contain residues from their original contents, such as toxic cleaners, pesticides, and fertilizers. Protective clothing is seldom given to employees, mainly women and children." Clapp, et al.

Although Indonesia has since banned the import of plastic wastes, other countries like China Korea, India, still accept these hazardous wastes into their countries to create jobs.
Because waste laws in poorer countries can be almost non-existent, it means the health and the safety of the poor workers in said countries, are at risk. How can religious converts say, on the one hand, they are defenders of the poor and afflicted, but on the other hand, contribute to the suffering of the poor sick, and in some cases even help them to die by insisting upon the consumer lifestyle? The waste produced by North American's consumptive habits are turning the middle and lower class nations into a garbage dump and a health hazard. Consumer waste habits are dangerous to the environment, the Eco system and to the citizens of this planet. Furthermore, consumer habits are making Christianity look ridiculous in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Society can be defined as a contract whereby all agree to cooperate for the good of all. But this is not the case in western civilization; this contract is not being adhered to by the wealthy and elite. They are taking advantage of their positions to steer the rest of the members of the world in the direction of their interests. The wealthy elite's interests are bringing severe repercussions, not only to world citizens, but indeed upon all life on the planet. This is why the Lord commanded Christians to come out from among them and touch not their unclean things. No one should follow such dangerous and self interested deviants. Yet, devotees have not heeded God, and as a result, have become part of the problem rather than acting as a beacon of solutions.

It is a well known fact that there are agencies and conscientious consumers that are doing their best to produce a healthier planet. Notwithstanding, even they will admit that, because of the scale and complexity of our society, the task is daunting at best. The amount of research it takes to comprehend the waste issue is immense. It is difficult to watchdog waste companies who handle waste, mostly due to busy lifestyles. Try as one might to practice good waste habits, some of the businesses one is counting on to do what they say, are not. For Christians this means they would be better off to stop being consumers' altogether. At least their conscience would be clear before God. The harm that consumer habits are causing to the planet and people, God cannot forgive. There must be repentance, there must be change, and all peoples must find better ways to live.

"So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth." (Gen. 1:21,22)

Consumers love their fish, and so fisherman over fish the waters to provide businesses with enough fish to meet consumer demand.

DOLPHIN HUNTERS:

Tuesday, 9 November, 2004

1930 GMT on BBC Two (UK)

" The fishermen surround a pod of dolphins at sea. They lower metal poles into the water and bang them with hammers.

The clattering noise carries through the water, and confuses the dolphins' sonar. In their panic, the dolphins are driven into shallow water. Then the killing begins.

There is little finesse about it. The water runs red, as the fishermen use knives and ropes to capture them and hoist their thrashing bodies onto the quayside.

From there, they are dragged, many still alive, to the slaughter house, chunks of flesh ripping from them onto the tarmac." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/programmes/this_world/3956355.stm)

In Futo, a small village in Japan, the dolphin hunters are having difficulty finding more dolphins to hunt because of over fishing. Eventually, environmentalists believe that consumer habits will wipe out the dolphin as well as the tuna. Already many species are extinct due to consumer cravings. But more importantly, the Lord said these animals are meant to multiply; yet consumer demand is not listening to God. Food purchasers in the western world alone slaughter thousands of animals a day.
In fact;
"According to the National Agricultural
Statistics Service, the following number of animals were slaughtered in the US in 2008:

cattle 34.4 million (avg/day 94,247)
calves 956,600 (avg/day 2,621)
hogs 116.5 million (avg/day 319,178)
sheep and lambs 2.56 million (avg/day 7,014)
chickens 9,075,261,000 (avg/day 24,863,729)
turkeys 3,672,000 (avg/day 10,060)"
(http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/493476)

God said these animals are blessed, that means consumers must at least acknowledge the dignity of God's creations. No one is saying to stop eating meat, although many have, and for good reason, but the cruelty and gross craving for meat is overkill. Stop buying your food from greedy corporations who do not care to understand the necessity for preservation, respect, and the dignity for other species.

As consumers, people seem disconnected from the consequences of their consumption. Out of sight out of mind. But God sees and remembers.

"They do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness; They are before My face." (Hosea7: 2)

Here is another example of what happens when Christians believe the lie the food industry propagates through the media.

AGENCIES, TOKYO
Friday, Mar 03, 2006, Page 5

"Japan, the world's top fish consumer, exceeded its catch quota for southern blue fin tuna by nearly 25 percent last year, forcing it to tighten fishing rules, officials said yesterday.

A voracious global appetite for fish, of which Japan's huge demand is a key part, has led to widespread over fishing and pushed many highly sought after species, including some varieties of blue fin tuna, close to the edge of extinction.

According to the UN, more than 70 percent of the world's commercially important fish stocks are either over-exploited, depleted, slowly recovering or close to the maximum sustainable level of exploitation.

Last year, Japan exceeded its 6,065 tonne quota of southern blue fin tuna by 1,500 tonnes, according to the Fisheries Agency, which blamed sloppy record-keeping for the disparity."

"There are some years where there's a sudden jump in catches just before the season ends, before we're able to declare the season over," he added. "Going over the quota a bit is actually not that uncommon, but this year the excess was quite large, making us think we need to revise our management system." (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/03/03/2003295497)

Don't say this is Japan's fault alone, remember, they cater to global market demand, which means western consumers are part of that market, including Christians. The lists of odious cruelties played out on animals as a result of consumer lusts are almost endless. There are indeed too many to list here. The point to convey is Christians are consumers, and their consumption is in violation of the commandments of God.

Now to address the heart of the matter, the causation of all this madness and hypocrisy.

Edward Bernays (Nov. 22, 1891- Mar. 9, 1995)
Profession - Public Relations

How has society become consumers? Are people consumers by choice?

Historically, nations have always consumed. Consumption, however, used to be out of necessity and not because some ad man apprised people that products were necessary for modern living. As well, consumption was mostly organic since technologies were limited in rendering artificial products like plastic. Consumption permitted societies to have the fundamentals by which to exist. Those necessities were generally understood to be food, shelter, and clothing. Through most of history groups lived that way, fairly simplistic. However, a different type of consumption began to manifest in modern society, which was previously exclusive to royalty and the wealthy elite. That new way of consumption had nothing to do with necessity; rather, society demanded products for pleasure and amusement alone. Prior to that moment in time, common citizens were not privy to affluence since the wealth needed to partake of it was not available to average wage laborers. But thanks to really only one man and his invention, public relations, the lifestyle of the common person was about to change.

Slowly, businesses began to realize that it was to their advantage to include the common wage laborer in this specialized market, thereby increasing their opportunities for greater wealth faster. By the early twentieth century, a new class of people emerged known as the middle class. This group had disposable income and business wanted it. However, citizens were still buying products out of necessity and practicality. One man, Edward Bernays, would change how citizens and business looked at products. Products would no longer be perceived as a tool to help one handle the drudgery of life, but products would satisfy the emotional yearnings and hidden desires within people. To convince the public that products could accomplish such a task, Bernays looked to his uncle Sigmund Freud for inspiration. Freud was in Vienna writing about the behavior of people when they were in groups. He believed that people, when in groups, were capable of great evil. Freud said that humans were not rational but irrational when in groups. He based some of his observations upon world war one and the atrocities committed by the military and the public. He believed that groups were primal in their nature and that they must be controlled. If there were no controls in place to direct citizens, society would not remain cohesive.
Edward Bernays came up with his own hypothesis based upon his uncle's observations.
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country." (E. Bernays, Propaganda, 1928, pg.37, http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Propaganda/Propaganda_Bernays.html.)

What Bernays is talking about when he mentions the 'conscious and intelligent manipulation of the masses', is a long winded definition for propaganda.What does propaganda mean?

Propaganda:
Information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, or nation.
Notice that Bernays wanted to control the habits and opinions of people? The dictionary defines the word habit as, a recurrent often-unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition. Furthermore, the word opinion is defined as, a belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof. This particular definition is associated with public opinion and Edward's determination to own it. Bernays wanted to control the patterns of behavior and wrestle away an individuals own thoughts, in order to replace them with the thoughts he suggested through advertising. Bernays interest was centered on personal profit by satisfying the clients he worked for, all of which were corporations looking to get even richer than they were already. Bernays accomplished this at first by hiring models to stand in window shops and model clothing or have beautiful models standing next to an oven or stove. People where still new to modern city life and had not seen such spectacles. This marketing technique was exciting and intoxicating to the senses. Early p.r. tactics made people think they could do and be what ever they wanted. Edward Bernays was manipulating the thinking of citizens by pitching to them that the product could fulfill their dreams and fantasies. Once the television was in most homes, Edward's marketing techniques became all the more pervasive; soon everyone including those still living rurally became obsessed with products. To this present moment this is exactly the case.

Propaganda is not normally perceived as a good thing. Regardless, the definition of propaganda says society can be directed to harm or to help. For example, the bible can be considered propaganda. The bible clearly directs the thoughts of people. When the bible is being handled correctly it advocates healthy traits. But in the hands of people with agendas that differ from the true intent of the bible, societies can be caused great harm as a result. Missionaries, in their zeal to save indigenous peoples, misused the scriptures and stripped them of their culture, customs, and therefore their identities. The missionary's view of the world was ethnocentric. They did not see other cultures as their equal, as the bible advocates; rather, they perceived indigenous people as inferior which is indeed counter productive to the will of God. So then, directing the opinions and habits of societies can be either helpful or harmful depending on the motivation.

Freewill must be included in propaganda for all things to be just. The Lord makes that clear.

"See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. I call heaven and earth as a witness today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live." Deut. 30:15,19.

God expects human life to think, to make decisions. The Lord does not manipulate or trick people into following Him. He reveals His intentions and plans and asks humanity to choose. He does not coerce through deceptions. But Edward Bernays is not of this stock. His intent was to exploit and control, not openly but subversively, the habits and thoughts of the masses for profit. Bernays comprehended the psychology of Freud and applied it heavily to the North American conscience.
"They govern us by their qualities of natural leadership, their ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the social structure. Whatever attitude one chooses toward this condition, it remains a fact that in almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons-a trifling fraction of our hundred and twenty million-who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world." (E. Bernays, Propaganda, 1928, pg.37, http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Propaganda/Propaganda_Bernays.html.)

Men like Bernays believed that society could not manage itself. He was convinced that groups of people had to be directed to ensure they would go in the right direction. The problem is, what makes Edward Bernays think he knows what that right way is? He did not obey the Lord, which means he could not be trusted to give incorruptible guidance. Since this is so, it also means that the Satan found another way to infiltrate not just North America, but eventually through globalization, the whole world. What has happened to Christianity? The devil has found yet another way steer God's children away from Him through consumerism.