While cycling in some brilliant sun shining weather, I started to ponder our cultures material lifestyle. The relationship between the amount of money one makes and the amount one thus consumes materially seem to be almost inescapably linked; and in a day and age where so many are financially prolific (and soon to be in China and India), it is no wonder that consumption seems to be growing despite dire warning signs from scientists that this has to change. For those capable now of entering a fabulous material lifestyle, the excuses to justify these personal standards are completely owned and justified. What is it going to take for affluent individuals to voluntarily alter their decadent desires?

This thought process started with the awareness of a shift in my own consuming habits and patterns; now by no means am I part of the growing league of elite rich, but I can draw a parallel in my own consumption desires and what my salary is capable of consuming, they are no longer par with one another; so the question comes, what has changed for me? I still have much work to do, but the needing and wanting of things like a big fancy house, fast car, and the best weekend toys money can buy have lost their grip on my mind, same with having the latest electronic gadget and fancy camera. I believe that the more citizens that can curb this material yearning voluntarily, before they are forced to by mother nature (which is inevitable), the smoother and less violent this transition to a sustainable culture will be.

Now perhaps you might think I’m idealizing things, because after all, it’s just wise for me to reduce my material aspirations to below my income level, at least that is what all financial planners preach; they say you have to plan ahead, invest and save your money, live below your means and you’ll have a happy future. That’s all good and true, and I have always been decent at following that plan; but on average, the stats clearly show North Americans live well beyond their financial capacity due to this craving for material status. Financial planners may also warn of job stability, and not to over spend if your job isn’t secure. My income is tied heavily to my physical well-being, so it’s also wise not to go overboard, but unfortunately, most jobs these days are dependant on all sorts of variables; but still those blind, deep, material desires has now lead to, for example in America, the worst mortgage and lender crash since the depression. Most of these victims’ are smart people, and hold good jobs, so how could things go so wrong, how could we be so disillusioned with our spending, and how might we reframe our conditioning to gain some perspective?

One suggestion would be to think back to when you were a young teenager, before you had a license (or in the case of some readers, think ahead to this point). For me, if there was a particular place that I wanted to ride my bike, I would ride for as long as needed to get there. My bikes were often quite Frankenstein like (especially my rear derailleurs); but did these material limitations affect the level of enjoyment and happiness I experienced? No. Now that I have unlimited fancy smancy bikes, do I enjoy my riding experience more than I did back then. No. So will the house on the hill provide you with more happiness than the apartment in the city, absolutely not! Sure there may be a temporary high, but it’s not lasting; if anything the journey to acquire and maintain this material landmark postpones the crucial realization of our inter-connectedness to the earth. It seems human nature to continually want more and more (thanks to the western white man anyway), and no matter what level of finance you reach, the greatest lie our culture maintains is that more will be even better. We tend to unconsciously propagate this materialistic story to our young, and then wonder why there is so much dis-ease in our society.

Let us say I am just being smart about my financial future, and I haven’t had some magical shift in my consumeronciousness, the theoretical question still remains, how would my consumption change if I won the lottery today and my financial future was secured? Please ask yourself this, what would you buy!? Or what if you became a successful businessperson that makes more money in a year than most in their life? How would you change your lifestyle? Where would you travel? I just glanced through a magazine article showing the indulgences of the owner of Tommy Hilfiger, the cars, mansions, and helicopters…at one point, I would have thought it was pretty cool to have all that, but with the knowledge of the world I now possess, I see it as a gross sin for one human to be responsible for so much consumption of the worlds resources. Watching a show like cribs for instance makes me sick to my stomach most of the time. But then again, so does my consumption, the same gap between me and Tommy is similar to the third-world and me; I consume way more than my one world limit.

Typical third world neighborhood vs typical suburban mansion.

As the first-world population slowly (too slowly) comes to terms with the fact that our lifestyles are killing the planet, and hence our children’s future, a powerful emotion will set in and wreck havoc on our minds, guilt. Once we are able to stare this guilt in the face, we can do a few things:

1. Quickly look the other way before it notices us.

2. Give up, decide you can’t make a difference, and return to business as usual.

3. Turn this powerful emotion in to a positive signal to wake up and take action!

At this point the discussion can get pretty complicated, so I won’t sink too deep. If we ignore the emotion, it will just keep re-surfacing more forcefully, and scarily. Giving up may work temporarily, but what about your children? My own incubation period between reading the scientific stats and studies (an upcoming article will focus on this specifically), and actually doing something about it is shockingly slow and lame, and I even consider myself above average in this regard, a bit scary really.

Modern scientific revelation (or Gods word if you like) has made it immanently clear we are not merely humans living on the earth as was once thought back in the flat earth epoch, but are humans grown from the earth, just like a fox or a tree; the key difference is that we have developed the unique capacity to not just know, but to know we know. This is consciousness. It is through us that the earth is now able to consciously see herself. When you look at the moon, the moon is literally seeing itself through your eyes! Coming to terms with this sacred truth was what brought about the shift in my material desires, and of course, much more. It would take an infinite number of pages to describe this realization fully, precisely because it is indescribable. Point is, that inherent within this emerging worldview comes the inability of harming the earth for personal gain. Ignorance was once material bliss, but true bliss, it turns out, is immaterial.