The way I see it, if you cannot destroy the system with a violent revolution or reform the system by playing by its rules, the only option that leaves is to subvert the system by whatever means available.
The capitalist system is dependent on a clear separation between producers and consumers. It requires a neverending flood of consumers who constantly buy shit. But what if the consumers decide they don't really need that much or they figure out how to make/do more things for themselves? What happens if the consumers start to blur the line between consumer and producer and they become prosumers, figuring out how to take technology into their own hands and become less dependent on the producers?
The most highly trained masters of frugal simple living and DIY ethos are the poorest people in the world. Homeless people, rural villagers, people who have to take what they can get and make do with what they have. Those of us with more privileged lives could learn a great deal from the poor, if their skills and their ethos could keep them alive in a system that so badly wants them dead, imagine what it could do for us.
What would happen if the middle class all adopted the most frugal minimalist ghetto/redneck lifestyle possible, living in the cheapest housing money can buy, everything they own is either old cheap crap bought secondhand or its homemade, things that break get fixed instead of thrown out, 2002 Toyota Corolla in the driveway still being maintained and repaired, tables and desks made of plywood and 2x4s, old ugly furniture and appliances from junk shops or garbage dumps, cheapest internet/phone service and no cable tv service or streaming services, no subscriptions to anything but the bare essentials for survival. What if everyone just had this philosophy where you never, ever buy anything new if you can help it? If you can't make it or borrow it or steal it then buy it used in preferably in a person-to-person trade, avoid buying anything new and buying anything from a store. And not for some freegan environmental hippie bullshit, but as a deliberate and coordinated act of civil disobedience to subvert and disrupt the capitalist order.
My first job I ever had was vacuuming cars at a full-service car wash in the summer. I was the only non-Spanish speaker on the entire staff of undocumented immigrants and none of the people I worked with spoke English, but I managed to figure out how to work with them anyway. It was a miserable job, always hunched over vacuuming car interiors, murders your back. Sometimes customers would come over and hand you tips while you were vacuuming cars and the owner of the car wash saw this and so one day he put this big cardboard box with a slot in it out by the vacuums and declared that anyone who receives a cash tip from a customer must put it in the box and the money will be distributed later between the staff at the end of the pay period, basically stealing all these poor undocumented workers' tips. What could they do about it?
At the end of every workday after vacuuming cars for 8 hours we would unhook the hoses from the vacuums and put everything away and empty out all the filth from the vacuum tanks and the other guys on the vacuuming crew would all sit in a circle digging each and every coin and dollar bill out of all the filth and debris and then they would divide it up evenly between everyone on the crew, they even gave me an even share even though I didn't join them in digging through the filth. I felt guilty and tried to refuse to take it but they insisted I take it. After the tip box policy was implemented, I noticed the guys were suddenly finding a lot more cash in those vacuums than they were before and realized what they were doing was taking customer tips and pretending to drop them on the box, but actually palming them and then sucking them up in the vacuum hoses to retrieve the money later at the of the day, so if the owner or manager made them empty their pockets they wouldn't find anything. Immediately thereafter joined them in sucking up tips into the vacuum and digging through the filth with my bare hands and I took my share of the money and kept my mouth shut like everyone else. It wasn't that much money and I was just some high school kid and didn't even really need the money it was all just getting spent on weed anyway, but it was a valuable learning experience for me. They knew they could never beat the system so they figured out how to outsmart it and get their tips back.
>>2526281>What if everyone just had this philosophy where you never, ever buy anything new if you can help itit will never happen
voluntarilymost "minimalism" trends and the so-called "downshifting" often devolve into consooming monochrome plastic boxes instead of dealing with what you already have at hand
picrel study
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214629625001951 >>2526438Western society doesn't necessarily have to be so materialistic and decadent, and I think it's something that goes beyond just capitalism it's much deeper than that. Just look at Japan, it's a relatively wealthy high-tech industrial capitalist society with a standard of living comparable to the United States - the medium household income in Japan is about $37k USD annually, while Americans earn about $75k USD a year. But compare how much they spend every year: Japanese spend $23k USD a year, roughly 62% of their annual income; Americans spend $67k USD a year, 90% of their income. And keep in mind Japanese people have to pay like twice as much in income tax as Americans do.
The American middle class, despite their comparative wealth, are living paycheck to paycheck blowing all their money on stupid bullshit and giving it right back to the 1% in a mindless frenzy of constant compulsive consumption that leaves them disenfranchised and powerless and their lives empty and devoid of meaning. It is probably only because of the influence of Christianity and it's strong moral opposition to suicide that Americans aren't killing themselves as often as the Japanese do. Why is this compulsive materialistic behavior so ingrained in our culture? How do we get beyond this?
>>2526438this is what they call research these days huh…
shame >>2526438I mean most of the carbon footprint is from the energy sector and industry, not from privileged individuals failing to recycling their trash enough or buy electric cars. It's not carbon footprint that privileged individuals need to be reducing, it's their pathological consumption of ostentatious material goods and brain-rotting soul-eroding commercial mass media that needs to be reduced.
>>2526568the study agrees with that:
>Individuals with high SES [socio-economic status] (i.e., those with increased wealth, education, and/or income) represent a demographic group whose material and social resources allow them to abundantly engage in above average levels of high-carbon behaviours (e.g., owning larger homes, increased air travel, owning and driving large and/or multiple cars) [[10], [11], [12]]. Indeed, just 10 % of the population are responsible for over 50 % of global CO2 emissions [13]. Emissions from aviation in individuals with high SES are particularly disproportionate, where, for example, only 13 % of individuals are responsible for 70 % of all flights in the UK [14]. Furthermore, excess levels of GHG emissions stem from other high-carbon behaviours such as increased car usage [15], owning larger homes that require increased energy usage [16] and excessive clothing consumption [17]. Thus, it seems that consumption within higher status individuals is linked with the pursuit of behaviours that may reflect “wants” more than actual “needs” [18,19].>>2526499>Why is this compulsive materialistic behavior so ingrained in our culture? How do we get beyond this?>Individuals also look to signal their social status to others through their engagement in high-carbon lifestyles, for example showcasing their ability to purchase certain material items or go on expensive holidays [37,38]. Thus, changing their behaviour may be perceived as a threat to their social status or current lifestyle. This may especially be the case when the cost of changing one's behaviour is viewed as unilateral, and without reassurance that others too will act [39,40]. Conceptualised as the “free rider” effect, literature has shown that the belief that others will not limit their high-carbon behaviours can decrease intentions to do so oneself [41]. Moreover, people also want to engage in similar behaviours as their peers, not only to signal status, but also to maintain social ties and share experiences within their social networks [29]. Therefore, individuals may be unwilling to voluntarily deviate from the activities that structure many of their social interactions and identities.>Individuals' perceptions of the behaviour of others in their social network's (i.e., descriptive norms) can validate that their high-carbon lifestyle behaviours are not only normal, but desirable [[27], [28], [29]]. For instance, individuals tend to look to others to evaluate whether their choices are appropriate, and act accordingly based on these judgements [30]. This may be particularly problematic for individuals with high SES whose reference group is primarily made up of others leading similar, or even higher emitting, lifestyles. Indeed, it has been suggested that having high SES may be linked with less exposure to other groups within society [31], such as those having lower-carbon lifestyles [32]. >Thus, selective perceptions of the status quo can lead to the view that high-carbon lifestyles are both normal and appropriate [33,34] – even when evidence at wider societal levels point to the emissions from these lifestyles as excessive and “unusual” [35]. This may contribute to findings showing that individuals underestimate the impact of certain behaviours on the environment [36].