Tackling Turbo Consumption – The People's Version of Over Consumption

I may have miscounted blogs along the way. I’m glad, because now I can dedicate my last post to discussing Juliet Schor’s take on consumption in Tackling Turbo Consumption. I liked two aspects of her approach. The first is the acknowledgement of the problem of over-consumption in a real way without pretending to know the answers, and the second is her ability to explain these concepts in an approachable manner.

Schor does an excellent job shedding light on the issues of consumption in an approachable manner. For example, she acknowledges that “’consuming is bad, don’t consume’ is a non-starter. People have to consume.” Here she legitimizes the practice of consumption itself, and instead suggests that while there is too much consumption, “it’s also the wrong kind of consumption.” This is a real and understandable concept and as such, she avoids alienating her potential audience.

So often, scholars seem to operate outside of the way the world really works—sure, it would be great to completely abolish over-consumption, neo-liberalism, capitalism and all the other ‘isms,’ but the truth is, that is not so easy and it’s not really possible, especially not in an all or nothing model. Schor acknowledges as much in her own arena: “it’s too hard to think of organizing [young people] in a way that doesn’t deal with or address consuming, because it structures people’s lives so much.” Acknowledging honestly the true state of the system is the first step to being able to change anything. That’s what Schor offers, through her above discussions and by pointing out that people are looking for emotional connections in their consuming habits.

Finally, Schor says: “One thing I have always felt very strongly about in my work is the value of expressing ideas in ‘plain’ language that larger numbers of people can read, and the power of writing books for a general audience about these issues. I see that as a political commitment; and it allows me to go around and do a lot of public speaking, and media about the books when I do them.” These aren’t big ideas locked away in a classroom, but grounded in the reality of everyday people’s lives.

In this way, one the biggest limits of Cultural Studies seems to be the tendency to lock away potentially life-changing solutions in academic jargon only accessible to the privileged who have the interest or ability to acquire that knowledge. We live in an oppressive system that won’t change under the sheer weight of academic writing or theorizing. Schor’s approach; however, has more potential because it’s something she can share with the masses, and makes a move towards action that can be shared on some level with the entire population.