sleepcamel.net : brad weikel

I've been meaning to get back into the whole "personal blog" thing, but I've had a pretty brutal semester. But I guess there's no time like the present: 4am on a Thursday morning, after spending 9 hours in the library doing economics.

I'm currently operating under inspiration vaguely driven by this post from Josh Brown. I just started reading his blog this week, but I love that he intentionally writes in themed, clustered blog posts, so he has time to explore a topic in detail, get feedback from his readers (he has a lot more than me), and then explore it further. I think it's great. [I haven't quite wrapped my brain around his religious views, though... clearly, he comes from the opposite extreme as I, but I really appreciate his thoughtful, reflective approach to the topic).

So, without further ado, inspired by JB's posts about consumerism and the institution of the church, here is the first part of a series about consumerism and the institutions in my life.

I'll start with a video, to set the stage: The Story of Stuff.
Watch it before doing your Christmas shopping.

Somewhat oddly, what convinced me to sit down and write this post was actually something to do with my "old" career (in scare quotes because I'm still not all the way out): computer science / programming / whatever you want to call it.

The computer scientists I've known in my short career are an interesting lot. They're more liberal than the US as a whole. They distrust 'evil corporations' and, consequently, have a predisposition to environmentalism, social justice, and other things vaguely MDG (that MDG, the UN goals for 2015, not MGD, grandpa bob's favorite beer). They are somewhat counterculture: hippies, goths, punks, and a number of other adbusters-friendly social groups.

On the other hand, they are extremely gadget oriented, and are always thinking about get-rich-quick schemes that will let them buy more gadgets. Which is distinctly not counterculture, and not adbusters-friendly, and not green.

Here's the silly clip that got my started on this:

Key Observation: This shows exactly what I'm talking about-- these are techies critiquing themselves and the system in which they operate, but also embracing it to a degree. It's funny (if it's funny, and I think it is), because it's true.

This leads me to a question that I have about myself, and which I think other software people should ask of themselves (and what the heck, everyone should ask): if I get rich, for whatever unlikely reason, how will that impact my relationship to the environment and to consumer culture?

Personally, I like to think that I'd still be just as environmentally conscious as I am already. Certainly some things would remain the same: I'd still recycle religiously; I'd still bike and use public transportation; I'd still tend to buy furniture off craigslist; I'd still pay for carbon offsets.

What I'm not so sure about, though, is how I would consume "gadgets." I'm not just talking about electronic gadgets. Lately I've been looking at dropping a month's salary on a new road bike (grad student salary, btw, not engineer). After watching The Story of Stuff, I'm starting to think about getting a used bike, instead, because it seems wasteful to do otherwise. But if I had $1500 in hand, with no restrictions, I don't know if I'd have the discipline to look for a used bike. I don't know if I could resist the lure of a new digital SLR. Or a new laptop.

I think this actually gets to the core of the environmental problems in the world right now: the conflict between consumerism and conservationism. This conflict doesn't just exist in our society, but, if I'm an example for anything, it exists within individuals. This is both discouraging and hopeful.