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Consumerism in our society
Consumerism in our society
Human consumption and its effect on the environment
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Over-consumption = More Waste
The single most important environmental issue today is over-consumerism, which leads to excess waste. We buy too much. We think we always need new and better stuff. Will we ever be satisfied? There will always be something better or cooler on the market. Because we live in a capitalistic consumer culture, we have absorbed things like: “Get it while the getting’s good,” “Offer ends soon, buy while it lasts,” “For great deals, come on down…Sunday Sunday Sunday!” We, kids from 1 to 92, have become saturated with commercials like: Obey your thirst. How much of our consumption is compulsive buying, merely obeying our momentary thirst? Do we actually need all that we buy? Could we survive efficiently, even happily, without making so many shopping center runs? Once after I made a Target run with mom, I noticed that most of the bulkiness within my plastic bags with red targets symbols on them was made up of the products’ packaging. I then thought about all the bags that were piled on the floor near us…all of the bags piled on the floors of many homes throughout America daily.
There are realistic solutions that we should look into in order to curb this detrimental trend. Because we can do quick little time-saver runs to the nearest mega-store, we really have lost the need and, in some cases, the ability to be creative or resourceful. Instead of contributing to consumerism by buying new clothes and household goods, we can try finding and using things that were already purchased and perhaps slightly used. (Obviously not toiletries, food, or undergarments.) There are oodles of resale shops and rummage sales that contain great products for almost always half the price or even cheaper. By not shopping at such places as Goodwill, Salvation Army, and the like, we just keep adding more and more to the already vast amount of products that are already out there and not in use. It is wise to not contribute anymore to consumerism and waste-increase by buying used items. Perhaps we should only buy new things to supplement our needs. It is unrealistic to advocate that everyone in America stop buying new things altogether. We should buy them in moderation, but there are things we can do before and after purchasing these things. Three simple solutions are pre-cycling, re-cycling, and re-using. Pre-cycling is used to prevent as much waste as possible by simply seeking out products with little, less, or no packaging.
Enstad uses her essay, “Toxicity and the Consuming Subject,” to express overconsumption and its correlation with toxins in our environment. She explains that everyday goods are produced to meet continually climbing demands for goods and it’s this over consumption that leads to cheap production and removal of these goods. Enstad says that airplanes, carpets, circuit boards and many other common good contain unsafe amounts of the chemical PBDES (polybrominated diphenyl ethers). Excess of this unsafe chemical in common goods is proven unhealthy. Regardless of the health aspect, the chemical is there because of cheap production. Human overconsumption leads to increased demand for these goods and businesses seek the cheapest producing methods to maximize profit. Enstad’s proof of overconsumption in our modern world “lies in the pudding.” Her factual based studies show the detrimental affects to overconsumption as a whole. Rebecca and Marc illustrate the detrimental affects to overconsumption on a personal level. Their constant addiction to consuming is their own “toxin” infecting them and corrupting them. They continually “consume” and their overconsumption leads them to
...ghner, 1993). It is the authors belief that consumers are aware of their consumption, as well as realize how wasteful they are with food in general For the students who do not fit into Eighner's wasteful category, he presents a grouping of frugal consumers who, "carefully wrap up even the smallest leftover[s] and shove it into the back of the refrigerator for six months or so before discarding it" (Eighner, 1993).
Graham Hill, an entrepreneur that values environmental sustainability, narrates his negative experiences with consumerism after selling an internet consultant company, for so much money that it made his head spin, in “Living With Less. A Lot Less.” He begins by talking about his current minimalist lifestyle, and then jumps back in time to the late ‘90s, right after he sold his business. He claims that the stuff he bought with his newfound wealth seemed to be controlling his life, and that he became more stressed out as time went on.
Acupuncture, ayurveda, chiropractice, homeopathy, meditation, osteopathy, and yoga are just a few of the many types of medicine practiced all over the world. According to the western establishment, all these forms of medicine are called alternative medicines. However, some of the aforementioned techniques have been in continuous use for over six thousand years, predating western medicine by over four thousand years. Yet, still many M.D.'s reject alternative forms of medicine. One of the buzzwords in medicine in recent years has been "holistic medicine". Physicians are becoming more aware of the need to treat the whole patient rather than just certain symptoms. Due to this realization, a small percentage of doctors are turning to ancient forms of medicine as a guide to alternative treatments. As alternative forms of medicine emerge in the western world, Christian scientists need to determine the moral, religious, and scientific validity of such techniques in order to gain a more holistic approach to medicine.
Mankind has always found a way to better and prolong our lives through science and medicine. With the growing interest in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) that has occurred over the last decade, one could easily say that “unconventional,” or non-Westernized, approaches to healing must be a new phenomenon never before seen in American society or around the world. The reality is, however, that the current rise in fashionability for unorthodox treatments is merely the latest of three waves of mainstream popularity in the past century-and-a-half (the first was the mid-1800s, the second the early 1900s in the United States). Although it is true that the present environment differs in certain critical respects from previous times, there are still plenty of parallels in which historical patterns are mirrored across time by the interest in CAM today. Alternative medicine can be defined as “medicine not prescribed by a medical professional and used more so as therapeutic remedies.” The difference between CAM and western medicine is that
The influence of the educational status of parents on the future goals of their children is one which this writer has often been curious about and reflected upon. There has been some research made on similar topics, which this paper will examine. Although some the research being reviewed here is not directly related to this question, it is tangentially related and worth of being examined.
Alternative medicine can also be defined as the result of a series of important changes occurring within the American health care system today. For example, health care practitioners are coming to the realization that conventional biomedicine cannot solve many of America’s health problems. Therefore many doctors have begun to accept the idea that Holistic Medicine is based on, that is, that health involves more than just the physical body. They have also found many alternative medical treat...
Greeson et al. (2010) found complex trauma to be a significant predictor on tests for internalizing problems, for PTSD, and for having at least one clinical diagnosis. They recommend a “trauma-informed perspective, because of the negative effects of trauma on an already negatively-affected population” This means catering treatment, considering the client’s experiences and seeking out evidence based approaches to trauma-based treatments.
Swimme, Brian. “How Do Our Kids Get So Caught Up in Consumerism”. The Human Experience: Who Am I?. 8th ed. Winthrop University: Rock Hill SC, 2012. 155-157. Print.
Modern medicine is in a period of profound change. Everyday, more and more ideas from other cultures are being transferred and integrated into our society. Many treatments that people are now familiar with have come from other traditions. Aspirin and quinine are two familiar examples of treatments that have been “westernized” by science. Alternative medical traditions will not replace western medicine, but instead are adding a new dimension of treatment that will only strengthen modern medicine. Western medicine is the clear leader in infectious disease, some cancers, heart disease, surgery, emergency medicine and trauma care. However, for the ordinary complaints of everyday life, the aches and pains of joints, bones and muscles, alternative medicine is the best choice of remedy.
Traditional medicine plays a vital role in health care, which is based on scientific researches, rigorous experiments and clinical practices (World Health Organization, 2000). With the growth of chronic diseases, ageing and the diversity pathogenic factors, the medical environment, and conditions have changed. In recent decades, modern scientific medicine was developed in the Western world, such as Europe and the United States, which considered complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as normal treatment. Alternative healthcare aim to treat physical and mental illness, using methods such as acupuncture, homeopathy and herbal medicine (ibid). Singh and Ernst (2009) state that alternative medicine has limited efficacy for certain ailments,
Consumerism has always been a big part of society back in the golden days. In today’s society, the ongoing debate of wants and needs are not justified by an individual’s wealth, but it is rather opinionated by the generalized public. Not only are the consumers getting caught in this mess, but many retailers are being sucked in as well. Retailers, have to stay up to date with the latest trends, to make sure they get their products across. Human identity is no longer determined by how much a person makes an hour, but by the commodities they possess. Consumers are so centralized on the materialistic items, that they forget what is more valuable and important. Unfortunately, the frivolous consumption has taken over the
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is slowly becoming better known all over the world. CAM encompasses various types of therapies, such as yoga, reflexology, chiropractic therapy, herbal therapy, ayurveda, meditation, biofeedback, hypnosis, homeopathy, acupuncture, etc. The evidenced-based research, recognition of disconnect between patients and also the positive and negative aspects of CAM modalities are reasons behind the increased attention it has gained in medicals schools all over the United States. (Hart, 2009, p. 287).
Thesis Statement: Consumerism is destroying our planet through its excess, but with the help of reducing we may be able to slow the negative change happening in our environment.
Having analyzed a lot of literature on the issues connected to the topic of choosing alternative ways of treatment instead of conventional medicine, I want to say that there are natural treatments for every complaint and what is more, non-traditional medicine attempts to repair balance by removing any barriers and problems, keeping human’s body from healing itself. The only obstacle to recovering process can be a person and, to be precise, his or her attitude to the approach that is applied. A feature of the person, the essence of the disease and other factors more occur in treatment, and not so much which disease is being treated.