[A-List] Breaking the Consumer Habit

[kaliyuga at humboldt1.com]

> Today, with 8,000 new members and 55 subgroups worldwide - from regions
as varied as
> Singapore and Iceland - the Compact are finding themselves at the
> forefront of
> the turning tide against consumer culture.
>
>
Bill,

As always, very interesting.  I was not aware of this particular group,
though it feels to be one of those movements whose time has come.  If
anyone has shopped after Christmas, in stores still overstocked with
unbought Santa Clauses and plastic angels, one can't help but have a kind
of "hangover" feeling.  This past year, I didn't have a Christmas tree for
the first time in my life.  I have two kids, so I asked them if they
cared.  My daughter said it seemed like a waste of a tree and too much
work.

Like turning off the TV, there's a sense of freedom that results when one
turns away from consumerism - realizing that what had provided temporary
satisfaction was merely another chain.