Consumption

In one generatiion western humans went from too little to too much. The result is tired, unhappy, old looking people, many of whom are not even inclined anymore to have children. They are caving under daily bad news, television, mail, endless duties and solicitations, families living too far from each other, the need to pay high airplane fees to travel, etc. - Robert Muller

If you're constantly in front of a computer screen, you're the passive recipient of lots of information. You're just a consumer, living at that moment, having an experience, pressing buttons and reacting, but not having a life narrative any more. You're not defined by your family, or by what you know, or by specific events in the real world, because most of your time is spent in cyberspace. So what are you? Could it be that we just become nodes on a much larger collective thought machine? - Susan Greenfield http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1409019,00.html

I have no absolute right to my wealth; it comes from my ancestors, my parents and from the billions of people who have worked before me to learn, to develop, to create the foundations and wealth of this planet. It is my turn to contribute to the progress of humanity. I will be grateful for anything I am paid in return - Robert Muller

I believe that a desirable future depends on our deliberately choosing a life of action over a life of consumption, on our engendering a lifestyle which will enable us to be spontaneous, independent, yet related to each other, rather than maintaining a lifestyle which only allows to make and unmake, produce and consume - a style of life which is merely a way station on the road to the depletion and pollution of the environment. The future depends more upon our choice of institutions which support a life of action than on our developing new ideologies and technologies - Ivan Illich

Generally speaking, the more people get, the less free they become. The more that they have got, the less likely they are to give; they want to protect it. - Gary French http://www.oxfordmuse.com/selfportrait/portrait12.htm

Don't be only consumers. don't read newspapers and books or watch television all the time. Produce something. Write down yhour thoughts, feelings, and memories. It will validate your life and make you feel great. - Robert Muller

Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts - Henry David Thoreau

Being able to live on less is honourable and a sign of success in my book...to spend your life in pursuit of money is a terrible waste. Most people are slaves to money, but I'm not prepared to live like that any more - Peter Owen-Jones, C of E vicar, Fame and Fortune, ST, 16/10/05