LOHAS and Voluntary Simplicity
When surfing recently I came across term I had been heretofore unfamiliar with: LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability). This is a term used by some marketing people to refer to a (supposedly) growing sector of the population of who seek to live said lifestyles and who can therefore be sold stuff to.
In many ways this is positive in that there is a recognition by at least some members of the business community that there is a market for sustainable and healthy products and an understanding too I hope that such a "market sector" will demand business be done in a just and environmentally-conscious manner.
However, I wonder if this is also not a sign too of the way in which capitalism manages to turn even its enemies into a business opportunity. It seems if we are going to combat third world poverty, global warming and factory farming there has to be a viable way for somebody to make money out of the process.
A rejection of consumerism lies at the heart of my conception of voluntary simplicity. I hate the way in which mulitnational corporation and their lapdogs in government are trying to reduce us to automata who work all there hours there are to buy what we are told we should have. I hate too being lumped into a marketing sector - reduced from a citizen to a salesman's mark.
Maybe I am being hopelessly idealistic but I do not think social justice can really become a widespread phenomenon in all our lives while there is this widespread tendency to reduce people to mere consumers. I'd love to be considered as someone who marketing goons viewed as unreachable. Some chance!
In many ways this is positive in that there is a recognition by at least some members of the business community that there is a market for sustainable and healthy products and an understanding too I hope that such a "market sector" will demand business be done in a just and environmentally-conscious manner.
However, I wonder if this is also not a sign too of the way in which capitalism manages to turn even its enemies into a business opportunity. It seems if we are going to combat third world poverty, global warming and factory farming there has to be a viable way for somebody to make money out of the process.
A rejection of consumerism lies at the heart of my conception of voluntary simplicity. I hate the way in which mulitnational corporation and their lapdogs in government are trying to reduce us to automata who work all there hours there are to buy what we are told we should have. I hate too being lumped into a marketing sector - reduced from a citizen to a salesman's mark.
Maybe I am being hopelessly idealistic but I do not think social justice can really become a widespread phenomenon in all our lives while there is this widespread tendency to reduce people to mere consumers. I'd love to be considered as someone who marketing goons viewed as unreachable. Some chance!
posted by voluntarysimpleton at 11:43 AM
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