Happy Earth Day!
One of the things you mention in your post is consumerism. This is a word that I have been using to try and help people understand what is wrong with the society I live in for years! As an American born in 1977, it's all I have ever seen in the mainstream culture. Studying history really makes me think that consumerism is one of the main negative effects that came out of WWII and the space races, because everything became about convenience when the shift to both parents working out of the home happened, and the "powers that be" saw the profits to be made from this new framework in our culture. That's actually one of the side effects of the global pandemic that I have greatly appreciated, is seeing that folks have had to slow down a little bit and not just go, go, go all the time. Simple things like being able to bake bread at home, or have a little garden, or spend time with your immediate family for more than just a few hours a week, have given people the opportunity to re-think their priorities. From the time we are young children they have taught us to act as a hamster in a cage ~ run on the little wheel and eat, all day every day. Yet that is so far from nature and what we need as living organisms it has created a huge deficit in mental and emotional health, and now we are plagued with unhappy, unbalanced, and desperate people.
Thanks for the thought-provoking post!