I am still a consumer; the consumer world was the world I emerged into, whose air I breathed for a very long time, and its assumptions still dominate my psyche—but maybe a little less each year....There are times when I can feel the spell breaking in my mind….There are times when I can almost feel myself simply being.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the struggle of breaking free from consumerism and discovering one's true self.
Bill McKibben expresses a deep awareness of how consumer culture has influenced his identity and mindset throughout his life. He acknowledges that while he still identifies as a consumer, he is gradually becoming more aware of this influence and feels moments of clarity where he can experience life beyond these societal expectations. The quote highlights the tension between societal pressures and individual existence, suggesting a journey of self-discovery and liberation.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about consumer culture in a sociology class.
The religious environmental movement is potentially key to dealing with the greatest problem humans have ever faced, and it has never been captured with more breadth and force than in RENEWAL. I hope this movie is screened in church basements and synagogue social halls across the country, and that it moves many more people of faith off the fence and into action.
Remember...this year has already seen more billion-dollar weather-related disasters than any year in US history. Last year was the warmest ever recorded on planet Earth. Arctic sea ice is near all-time record lows. Record floods from Pakistan to Queensland to the Mississippi basin; record drought from the steppes of Russia to the plains of Texas...This is what climate change looks like in its early stages.
Alone among businesses, the fossil-fuel industry is allowed to dump its main waste, carbon dioxide, for free.
The laws of Congress and the laws of physics have grown increasingly divergent, and the laws of physics are not likely to yield.
We've built a new Earth. It's not as nice as the old one; it's the greatest mistake humans have ever made, one that we will pay for literally forever.
You think OWS is radical? You think 350.org was radical for helping organize mass civil disobedience in D.C. in August against the Keystone Pipeline? We're not radical. Radicals work for oil companies. The CEO of Exxon gets up every morning and goes to work changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere. No one has ever done anything as radical as that, not in all of human history.
The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.
The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.
I love and treasure individuals as I meet them, I loath and despise the groups they identify or belong to.
Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.
All the stories are fictions. What matters is which fiction you believe.
No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.
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