10 first tips to get into resistance with the degrowth

CHANGING ONESELF

TO CHANGE THE WORLD

French Spanish

10 first tips to get into resistance with the degrowth

(original text in french on this webpage :
http://www.casseursdepub.org/index.php?menu=campagnes&sousmenu=2003decroi )

1. Freeing ourselves from television

To enter into degrowth, the first step consists in starting to become aware of our conditioning. The major vector of this conditioning is television. Our first choice is to free ourselves from it. As consumer, society reduces human beings to its economic dimension - consumer – television reduces the information to its surface, to the image. Media of passivity, then of submission, it continues leading individuals to regress. By nature, television requires speed, it cannot stand in-depth speech. Television is polluting in its production, in its use, then as waste.
We prefer our inner life, creating, learning to play music, making and watching live shows ... To inform us we have choice: radio (without commercials), reading (without commercials), theatre, movies (without commercials), meetings, etc.

2. Freeing ourselves from the car

More than an object, the automobile is a symbol of consumer society. Limited to 20% of the richest people on Earth, it leads inexorably to ecological suicide by depletion of natural resources (needed for its production) or by its multiple pollution which, among other things, creates the rise of greenhouse gases. The car causes wars for oil , the most recent one being Iraq conflict. The car has also resulted in a social war that leads to one death every hour in France alone. The automobile is one of the ecological and social calamity of our time.
We prefer: the refusal of hypermobility. The will to live near one's workplace. Walking, cycling, trains, public transport.

3. Refusing to take the plane

Refusing to take the plane is, first, breaking with the dominant ideology that considers an inalienable right to use this mode of transport. Yet less than 10% of human beings have already flown. Less than 1% take it every year. These 1%, the ruling class, are the rich people from rich countries. They are the ones who hold the media and set social norms. The airplane is the most polluting transportation per passenger. Because of its high speed, it artificialize our relationship to the distance.
We prefer to go less far, but better, on foot, horse trailer, bike or train, boat sailing, with all non-motorized vehicle.

4. Getting free from mobile phone

The system generates needs which become addictions. What is artificial becomes natural. Like many objects of consumer society, the phone is a false need created artificially by advertising. "With mobile phone, you are available at any moment." With the mobile phone we also throw away microwave ovens, lawn mowers, and all unnecessary objects of consumer society.
To the mobile phone we prefer mail, words, but more importantly, we will try to exist by ourselves instead of trying to fill an existential void with objects.

5. boycotting supermarkets

Supermarkets are inextricably linked to the automobile. They dehumanizes work, they pollute and distort the periphery of cities, they kill the inner city, they encourage intensive agriculture, they centralize capital, etc. The list of calamities they represent is too long to be listed here.
We prefer: first of all, eating less, food self-production (vegetables), local shops, markets, cooperatives, handicrafts. This will also lead us to consume less or to reject manufactured products.

6. Eating less meat

Or better, eat vegetarian. The living conditions given to livestock shows the techno-scientifical barbarity of our civilization. The meat diet is also a serious ecological problem. It is better to eat directly grain rather than using agricultural land to feed animals destined for slaughter. Eating vegetarian or eating less meat should also lead to a healthier food, less rich in calories.

7. Consuming local

When you buy a Caribbean banana, it also implies to consume the oil needed to transport it to our rich countries. Producing and consuming locally is one of the major conditions to enter into degrowth, not in a selfish sense, of course, but rather that each nation regains its ability to be self-sufficient. For example, when an African farmer cultivates cacao beans to enrich a few corrupt leaders, it does not cultivates anything to feed himself and his community (see text in French "Dix objections majeures au commerce équitable. This text was originally published on the following web page:
http://www.decroissance.org/index.php?chemin=textes/commerce_equitable.

8. Politicizing

The consumer society gives us the choice between Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola or coffee between Black and "fairtrade" coffee from Max Havelaar. It leaves us the choice to be consumers. The market is neither right nor centre, or left; it imposes its financial dictatorship with the objective to refuse any adversarial and conflict of idea. The reality is the economy: human beings have to comply with it. This totalitarianism is paradoxically imposed in the name of freedom to consume. The consumer status is considered as superior as the human one.
We prefer to politicize, as person, associations, political parties, to fight enterprises dictatorship. Democracy requires a permanent conquest. It dies when it is abandoned by its citizens. It is now time to infuse the ideas of degrowth.

9. Personal Development

The consumer society is needing servile and submissive consumers who no longer wish to be fully human. They can then hold out that through moronic attitude, for example, in front of television, with "leisure" or the use of neuroleptics (Prozac. ..).
Instead, the economic degrowth tend to provide a social and human development. Enriching oneself by developing one's inner life. Giving the preference to the quality of the relationship to oneself and to others at the expense of the desire to possess objects that possess us in their turn. Seeking to live in peace, in harmony with nature, not giving in to our own violence, this is the true strength.

10. Coherence

Ideas are meant to be lived. If we are not able to put them into practice, they have no other function than to vibrate our ego. We're all in compromise, but we try to strive for more coherence. It is the guarantee of the credibility of our views. Change, and the World will change.
This list is not exhaustive of course. Up to you to complete it. But if we do not seek to strive for coherence, we will be reduced to very hypocritically feel sorry about the consequences of our own lifestyle. Obviously, there is no “pure” way of life on Earth. We're all in the compromise and that is fine.

This text has been written originally in French and has been translated by the author (who is French speaking). The translation quality is therefore not guaranteed. Don't hesitate to report any error. See more details here.

SITE MAP

See also the detailed menu page
with introduction or summary of each article.
Or click on the link S on the right of the title,
to have direct access to the summary.
Articles with are only avaible in French.

Home

News

Presentation of the site S

ARTICLES :

NEW 04/2022 : Our Influence

RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP

Global/individual scale :