Buying Nothing
My life provides me the opportunity to do many things. I write. I direct. I sing. I run an arts organization, Hidden River Arts , which I founded. And I teach. Often, I teach undergraduates; and in a few of my classes, there are discussions, readings, videos and film viewing about the consumerism and out of control capitalism of our culture. I show them videos about Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud's nephew, who used his uncle's theories of the human unconscious to manipulate and control mass behavior in two particular areas - shifting America from a needs-based to a wants-based society, and maintaining a level of fear in Americans about the ever-growing external threat - from communists, from terrorists, every age has its own boogey-man -- that creates consent for the kinds of extensive war-mongering our military is now addicted to. We discuss the possibility of a no-money culture. We discuss conscious and controlled buying habits. We discuss the dangerous situation