Going global

I've just watched Leonardo DiCaprio's eco documentary the 11th Hour for the second time. The below quote from one of Leo's talking heads stuck in my mind the first time round and it now seems more appropriate than ever.

From Nathan Gardels, editor of New Perspectives Quarterly:

We need to be slower; we need to be smarter. Slow means disengaging from consumerism as the main avenue of experience. It doesn’t reject any consumption, but it says we’re not going to live our lives mediated by stuff sold out there in the market. We’re not going to base our identities and our meaning on what we buy. Instead of the long commute, the bigger car, the bigger house, let’s enjoy the local produce and have time to ourselves. Let’s understand that things are thieves of time because the more things you have, the more time you have to spend working to pay for them, the more your life is chained to a rhythm of perpetual purchase.

Being smart means reintroducing a term from before the Industrial Revolution — frugality. Frugality does not mean poverty or deprivation. It means the wise use of resources.

I'm with Nathan on this. Are you?