MRR #296-consumerism
I was greatly saddened to hear of the tragic death of Lance Hahn. I didn't know Lance well, we had met a few times and he interviewed a band I was in for MRR some years ago. I never cared much for Lance's bands either. But I was an avid reader of Lance's articles for MRR. His passion for early 80's UK anarcho punk clearly translated into some of the best researched and written articles to appear in these pages. Lance was about the same age as me and I can guess that both of us discovered UK anarcho punk at the same time and it played similar roles in our lives. I can imagine Lance like me, waiting for the new Rudimentary Peni or Flux of Pink Indians LP to arrive in the mail and then poring over the poster sleeve and playing the record over and over. Those records changed my life and made me who I am today. Reading Lance's articles shed much light onto the bands I only knew from mail ordered black and white 7”s and treasures scored from used record bins. It's so tragic that he died before completing his research, of all the people to die young, why a man on such a mission? There is a rumor that AK press will compile Lance's articles into a definitive book on the subject. Even a incomplete history would still be a monument to the genre and tribute to Lance's life and work. RIP Lance.

I have spent a lot of time in this column of late talking about living a more sustainable lifestyle. Over the last few years more and more people have begun to recognize the irreversible damage being done to the earth by a lifestyle of waste and consumption. Many established brands and products have embraced a “green” or “eco” marketing strategy to promote their goods. While creating sustainable options for consumer goods is a laudable goal, it can lead to a bizarre paradox of ideals. For example the hybrid Hummer or 10,000 square foot McMansion with solar panels on the roof. What is missed in the ad campaigns and greenwashing is that the most sustainable lifestyle is one that consumes very little indeed. Living close to work and driving less, or not at all. Reducing your use of fossil fuels for home heating and energy use. Reducing your use of processed and manufactured goods that are cheap and not made to last. Much of this doesn't mean a very radical change in your way of life. Indeed, it often means going back to living a lifestyle more like that lived by our parents and grandparents. The real “green consumerism” is not to buy products with green labels that tout their ecological benefits, but to buy little or nothing at all and opt out of the consumer society as much as possible.

Consumerism is a modern religion and like religion is wrapped up with many emotional and psychological factors. Our indoctrination begins at an early age through children's TV shows and doesn't end until the final days in the nursing home. We are bombarded day and night with advertisements and propaganda telling us that by buying certain products we will be happier, sexier, thinner more likeable etc. Any wise old timer will tell you that happiness can't be bought, and those products are just a thin veneer to conceal the inner angst and insecurity of the consumer.

Growing up in the hardcore punk scene I took the DIY ideal to heart. When I was young I had no money and anything I needed or wanted I had to make, scrounge or salvage. This hands on/can do attitude has served me well in life, it my day job remodeling houses, or fixing my shitty old cars or bikes. A lot of people talk about how shopping and consumption gives them a lift. People feel good about spending money and buying nice things. But you also can get a great deal of satisfaction by fixing up old things others have cast off or building things yourself. A person might feel a great psychological lift driving a new $50,000 mercedes out of the dealership. But in the end, any chump with $50,000 can buy the same car. One gets a whole different feeling of satisfaction finding a cool old car or bike and spending nights and weekends for months rebuilding and restoring it. In the end you have something that is unique and personalized to yourself and represents your own hard work and pride. When the guy with the mercedes sinks back into the ennui of middle class emptiness but still has to make his car payments you can still look at your ride with some sense of pride and satisfaction.

When I was a young rebellious punk, I only wanted to destroy and wreck things. I hated the social order and wanted to see the whole thing wiped out and replaced by something better. Now that I'm older I still hate the social and political order and want to see it changed. But I get more satisfaction out of fixing and renewing things than just smashing up and destroying them. I've been in the remodeling business for over 15 years now and spend my days taking worn out and run down houses and turning them into liveable, useful spaces. When I was in my teens and early 20s I hated work and had a series of shitty jobs. I worked in factories and print shops and felt very little pride or satisfaction in the work I did. In sociological terms I was alienated from my labor. After college I tried working in the white collar world and only lasted a few months in the cubicle. I happened into construction and as time went on got more into architecture, historic houses and admiring the fine craftsmanship of carpenters and tradespeople of the past. Now I can actually say I enjoy going to work, building and fixing things makes me feel like my job is more than just serving as some kind of interchangeable part in a corporate machine. “I hate my job” is such a common refrain in punk. To which the older heads usually wryly respond “why don't you try doing something you like?” To be honest, I didn't know what I would like, I mainly landed in construction because of the flexible hours and high wages. It wasn't until later that I started to feel like I had found a trade that was a good fit for me.

Creating sustainable communities and reducing our use of energy and resources will be one of the greatest challenges of this century. It's exciting to me to be a part of that process, albeit small, rather than just an observer. Some years ago I chose to move into a part of Minneapolis that is now served by a new light rail line. The neighborhood is slowly changing as more transit oriented development begins to cluster around the stations. More and more people are deciding to move into the area and commute by rail rather than car. When you consider that a house is most people's single largest asset and appreciates in value while a car is their biggest expense and depreciates in value, there is a strong case to be made for moving into a transit oriented area and ditching your car.

Increasingly “new urbanism” looks a lot more like “old urbanism” or rather making American cities work more like European cities or the way American cities were before the second world war. It is interesting that one of the most popular trends in residential architecture is the “not so big house”. It should come as no surprise that many people have come to realize that the huge suburban home and commuter lifestyle pushed so strongly by the consumer culture is a hollow trap of alienation and despair. The vapid lifestyle of cookie cutter suburbs and cheap manufactured surroundings is increasingly rejected.

This trend is not new. At the turn of the last century many forces rejected the aesthetics of mass production and consumerism. The result was the Arts and Crafts movement who's after effects are still felt today. Likewise, the City Beautiful movement grew from the same turn of the century dissatisfaction with the industrial landscape. Those movements were long forgotten by the end of the Second World War. But today their relevance is suddenly reborn as people search for some more meaningful way of life out of a unease with modern lifestyles. I tend to think that the popularity of drugs, alcohol, kooky religious cults and domestic violence has more to do with people's alienation and dissatisfaction with modern society than anything else. Perhaps instead of getting strung out and going on a shooting rampage, people might find more satisfaction in fixing up a run down old house in a neighborhood where they can get to know the people around them. Maybe there is something to be said for riding a bike to work instead of spending hours in traffic and spending their time learning a craft or fixing and repairing things in backyard or basement workshop instead of spending hours in front a television. To this same end, creating punk music, artwork or diy records may be the entry point to a more long term involvement with a hands on lifestyle. Or just sheer necessity of having to make something from nothing. I know this was my case.

What consumer society has to offer is a dead end. It's in someone else's interests, not your own, to spend your life on a treadmill of debt and consumption while creating waste and excess and no real lasting personal satisfaction.

Publication Date:
January 1, 1984

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