A random collection of thoughts on nothing.

There have been some really good conversations happening at our house about the ethical implications and responsibilities of having privilege. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around some of the thoughts, so I'll hold off on writing about them until they're slightly more formed.

I'm reading the book "Not Buying It" by Judith Levine which chronicles the author's experiences after committing to going an entire year without (unnecessary) shopping. It's an interesting read, especially in light of my own commitment to a year's worth of challenges. She offers lots of food for thought on our culture of consumerism and the things that drive us to participate in it.

Here is an interesting interview that will give you the gist if you don't want to read the whole book.

A couple of things that have gotten me thinking recently:

• "our houses are such unweildy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them" Thoreau

• Not buying it references a passage from Plato's Republic where several men are discussing what an "ideal city" might look like. They debate whether simplicity should be the ideal, and that discussion quickly snowballs into a question of why we should be content with just one option, and thus a much more complex and interconnected society is born. It's the basis for Emile Durkheim's concepts of Mechanical vs Organic solidarity, and it amazes me that, more than 2000 years ago, philosophers were already able to follow the natural course of an increasingly consumptive culture to its inevitable? end: a "feverish city" (Republic 373).

• Advertising. And the fact that "almost nothing that is advertised is actually necessary".

• Fitting in, standing out, and what we're trying to achieve / emulate by purchasing what we do.

• This Website

How's everyone else doing? What issues are you thinking about lately?