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Something I have to constantly remind myself. It's not anything new, reduce reuse recycle. Be a conscious consumer. There's some pretty basic rules to follow. But I want to redefine what being a consumer really means. Policing my own consumerism doesn't seem like enough. There's a whole cultural identity crisis happening around consumerism so I think it's worth keeping an open dialogue about what that means.

What is consumerism to you? How do you view yourself as a consumer? How do envision ideal consumerism?

There's a negative connotation with the word to me. I think of gross displacement and feel guilt and shame to be part of such a foolish and incompetent addition to the Earth family. I get helpless and think "what can you do?" "Waste not , want not" "don't be wasteful , be grateful" there's a long list of collective and directed thought processes that jump in and I'm sure many of you have shared them as well. 
So as a responsibility, I already feel like I often fail with even my best efforts by default. It's a rigged system, there's only so much you can do. It's a priveledge, enjoy it. I don't. I can't. And I'm sure I'm not alone. I can only enjoy consumerism as nature intended, when I know I'm consuming something sustainable, and everything is a gift that keeps on giving because it is used as a continuous process of transformation, not a dead end dump.
I want to think of consumerism as more than a responsibility or priveledge. I want to see it as both privilege and responsibility that contributes to a positive expression and celebration of life and the creativity we possess to transform. We can also transform how we think about consumerism and how we consume. How creative would you like to be? 
I think there's more than one invisible cage we are in. I think a lot of our creativity has been hi jacked a long with our thought processes. Consumerism is both the cage , and the key.
Steemit gets it.