Quite a strong post. But being honest with myself and others, I'm probably not ready to give up the consumer society yet, well aware of its destructiveness. I would not say that I love shopping or own a lot of unnecessary things (each of us says this about himself), but I honestly admit that I could refuse many of them. But do I want to? Not enough. Maybe because I had a poor childhood, or I'm too lazy, or I need time.
However, I can say that with the appearance of a child, such thoughts visit me more and more often. I hope they will not remain just thoughts, but will turn into actions, over time. Your words, even if only a little, have shifted my paradigms in the right direction.
This means a lot to me. I think we all eventually realised how misplaced our habits are as we get older.
I know it's hard to give up consuming - and nor should we entirely have to or feel guilty about either - that's not what I mean. But I think if we're at least recognising our habits and WHY we do what we do, then we're less compelled to be part of it. When we realise, we make better decisions for our wallets and for the earth, right? Like if we think: 'Oh i wanted that as I thought it'd make me happy, but I'm a victim of marketing, and it'll actually make no difference to my life, I'm just going to put that back' kinda thing. It' shealthier, imo.