by Jan Weaver

Now that Halloween is past, we can soon expect to see jewelry, appliances, power tools and fast food equated with the warmth of family and the peace and joy of spiritual fulfillment. What is it with Americans? Are we unique in our belief that stuff will answer all our needs, even needs of connectedness and spirituality?

Well, no. A preoccupation with stuff surfaces in almost every culture and period in history. Buddhist Abbot Phra Phaisan Visalo points out many Buddhists measure their faith by the number and quality of religious objects possessed, Moulana Ahmed Fazel Ebrahim laments that Muslims for centuries have failed to understand Islamic concepts of an interest-free economic system, and one has to go no farther than the Bible to find someone railing against temple money changers using God to make a buck. So making a religion of consumption isn't just an American thing, it's human thing. Why are we like this?

Phra Phaisan Visalo argues there is a lot of overlap in what consumptionism and religion provide for us. Both provide security, purpose and the potential for transformation. However consumptionism has an advantage since its rewards are so much more tangible than those of other belief systems. You can actually see your security - a house, a car, a meal; your purpose is clearer - a bigger house, a newer car, more expensive meals; and transformation is easier - with the right product you can jump like Jordan, charm friends with your sparkling smile, and win the admiration of complete strangers. In a kind of worst case scenario, religion just becomes another opportunity to consume - believers acquiring relics or pilgrimages to advertise their piety.

The problem for the believers in the religion of consumption is that it can never satisfy. Phra Phaisan Visalo argues that it is because it is an empty goal. Ok, but what makes it empty? To explain what I think is going on requires taking a short side trip into evolutionary biology.

For living organisms, once basic needs are met, all other efforts are directed at maximizing their evolutionary fitness-- increasing the number of viable offspring they leave. Most organisms have to do two things to increase fitness, attract good mates and provide resources for their offspring's growth. However, because all organisms live in a constantly fluctuating environment, both in terms of competition for mates and of what resources are available, there is no fixed amount of attractiveness or defensible resources that will guarantee reproductive success. In this situation, the best strategies are to constantly compare yourself to others and to take advantage of every opportunity nature presents to acquire resources.

These surrogate measures of fitness were pretty decent predictors of how many viable offspring one would leave to posterity as long as humans were living in small tribal groups on the African savannah. You only had a few people to compare yourself to, and since resources were almost always very scarce, there was hardly any chance anyone could get very far ahead of the group, and no chance that you would ever have too much.

Unfortunately, even though our ability to control the environment changed, our perception of fitness did not. We still act as if we are in competition with everyone we encounter (or see on TV), and we never feel we have enough. So a belief system founded on consumption can never satisfy because the goal (having as much or more than others) is a constantly moving target. There will always be someone with better stuff and there will always be more stuff to acquire. Not only that, since what we consume is a surrogate measure of our fitness and not the real thing, our actual fitness may be reduced. So we end up with the paradoxical situation of people with more resources having fewer children because they are focusing on getting stuff instead of raising children (ok - maybe this a good thing given the current size of the human population).

At less than 5% of the world's population, the American consumer uses 25% of the earth's fossil fuels, 17% of its wood products, 8 to 16% of its fresh water and up to 12% of the grain produced. Even if we ignore arguments about whether this distribution is fair, we are getting clear signals from the medical community that diseases of excess consumption (obesity, diabetes, heart disease) are undermining previous gains in longevity and quality of life. If we can understand why anyone given the chance, as our technology and economic system have given us, consumes so much more than is actually needed, then maybe we could figure out how to manage this behavior.

If you are still buying this argument, you may be asking yourself how can someone change a behavior fixed by evolution? By using our brains. Right now we let external signals define how fit we think we are - principally by comparing ourselves to others and by paying attention to advertisers who tell us what we need to be attractive and successful (i.e. fit). So, 1) we can stop comparing ourselves to others, 2) stop paying attention to advertising (cutting down on TV will help enormously with this), and 3) start creating our own individual definitions of fitness - time with our kids, time with our spouses, involvement in our communities or spending this holiday season connecting with whatever each of us defines as spiritual.

Wrestling with Consumption
Buddhist - Spiritual Materialism and the Sacraments of Consumerism: A View from Thailand (http://www.bpf.org/phaisan1.html)
Christian - Please Lord, make me rich (http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/news1/an010510-11.html)
Hindu - Mastering Materialsm (http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/07/15/stories/13150611.htm)
Islamic - Selected Papers on Islamic Economics (http://www.jamiat.co.za/library/pamphlets/selected_papers_islamic_economics.htm)
Jewish - Toy Story: The $17,500 Birthday Bash (http://www.clal.org/pp6.html)
Secular - Essay on New Thought (http://www.pacificnet.net/~cmoore/ghill/newage.htm)

Holiday Quiz:
What percentage of annual retail income is dependent on holiday sales?

Job Opportunity: Campus Organizer, State PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups). State PIRG Organizers recruit a volunteer base of 100-200 students, faculty and community members to get involved investigating problems and implementing solutions. Conduct news conferences, train volunteers in a curriculum, work with professors to design a study, run public interest campaigns, testify at public meetings, build organizational capacity. PIRG provides intensive 3 week training session for organizers who are then placed in communities around the country based on experience and skills. Qualifications- committed to getting results, experience with campus groups or student government, academic achievement, committment to public interest issues, strong verbal, writing and leadership skills. Salary & Benefits - $19,000 with health insurance, 2 weeks vacation, college loan assistance. Contact Emma Buell, MoPIRG Campus Organizer, phone: (314)984-7625, fax: (314)454-0787, email: ebuell@albion.edu

Special Events/Classes/Programs/Talks
RENEWABLE POWER FOR COLUMBIA NOW? Nov 14, 7 pm, (coffee at 6:30 pm) Columbia Public Library - Garth and Broadway. John Coffman, City Councilman, Richard Malon, Director, Water and Light Dept., and Rick Anderson, Energy Policy Analyst, Dept. of Natural ResourcesÕ Energy Center will discuss the potential for wind, solar and biomass energy to provide part of ColumbiaÕs electricity and take audience questions. Sponsored by the Columbia-Boone County League of Women Voters and the library.
STATE ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE: Nov 22-24, Tan Tar A. Stepping Stones: Linking Education and the Environment. Workshops (air pollution, water quality, using environmental educaiton to meet state science standards, Lewis and Clark, soils, food, cultural issues), Field Trips (Ha Ha Tonka Geology, Bagnell Dam), keynote speaker on Watershed Education, and the "Taste of Missouri" banquet featuring home grown specialties. http://www.successlink.org/conference/aeducation.html
COLUMBIA DOWNTOWN HOLIDAY PARADE: Nov 24 3 pm Downtown Columbia

MU Organization Meetings and Contact Information
ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS COUNCIL 882-7116; envstudy@missouri.edu
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES EXEC COM 882-7116; envstudy@missouri.edu Meetings Nov 15, Dec 13, 9 am, 207 Lowry (inside Honors College)
RECYCLING COMMITTEE 882-3091 125 General Services Building

Organization Meetings and Contact Information
AUDUBON SOCIETY; 874-3904 / columbia-audubon.missouri.org Meet 3rd Wed 7:30 pm, USGS, 4200 New Haven
BONNE FEMME WATERSHED PARTNERSHIP; 874-1637 or email phoeniwolf@yahoo.com
BOONE COUNTY SMART GROWTH COALITION; http://smartgrowth.missouri.org/, 1st Wednesdays 7:15 Boone Co Govt Ctr. CHOUTEAU GROTTO; http://chouteau.missouri.org/, Meet 1st Wed, 7 pm, Community Room of the Boone Electric Coop
COLUMBIA FOOD CIRCLE; 882-7463 or email hendricksonm@missouri.edu for information.
COLUMBIA PUBLIC WORKS VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS; 874-6271 or http://www.ci.columbia.mo.us/dept/pubw/
COMMUNITY STORMWATER PROJECT: http://www.GoColumbiaMo.com/PublicWorks/StormWater/cswp.html
ENV EDUCATION WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES: http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/teacher/workshops/
FRIENDS OF ROCK BRIDGE STATE PARK; 474-7429 or http://rockbridge.missouri.org/ Meet 4th Tuesdays, 7 pm
GREENBELT COALITION; 442-4789 or http://greenbelt.missouri.org Meet 1st Tuesdays, 7 pm, Outdoors Bldg, 200 Old 63 S.
MISSOURI HEARTWOOD; 443-6832 or http://www.heartwood.org/MO/ Meet Tuesdays, 7:30 pm -1027 E. Walnut.
MISSOURI NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY; npshawth@hotmail.com Meet every other second Monday (Jan, Mar, May, July, Sept, Nov) at 7:00 p.m., usually at MDC Fish and Wildlife Research Center, 1110 S. College Ave., Columbia, MO.
MISSOURI RIVER COMMUNITIES NETWORK; 443-0292 or http://mrcn.missouri.org/
PEDNET COALITION; email: pednet@pednet.org or http://www.pednet.org
ROCK BRIDGE MEMORIAL STATE PARK; 449-7402 or http://rockbridge.missouri.org
SHOW ME CLEAN STREAMS COALITION; (573) 751-4115 ext 3169 or www.mostreamteam.org
SIERRA CLUB; 443-4401 or http://sierra.osage.missouri.org Meet 3rd Tuesdays 7:30 pm Hillel Foundation, 1107 University Ave
SMART GROWTH COALITION; tomvmoran@yahoo.com Meet 1st Wednesdays, 7:15 pm, Boone County Government Bldg.
WILD ONES; 499-3749 or email wildonesmo@yahoo.com, http://wildones.missouri.org Meetings 2nd Saturdays. Call for location

Answer to BioRegional Quiz:
20 - 40%. If you are interested in opting out of the Holiday Shopping Frenzy, check out this article by Bill McKibben at http://www.newdream.org/commerc/100holiday.html