Conscience of Consumers

We bring home all sorts of trinkets from our holidays, seemingly so that we have a souvenir of a beautiful summer by the sea. We place them on a shelf and, all year long, we simply walk past them, occasionally dusting them off.

Only rarely do we stop in the hustle and bustle of life to reflect on a sunny holiday in Egypt.

Once again, a friend of mine was complaining about the mess in his garage. He got the idea to tell me how he’d spent entire days hauling junk from the garage into his car trunk, only to drive it all to the local dump. Supposedly, the job took him five days, and he managed to make four round trips a day. A truly fascinating story. Really. And apparently, there were so many cars at the dump that he had to wait in line for up to thirty minutes.

„Why do you buy all that useless stuff?“ I asked him. He couldn’t answer. He just thought in silence for a moment, then shrugged and said, „That’s just the way I am; I can’t help it.“

We buy cheap junk only to bring it into our already overcrowded homes, and once we’re bored with it - which is usually the very day we got it - we put it aside, only to stuff it into a box tomorrow and stash it in the garage, because a new day deserves the purchase of new clutter. And if there’s no room in the garage, we rent a storage container from Lock Stock Self Storage somewhere on the edge of town, moving everything we’ve successfully ignored in the garage for ten years just so those trinkets can sit in the container for God knows how long. There’s no purpose to it, other than pouring money where it’s not needed at all. Why do we humans behave so illogically? Isn’t man just foolishly ridiculous?

27.05.2026, River Weaver, United Kingdom

27.05.2026, Winsford, United Kingdom

21.06.2026, River Weaver, United Kingdom

Not so long ago, I longed for a beautiful library in my home - one that would perfectly mirror my spirit. But then I asked myself: „What do I need such a library for? I’ll read a book, put it on the shelf, and then won’t return to it for years. All it will do is gather dust. And who is going to wipe that dust off?“ I realized how lazy I would be when it came to dusting shelves and books; housework is not one of my favorite activities, and I don’t want to spend more of my free time on it than necessary. So, the idea of having my own library vanished in an instant. Just imagine: you have to take the books out of the shelves first, only then can you wipe the dust, and then you have to stack the books back. Think of all the time I save - time I can use more meaningfully.

I switched to an e-reader. It takes up no space, and my home remains bright and clean. Now, I have my library on a tablet with all the books I need at my fingertips anytime and anywhere. I just need to tuck the tablet into my backpack and head out for a morning walk along the river; whenever a thought strikes me, I have my book with me. I can sit comfortably on the bank of the River Weaver in the grass covered with morning dew and read for a while in nature under the open sky. And if I’m lucky, a Grey Heron on the opposite bank will delight me with its dignified presence. How sublime!

Moreover, I save trees and in this way I also protect nature. There is not need to mention the negative impact on the environment that book printing has. It uses a large number of chemicals and these substances can, of course, contaminate waterways if not cleaned properly. Which often happens.

Nowadays, it is complacent to hide behind the sentiment that nothing can replace the smell of a printed book. Rather than reaching into our pockets for money, we should reach into our conscience. However, the question remains whether today’s consumer society still has any conscience towards nature.

30.06.2026, River Weaver, Winsford, United Kingdom

24.06.2026, River Weaver, United Kingdom

31.05.2026, River Weaver, United Kingdom

It often occurs to me that it is not people who own junk, but junk that owns people. Therefore, it is no wonder that today’s people suffer so much in mind and spirit. People suffer not from a lack of necessary things but from an excess of unnecessary things. The more we fill our lives with unnecessary things, the poorer we become.

Goods are cheap, easily and quickly available, and to top it off, a courier delivers them right to our home - under our very noses. We do not even have to lift a finger. All it takes is a few clicks on the phone and - woohoo - more rubbish from China is on its way to us! Isn’t it wonderful?!

With phones glued to our hands, we are constantly intoxicated by endless entertainment: concerts, foreign holidays, bars, films, online games, books, sporting events, bank holidays, alcohol, and food. Consequently, we don’t even have time to notice that we are hurtling toward the abyss of ecological ruin. This begs the question: haven’t we been in it for a long time already? We cannot keep making excuses about consumer society and keep saying „if they can do it, so can I,“ while ignoring our own conscience.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the worldwide technological and digital boom is harmful from a long-term ecological perspective. That is precisely why we should be asking: how long will we be able to keep the current situation under control before a global ecological collapse hit us?

„What has happened cannot be undone. We cannot erase, cancel, deny, or blow up our past—whether on the scale of a single human life or the history of a community. The past is simply here with us; we must live with it. (...) The only truly meaningful way of coexisting with our own past is through a constant, objective, and unbiased reflection upon it. (...) It is all the more important that we cultivate this capacity for objective reflection within ourselves, thereby enriching general human knowledge and, in extraordinary cases, perhaps even inspiring others through our efforts.“ (Václav Havel, Speeches and Other Texts 1999–2006, Introduction)

Unfortunately, people do not care much about what life on Earth will look like, whether in the near or distant future. Nevertheless, I still hold onto the hope that, through this reflection, I might inspire someone to do something. If we join hands and, through small steps together, reduce our own consumer consumption, we can mitigate the inevitable ecological collapse and give our children a chance at a dignified life.

Great deeds in this world usually begin with small steps; that is why today, instead of books, I have flowers in my home and my library in an e-reader.

Great deeds in this world usually begin with small steps; that is why today, instead of books, I have flowers in my home and my library in an e-reader.

Original: http://blog.idnes.cz/msuchankova/svedomi-spotrebitelu.Bg26070125