Ten Commandments of a Post-Consumerist Alternative

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by Jay McDaniel:

A Post-Consumerist Alternative

​is to believe that:

1. Wisdom, compassion, and freedom are much more important than appearance, affluence, and marketable achievement.

2. Healthy living requires, not only creativity and action and good work, but also rest and relaxation, so that our work can be productive rather than compulsive.

3. It is much more important to be a good parent, a good neighbor, and a good person than to have a successful career, particularly if “success” is define in purely monetary terms.

4. Truly good work does not consist in making money or in exploiting natural resources, but rather in serving others, often without being noticed.

5. Helping others, and dwelling in solidarity with people in need, is more important than prosperity in the suburbs. True prosperity is living lightly on the earth and gently with others.

6. Compulsive shopping is a symptom of disease, not a cure for depression.

7. Happiness lies, not necessarily in “having my needs met,” but in living simply and in service to others.

8. The world is not a global marketplace but rather a gorgeous planet, filled with many creatures, each of which is loved by God on their own terms and for their own sakes, and each of whom is inwardly animated by God’s Spirit.

9. The universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.

10. We are not on our own, because the universe is enfolded within an ultimate grace, which renders questions of “success” and “failure” irrelevant."

(https://www.openhorizons.org/the-ten-temptations-of-consumerism.html)