Shop 'til You Drop - Trailer - Available on DVD

Buy DVD at http://www.mediaed.org

Are we too materialistic? Are we willfully trashing the planet in our pursuit of things? And what's the source of all this frenetic consumer energy and desire anyway? In a fast-paced tour of the ecological and psychological terrain of American consumer culture, Shop 'Til You Drop challenges us to confront these questions head-on. Taking aim at the high-stress, high-octane pace of fast-lane materialism, the film moves beneath the seductive surfaces of the commercial world to show how the flip side of accumulation is depletion -- the slow, steady erosion of both natural resources and basic human values. In the end, Shop 'Til You Drop helps us make sense of the economic turbulence of the moment, providing an unflinching, riveting look at the relationship between the limits of consumerism and our never-ending pursuit of happiness.

http://www.mediaed.org

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Nonprofits & Activism

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• MEF

[WitlessSod]

Consumerism is equating personal happiness with consumption. Since the pleasure lies in the consumption, there is never an "enough" moment, whereas basic needs do (for instance there is a limit to the size of a meal a person would eat). In other words, you have to purchase more and more just to stay in place on the consumerist treadmill.

[mikesbodypolitic]

The other main component of mass consumption that is mentioned briefly here is that it atomizes humanity.

It alienates us from one another as we work only to consume and while consuming we are not participating in civil life in a way that makes us aware of our own communities and makes us care about the other people we live near. It's anti-democratic by taking our attention away from politics and distracts us into complacency and helplessness and ignorance, allowing the GW crisis to go on.

[monteoner]

brilliant film, didnt teach me anything new, just ordered all the thoughts i have about consumerism

[SexyMelon]

I work in advertising.

It's an art of lying.

Lying to someone's face long, loud and sly enough that they have no other choice to believe it, no choice but to do as you say, because their will is no longer their own.

If you think you're an individual and you're completely unaffected by it somehow, don't worry, you're certainly not alone. Every zombie created by the system thinks that.

It's a lot like democracy that way: the best way of enslaving people is to tell them they're free.

[stellerquest]

As P.R. Sarkar, great yogic sage says: human beings have a desire for the limitlessness from which they came. The only thing that is limitless is Parama Purusa, the "Divine." All other desires are a subversion of this desire for limitless. That's why nothing is ever enough. Whatever we have we want more.

[qwexas]

A lot of the things I see in stores are worthless. These are the things we buy for Christmas.

Why are there plain jeans on sale $11 when there are jeans ALREADY torn and faded $68? Who spends that much on something that looks like $2 yard sale? Fashion baffles me.

[ckeds]

And we are supposed to shop for this DVD or is this free? :-)

[JonnyInfinite]

jeez you're really falling for it ain't ya? I couldn't write this...

[mikesbodypolitic]

yes near unanimity(>99%) among the scientific community devoted to studying the effects of carbon on the atmosphere(CLIMATE SCIENTISTS NOT GEOLOGISTS who probably used to work for oil companies or still do) is evidence of "global warming cultists". You know makes people fanatics? Not relying on facts and not responding to facts to come to their conclusions, and being satisfied with pseudo experts for veracity. Exactly what you are doing.

[JonnyInfinite]

everything is ok