I must agree with those whose opinion is that capitalism has created the
perceived "need" of many, many extravagant and extraneous material (as well as
service) objects. As to H. Ellis' experience in socialist countries where
citizens yearned for VCRs and microwaves. . .who do you think introduced this
"need" to them? Capitalistic societies such as our very own America.
When we think of the difference between needs and wants, we must reduce our
analysis to basic human survival - those are the things we absolutely need.
Then we can add the contextual level, as in, an American business "needs" a
fax machine and a word processor in order to even hope to be successful (in a
capitalistic market). So, do Israelites need electronic equipment? Should
they be denied the things they perceive as needs and environmentalists may
perceive as purely excessive? Not before we look in our own mirrors to lessen
our dependencies on the billions of things we ourselves think we need, but in
essence *have been created as needs* to satisfy the unsatiable desires of
capitalistic greed.
Ecofeminism-wise, and I'm not trying to piss people off, but we need to look
at who has been responsible for instigating the consumerist values (as people
have already posted on the list). Give up? Okay: white, upper-class males.
Consequently, the environment is going to hell. Yes, in non-capitalistic
countries as well, but in nearly every case, *we* have forced so-called third
world countries into a position where they must exploit their resources in
order to survive. Maybe they wouldn't have air pollution if we hadn't told
them cars were great. Maybe they could drink their water if we hadn't shipped
our leftover pesticides over. Etc.
For those of you debating over whether women are more in touch with/care more
about/and so on the environment, all we can do is try to imagine a world in
which women had made the rules. This is difficult, because it's usually hard
to jump out of capitalistic frame of mind and envision alternatives, but
frankly I belive we would not be in the state we are in now.
