People who want to theorize post-consumerism fail because they fail to identify a strong positive-valence, positive-feedback alternative to "convenience" as a driving attribute of material life. Behavioral attribute, not value/virtue. "Clean" or "environment friendly" ain't it.
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A tax on convenience (either financial or behavioral) isn't the same thing as an alternative to convenience. I think the answer is "automate materiality to regain control over temporality." The thing people hate about convenience-culture is that it accelerates life.
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You don't actually get to enjoy benefits of convenience in anything because you just get to the next consumption decision-point faster. If you can discard a disposable container instead of washing a reusable one, you just get to "what shall I eat/drink/watch/buy next?" quicker
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This pressure cannot be resisted because it is what makes economy run. The faster you make consumption decisions, the faster economic engines turn. We all have an interest in making this "as fast as possible." This is why direct "slow food" or whatever doesn't scale.
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Environment/sustainability questions aside (the need not be tied to our consumption behaviors) the trick to having your cake and eating it too is to decouple consumption decision-making from living life itself. Hence consumption-automation.
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If you can trust you fridge to reorder milk when you're close to running out, *you* can relax and take it as slow or as frenzied as you actually want to that moment. Automation also makes engineering sustainability easier (reduce waste, close material flow loops etc).
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Replying to @0pfour
The anxiety loop is primarily triggered by the availability of endless trivial, low-effort "convenience maintenance" actions that allow us to feel like we're doing something but simply let the anxiety compound into chronic stress int he background.
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My point is somewhat like how certain senior executives get addicted to micromanaging underlings with useless, non-value-adding extra oversight to avoid their own challenges.
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