Is It Possible to Reduce Overconsumption?

We can reduce overconsumption and overproduction only if we change ourselves—to start feeling why life is truly worth living.

We cannot change the world, but we can change ourselves to be content and happy with life’s essentials. We would then put an end to the planet’s destruction, the overproduction and overconsumption of so many goods that are beyond our necessities.

Each person has their own definition of their essentials, which is influenced by each person’s specific upbringing. Everyone would thus need an individualized form of learning about self-transformation.

While it might seem utopian that human society would do away with its surplus activity in order to be happy with what we each truly need, our other option is simply self-destruction—a forceful stop to the process where we stop having children and stop our production lines, stalling the planet completely.

That is the choice before humanity as we head into the future: either we learn to get by and be happy with what we truly need, or we will face self-destruction.

When we discuss self-transformation, we are not talking about changing human nature, but the change of human character, i.e. how we each apply our natures.

In simpler terms, our desire that demands “I want!” within each and every person would remain the same, and the change would unfold in the desire’s fulfillment: that we would feel as if we receive everything we need from the world, and that we need nothing else. We can feel such fulfillment when we mutually fulfill each other.

As we head into the future, we will have to figure out how to not destroy ourselves and instead bring ourselves to the realization of the need for change.