Jotting #25 - Manietes article analysis. "In Search of Consumptive Resistance"

Prompt: Analyze Manieties structure.

My response: Outline major arguments. Look at smaller arguments and tell how they worked together to support the larger points. Look at the details he used to support the arguments that he is making.

Manietes is doing “reconnaissance” in order to help the reader understand the movement. To best do this he will be discussing what is being said about the movement and why these things are being said. Whether the reasons for the voluntary simplicity movement are good or bad, Manietes overarching goal is to develop an argument as to why the voluntary simplicity movement is here to stay.

Sustainable development is the buzz phrase in contemporary environmentalism today. It is the goal to which the contemporary environmentalists strive. This does not deal with the issue of consumption, however. This over consumption is spread to the entire world causing a “tyranny of expectations”. Manietes supports this by mentioning the fact that the middle class is gauging its wealth against the top 10%. Furthermore, consumption is glamorized internationally with shows such as “Melrose Place”. If these standards of living were to come even partly true, Manietes points out, among other things, “mainstream environmentalism stalls out”.

Result of the aforementioned things according to Manietes “simplistic moralizing about consumption that little advances the intellectual analysis or collective action necessary for taking on the consumption question.” Going on down the line, results of this are: “Rhetorical lambasting of advertising, condemnation of the immorality of over consumption, and a rosy-eyed, apolitical romantacization of the joys of simple living.”

Manietes then shifts his focus to the VSM. The VSM is viewed as exclusively American even though it is not. Americans wish to get their lives back and that is their reason for VSM. It is not out of a deep concern for the environment or a desire to bring about equality worldwide but simply be get a balance and stress free life.
VSM is not new, Manietes uses the words of Vanderbilt to critique the VSM in that it assumes people are living lives that need simplification. Those who are volunteer simplicists only got to that point because they were at one point in time, wealthy enough to afford to be voluntarily simplifiers. In addition they are oblivious to the fact that there are those who are involuntary simplicists. Finally, Manietes states, the VSM is for real. Proponents of the VSM have options, unlike those who are involuntary simplicists. VSM is also used to sell things.

The answer is to go for a consumptive resistance. Manietes uses the language of “Consumptive angle” – new call for sustainability. Manietes is convinced that voluntary simplicity would cause an unnecessary burden on the backs of the bottom 20%. VSM fails to look at the broader institutional dynamics. Manietes suggests that the powerful whose power is vast be held more accountable of the fact that they are large contributors to the reason that the masses consume so much.