Consumercide is a neologism... a word that combines not just two but rather many words: consumer or consumerism meets suicide, homicide, envirocide, and so forth... the suffix ‘cide’ which from the Latin caedo means "to kill", is the perfect partner to consumer culture. 

Consumercide is a little more serious than affluenza. Being 'sick' through automaton-like consumption for it's own sake is not the same as dying from it: the latter (somewhat more serious condition) is what this website is about. This site exists because many unnecessary deaths are being experienced every day, with consumercide as catalyst.

This is not a simplistic argument whereby consumption of material goods is given as the one avenue to consumercide; neither is it purely an antimaterialist site, or an elaborate statement in luddism. Consumercide.com sees many human behaviours (loosely categorisable as consumerist) as being important in sending us down the path of self, neighbourly and planetary destruction. Psychological addictions based upon power, sex, or security needs; as well as sporting, political or brand allegiances (and other irrational jingoisms) are just some of the patterns of individual consciousness and social culture that lead to consumercide. In fact, any behaviour of a potentially addictivedestructive nature could be added to the list, and––lord knows—as a species we certainly have a few.

The consequences of consumercidal action are not limited to the harm of self. The danger is spread to other humans and ultimately to all life upon this planet, which regrettably has to collectively suffer under the burden of humanity's gigantic and wayward egos. This is not a statement against ego per se, for ego can be a powerful force for reconciling such problems, but when teamed with the ignorance of consumercide (and its adverse effects) it leads to the destructiveness that you can witness by briefly surveying any newspaper, on any day (for a quick, hard dose, check out the section on inequality).

"...Survival is a word we all understand: I would like to know whether there is going to be a decent world in which, say, my grandchildren can live: that's the question of survival. The survival of the human species is by no means an obvious thing: there are very severe threats to survival and we learn about them all the time. The threat of environmental destruction is much too real to put to the side: the threat of destruction by the weapons of mass destruction --that has come very close many times... major threats are predicted in large part as a consequence of government policies... so [decent] survival of the species is by no means a sure thing..."

-Chomsky speaking about one of his recent books, Hegemony or Survival

Consumercide is a marker of ignorance. It might be obvious and a truism to some, but there is a proportional relationship between a society's indulgence upon blind overconsumption (or purely errant consumption), and it's ignorance or denial of the adverse effects that this consumption breeds. The ignorance/denial is inevitably towards things that are nevertheless profoundly important: things that one needs to know to prevent the 'untimely demise' of one's self and, ultimately, one's world. Hence we have consumercide.

How consumercide.com works...

A relatively small section of  consumercide.com is devoted to addressing specific problems of consumer culture (the section accessed by clicking on the 'consumercide' button). Hopefully you will agree that other topics addressed on this site are of similar importance. Throughout the site you will find a growing collection of essays and links that are intended to assist in increasing awareness to important issues that are rendered obscure as a result of the abundance of consumercide. These topics include health and food, environment, mass media, psychology and consciousness, and politics/international relations.

A central thesis of this site is that whilst we are otherwise engulfed in alpha suggestibility states at the mall, the screen or the stadium, we are not paying attention to matters of real importance in our world.

"Look, the average American doesn't mind the Defense Department tracking their credit card transactions, bank accounts, medical records, veterinary records, methods of transportation, travels taken, their housing information, or tracking every phone call they make. Of course, the average American knows more about an episode of 'Friends' than about what their own government is up to."
 

this website's focus

This site is mainly concerned with the battle for health, set as it is amidst the battle for the health dollar: it is where we see the destructive political intrusion of the corporate state as it violates the personal boundaries of the individual human body. This Foucauldian intrusion is mainly implicit and psychological, and yet it certainly has its coercive political manifestations, which are regrettably growing stronger all the time.  This is not to say that the site ignores the effects of consumercide at the broader socioeconomic and political/international relations level. But you have to have some focus. At a certain level of perspective it all becomes one morass, in any case.

See what is consumercide, and then consumercide pages for more efforts to describe the heinous, lethal condition of consumercide...

  So whether it be metaanalyses of the scientifically reductionistic approaches that dominate current human health care practices, or critiques of the socio-political and economic decisions that prioritise wealth, status, vested interests, power and greed over humanity, health and environment, this site's charter is to elaborate upon such 'consumercidal problems' and to help find pathways toward real solutions. Many topics to be found upon this site address issues relevant to science studies and social constructivism, with a particular focus upon the understanding of scientific medical knowledge. Also considered in detail are more general social, economic and political issues, and the introspective and collective explorations of consciousness and reality that define humanity.

If we wish to truly progress as a race, humanity must somehow perceive and then eliminate consumercide: at present it remains a quite unrecognised but nevertheless insidious and ever-present threat to humanity and to our entire planet's future. Those who hold the key to overcoming this hurdle--and to whom this website should speak loudest--are those who are of the richest nations: the most powerful people of those nations are those who most need to see the destructive error of oppression and greed for power's sake. And those who are rich enough to wield disposable income within this sea of vast inequality need to rethink their support of the corporations, governments and mindsets that propagate consumercide.

"The consumer society fails to deliver on its promise of fulfilment through material comforts because human wants are insatiable, human needs are socially defined, and the real sources of personal happiness are elsewhere. Indeed, the strength of social relations and the quality of leisure--both crucial psychological determinants of happiness in life--appear as much diminished as enhanced in the consumer class. The consumer society, it seems, has impoverished us by raising our income. "
 
 
 
 
 
 

According to the Worldwatch Institute, more goods and services have been consumed by the generation alive between 1950 and 1990, measured in constant dollars and on a global scale, than by all the generations in all of human history before.