Idea of progress: how can people change their consumption habits

he idea of progress basically consists in believing that the world can become better in terms of art, science, technology, liberty and quality of life and has shaped most of Western civilisation's vision of history . Progress implies change, some evolution from an old order with old traditions to a new order which is not necessarily embraced by all . It's at the heart oh a heated debate between those who approve of these changes and those who resist and criticize them. As the rythm of progress seems to have accelerated these last few decades,a growing number of people voice their concern about the ethical, social and environmental consequences of such development and about the excesses of today's consumer society.

We will analyse the notion of progress by explaining how can people change their consumption habits.

First of all, it is quite interesting to check what idea of progress is conveyed by today's consumer society. Consumerism has become a cult for the american society and the 21December 2008 shows it personally. Indeed , the american society is the symbol of a fanatical, hyper-consumerist spirit. On that Black Friday day,special event during the year where the products are on sale , people lost their humanity.theywere so obsessed of buying things firrstthat they they ran over dozens ofpeople killing an employee and injuring a pregnant women along the way. If before shopping was only for essential stuff and for some little gifts now it has become a way of living and online shopping haseased everything.black Friday frenzies,Mega Monday,Cyber Thanksgiving are the perfect example.these events often leave to riots,fights and are almost more important than the holidays.Black Friday and Cyber Thanksgiving are more important than Christmas and Thanksgiving, people have become addicted to sales, window shopping and going on shopping sprees makes them feel better then spending time with their family.

this leads us to another aspect of progress for consumerism.It also is a way to deal with problems.It does not solve the problems, sometimes it actually makes them worse because people are victim of compulsive spending and instead of finding a good bargain they end up wasting thing or victims of frauds especially when shopping online.They cut in line, don't respect other people and even salesman because at the end of the day they think they are happy of having new things but they don't realise they areslowly getting addicted like they would to drugs.

Nevertheless, progress goes on and it could make people change their consumption habits.Since the early 1990s, Buy Nothing Day has inspired worldwide personal and collective action against consumerism. Buy Nothing Day isn’t just about changing habits for one day it is about rediscovering what it means to live freely.

People in 60 countries on November 25, 2016 like United states or India for Buy Nothing Day see what it feels like to take a stand against corporate domination and not buy anything but being ableto enjoy the holidays.

LAst but not least, some alternatives like recycling are trying to make a change but it is not enough and alternative movements have already appeared like Freeganism that is a practice and ideology of limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources, particularly through recovering wasted goods like

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