This house would embrace mindless consumerism - rebuttal speeches

Second proposing speech

Ladies and gentlemen, let me first introduce myself. I assure you that I would be rolling over in my grave if I hadn't been resurrected for the intellectual sake of this debate. But thanks to entities whose existence is beyond your comprehension, here I am, Ἐπίκουρος (Epicurus), back from the dead, to embrace what one may naively believe that no philosopher would ever defend: mindless consumerism. [Continues below the jump…]

By IB

Second opposing speech

Dear readers, just like mister Man n°2 with ice-cream I like following my instincts: whenever I feel the desire to do something I just do it! When I want to poo I poo wherever I’m sitting, when I see an attractive female I just go and have sex with here. A lot of people will consider this style of life as “mindless”, which, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, is doing something with no use of the power of the intellect. And who am I? A Bonobo! A chimpanzee well-known for its very active sexual life and by the way doesn’t have any intellect. So is the opposition suggesting that we should all act like Bonobos? [Continues below the jump…]

By KM

Second proposing speech

Ladies and gentlemen, let me first introduce myself. I assure you that I would be rolling over in my grave if I hadn't been resurrected for the intellectual sake of this debate. But thanks to entities whose existence is beyond your comprehension, here I am, Ἐπίκουρος (Epicurus), back from the dead, to embrace what one may naively believe that no philosopher would ever defend: mindless consumerism.

Our first fellow opposer fell into the trap of restricting consumerism to only possessions that one can materially own or collect (as clothes, jewels, cars, etc…), thus enabling him to conclude to the uselessness of consumerism. Not only do I wish to remind you that there are many other forms of consumerism, but also I will argue that the apparently useless collection of possessions can have its benefits.

Indeed confusing consumerism with the collection of material possessions is forgetting that we spend a significant amount of our money in various services to increase our lifes' qualities or to develop our lifestyles. Going out with friends for a couple of beers or traveling abroad for tourism can also be interpreted as a kind of mindless consumerism although it is common knowledge that loneliness is deadly (the emperor Frederick of Hohenstaufen made a experiment including new borns that were isolated from every extra contact that they didn't really need, ie everything except feeding : they all died).

Basically everything that allows us to share moments with other people or have fun, from going to the movies  to owning a porn account (just kidding, you would probably be jealous if you saw what we had back in my times), often implies to consume over our primary needs.

Is that a sufficient reason why we should restrict ourselves of that?

Everybody knows me as the founder of epicureanism, a moral about happiness called after my name. I am deeply convinced that the greatest source of pleasure is the elimination of pain or worries. In this sense, the best gift that one can offer to oneself is to embrace a free-of-worries consumerism (beware of not confusing it with overconsumerism), thus beginning to bridge the gap that separates us from happiness. It's not about buying everything one can, it's about buying everything one wants/needs (as long as one can afford it) without further explanation or rationalization.

Rather than wasting time and intellectual abilities by reviewing every little purchases one plans to do, one had better make this as quick as possible to focus on what really matters (by the way the example of the sales season doesn't fit to mindless consumerism since it involves a kind of strategy).

Therefore, I defend a simplification of our habits ("Let’s simplify our lives" as the first opposer said), but rather than encouraging the destruction of capitalism and proposing no other alternative than settling for only what we need (air and fresh water…) as he did, I fight for people to think less when they are purchasing. Our third proposer will dig deeper into the disadvantages of overintellectualization.

Last but not least, I want to highlight a point that has not been mentioned yet. Mindless consumerism can act as a catharsis for people that are addicted to some possessions. Moreover, it may be one of the safest ways to satisfy ones impulses: Would you better live with consumer urges or people with violent and criminal tendencies ?

Can't you see how relaxed some people are after a shopping session? That’s because they had the privilege of not thinking or worrying for about a few hours.

I myself was upset when I saw how poor the opposition's arguments were, I ate an ice cream (chocolate flavour) and everything went back in order!!

The opposers are implying that mindless consumerism is a crime… For this very particular reason, I invite people to consume mindlessly, thus satisfying their criminal urges, because buying an extra shirt, an extra jewel or an extra ice cream has never harmed anybody. On the contrary, it benefits the society by stimuling its economy (refer to Keynes' theory of consumption for further details) and by giving work not only to people but to the human creativity.

Long story short, consuming more than what we need does not only serve our own happiness (trust me, there is absolutely no use to be buried with money) but also contributes to the blossoming of our whole society. For the above-mentioned reasons, I am confident, ladies and gentlemen, that you will support our cause.

IB

Second opposing speech

Dear readers, just like mister Man n°2 with ice-cream I like following my instincts: whenever I feel the desire to do something I just do it! When I want to poo I poo wherever I’m sitting, when I see an attractive female I just go and have sex with here. A lot of people will consider this style of life as “mindless”, which, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, is doing something with no use of the power of the intellect. And who am I? A Bonobo! A chimpanzee well-known for its very active sexual life and by the way doesn’t have any intellect. So is the opposition suggesting that we should all act like Bonobos? 

I’m going to make things clear, we are not questioning about consumerism, our main concern is about “mindless”. We humans, are the only creatures with mind and reason, those help us control and regulate our impulsions and desires, because unlike animals our actions have consequences, and mindless consumerism’s can be devastating.

July 2007 Subprime crisis, one of the best examples of where mindless consumerisms have already led us to. Nowadays thanks to our lovely capitalist system we can buy stuffs we don’t afford by indebting ourselves, and that’s what people kept on doing for years in the US. They surely were really happy in the beginning with their 3 houses, 4 cars, boats…And then what happened?

Everything felt apart: people weren’t able to pay their debts, the markets registered huge losses and we ended up with one of the biggest financial crisis of human history. This should make us realize that we cannot continue on buying things mindlessly, instead we are promoting “mindful” consumerisms. Consumerisms based on reason and fitted to our real incomes.

Moreover, if everybody continues on consuming mindlessly that much, knowing that the resources on our planet are not as unlimited as our desires, what will happen to the environment? Of course people will say it’s my right to have 50 shoes, it is! But I said we should stop being selfish on the name of liberty and liberalism. Instead we should start worrying about the next generations. This is no longer about our desires or comforts this is about the survival of our children. I’m not extra lucid but, unless we discover another planet, future generations won’t have the same quality of life we had. They won’t have the luxury of buying lots of useless things; they will live sticking to the necessary, because they won’t have the choice, and cursing their selfish ancestors, cursing us!

To the opposition, I’m reiterating that we do not want a controlled consumerisms by the state or any outside power, we’re asking people to be self-controlled and reasonable for their sakes and the sake of the society. Let’s be the ant of Lafontaine tale which is reasonable and has a happy long life, unlike the grasshopper which has a really happy one but really short as well. Dear readers vote for us!

KM