A call to action for consumers everywhere, Consumed asks us to look at how and why we buy what we buy, how it's created, who it benefits, and how we can solve the problems created by a wasteful system.
We live in a world of stuff. We dispose of most of it in as little as six months after we receive it. The byproducts of our quest to consume are creating an environmental crisis. Aja Barber wants to change this--and you can, too.
In Consumed, Barber calls for change within an industry that regularly overreaches with abandon, creating real imbalances in the environment and the lives of those who do the work -often in unsafe conditions for very low pay- and the billionaires who receive the most profit. A story told in two parts, Barber exposes the endemic injustices in our consumer industries and the uncomfortable history of the textile industry, one which brokered slavery, racism, and today's wealth inequality. Once the layers are peeled back, Barber invites you to participate in unlearning, to understand the truth behind why we consume in the way that we do, to confront the uncomfortable feeling that we are never quite enough and why we fill that void with consumption rather than compassion. Barber challenges us to challenge the system and our role in it. The less you buy into the consumer culture, the more power you have. Consumed will teach you how to be a citizen and not a consumer.
Staff Choice: Lília
I love this book for all its layers and call to action. It’s a book worth reading and rereading to keep you aware of everything Aja Barber shows us. In it, we are confronted with all the problems existing in our society, from consumerism to endemic injustices and how uncomfortable the history of the textile industry is: full of slavery, racism and wealth inequality. It lets us see ways to be the change, to better understand the world and to accept that we need to deal with the situation in which we all live. “Consumed will teach you how to be a citizen and not a consumer.”