Community Instead of Consumption

What I found to be the main point of Leonard's chapter on Consumption, is that as human beings, more stuff isn't what is going to make us happier. People believe that it will because of advertising and what people tell us. But in reality we need to be more conscious about creating lasting and genuine human relationships. A main point of the chapter seemed to be that a strong community will bring you happiness far more than that new Apple product or a new pair of shoes. I believe that here at Oxy we do have at least some sense of a community. There will be times when you see people spending a hour or two hanging out with friends in the Cooler or on the Quad at lunch. But at the same time, there are often times, when people are just sitting in their rooms on their laptops mindlessly browsing the internet. I believe that Oxy strikes a nice balance between consumerist and community. We are Americans and as such, we have mostly been raised to be consumerists, but if we can see the value in the tight community of a small college, then there is hope for us, in terms of consuming less. As a member in this community people need to remember to take a break from the books every once and a while and take an hour to just hang out with friends.