Reykjavík Grapevine - Sep 2019, Page 56

L IF E , T R AV EL & EN T ER TA INMEN T IN ICEL A ND
Issue 14 × 2019
August 16th—August 29th
www.grapevine.is
LAST WORDS
Consumed
With Guilt
Words: Ragnar Egilsson
I miss the good old days when “consump-
tion” meant something interesting—like
tuberculosis. Today, the word seems tipped
to become the seventh seal of the apoca-
lypse as we eat, drink, binge-watch, and
drive our species to extinction. But how
did we get here?
I feel like one part of the problem has
always been the narrow definition of the
word “consume.”
If you have rolled up a page of this
magazine and are currently doing rails of
coke in the backroom of an ad agency, the
very word probably sends lightning bolts
through your veins at the prospect of dis-
covering new consumers and getting them
to consume something, anything, every-
thing. To you, to consume means to pur-
chase goods and services.
Perhaps you’re a climate scientist and
you are using this magazine to compose
a hastily-written suicide letter as you look
for a hefty ceiling beam with which to
end the grim visions of the apoclypse that
haunt you day and night. To you, to con-
sume means the depletion of earth’s re-
sources.
To the rest of us, to consume generally
means to eat and drink.
Because we know that we love consum-
ing food and drink. We also know that we
get fat if we consume too much of it. In fact,
we worry about it ceaselessly. This proves
that we are perfectly capable of being con-
scious of our consumption. But somehow,
we’ve had trouble extending that thinking
beyond our gut, into other avenues of life.
We feel immediately guilty after con-
suming the empty carbs of an entire Dom-
ino’s pizza, but we’re perfectly comfortable
numbing ourselves by binging seasons’
worth of shitty detective shows on Netf-
lix. We lament what was said during last
night’s drunken binge, but we don’t give
that two-hour impromptu Amazon shop-
ping spree a second thought (at least, not
until our plastic card company says we’ve
been bad).
It shouldn’t be hard to extend the idea
that if one form of consumption can cor-
rupt our bodies, others may corrupt our
minds, erode our social bonds, or give our
planet uncontrollable diarrhea (like that
Domino’s pizza).
If we could make the mental leap that
every single one of our tawdry, ill-consid-
ered, consumer decisions sends ripples
around the globe and into our future...then
maybe it could be our saving grace. Life-
saving neurosis. That and imprisoning the
board of directors of every oil company on
the planet. It’s for their own good. Before
the mob finds them and consumes them
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