ABSTRACT
Environmental philosophers and commentators have long argued that the nature of Western civilisation is such that significant cultural obstacles stand in the way of fostering a truly sustainable relationship with planet Earth. Indeed the Western worldview as a whole is frequently understood to be at the heart of contemporary environmental problems, mainly because of its ‘materialistic’, ‘reductionist’, ‘disenchanted’ and ‘dualistic’ character (Berry, 2006; Devall, 2001; Devall and Sessions, 1985; Moncrief, 1970; White, 1967). However, in this chapter I want to concentrate on one ingredient of modern Western culture that can be considered to constitute an equally serious obstacle to developing a truly sustainable relationship with the natural world, indeed one that has a good claim to be the major force behind the current phenomenon of hyper-consumption – that is to say consumption that appears to be undertaken as much for its own sake as to meet any real need – and yet one that is rarely given much prominence in these discussions. This is the high value attached to the new and the novel. While accepting that this feature of contemporary culture does not account for all the forces responsible for the extraordinary high levels of consumption that characterise modern developed societies as well, increasingly, of that of many rapidly developing ones, it is nonetheless suggested that it is responsible for the major part of this tendency, and thus, if indirectly, the unsustainable nature of the contemporary Western way of life. The various forms taken by this enthusiasm for the new and novel will be examined, together with evidence of the accelerating character of the consumption of products regarded as manifesting these qualities (Hartmut, 2013). Finally, some consideration will be given to whether there is any realistic possibility of curbing these tendencies, if not actually diminishing the significance attached to the new and novel in general.
