"Waste not, want not." Chipper, smug, old, this green adage has all the appeal of a thrice-used teabag. Moreover, hidden behind its virtue is the dirty truth about sustainability: If we don't waste, it's probably because we don't really "want." Desire, pleasure, whatwe want, is a function of freedom, not prudence and constraint. We who want revel in waste.rnListen to one such reveler, Jack Gladney, hero of Don DeLillo's novel White Noise (1985), as he shops with his family in the mall:rnWhen I could not decide between two shirts, they encouraged me to buy both. When I said I was hungry, they fed me pretzels, beer, souvlaki.... They were my guides to endless well-being.... I shopped with reckless abandon. I shopped for immediate needs and distant contingencies. I shopped for its own sake.... I began to grow in value and self-regard. [..1] Brightness settled around me.... I traded money for goods. The more money I spent, the less important it seemed. I was bigger than these sums.... These sums in fact came back to me in the form of existential credit.
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