Insatiable Is Not Sustainable

by Doug Brown

Book Overview

In today's culture of insatiable freedom, many believe that to be human is to be an insatiable self-actualizer. Yet insatiable is not sustainable. In order to solve today's crisis of environmental sustainability--and human sustainability--we must let go of our obsession to constantly be more. The desire to have all that we can have comes, Brown argues, from a cultural norm that has evolved to become an economic, social, and moral imperative-that...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0275974162
• ISBN13: 9780275974169
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Praeger
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

i was a student

Doug Brown was a professor of mine in college for comparative economics. his book "insatiable is not sustainable" is an awesome book that will definitely change one's perception about our culture of material-slavery. we had to read the book as a part of curriculum for the class and regretfully, i resold my copy back to the book store. (in order to make a quick buck). ironic and moronic because i resold it in order to perpetuate my insatiability... i highly recommend and have quoted it or referenced it many a' times since i've read it in college. i am searching for a cheap replacement and for those of you whom are interested in this book, i highly recommend it.

Should we value production over life itself?

Doug Brown has changed the way I feel about being "productive". Brown shows the reader that humans havn't always been so obsessed with improvemement, and havn't always followed the cliche of "be all you can be". And eventually this obsession with being more leads to insatiability because you can always be more! There is no end to it!Another thing that sticks in my mind after reading Insatiable Is Not Sustainable is a quote by Derrick Jensen: "This culture values production over life itself." This constant pressure to be productive, and emphasis on "growth" in this culture is channeled into our economy which is turning living trees into to two-by-fours, mountain tops into aluminum cans, and prairies into parking lots. Anybody who is fed up with dominant/taker culture needs to read this book.

An Important Book

If humans are going to have a future on this planet, a blaze of change has to sweep the earth in the next few decades--a change in the way people think about the world and our place in it. One of the sparks that are going to kindle this blaze is Doug Brown's Insatiable Is Not Sustainable, a book that reaches deep into the mad recesses of our culture (while retaining a sense of humor and remaining delightfully readable).