About Post-scarcity notes: As the staff of The Public Interest Network advocate for a cleaner, greener, healthier world, from time to time we’ll share observations on the larger challenge facing our network and our society: How do we shift the dominant paradigm — the very way in which we see and make sense of the world — from disposable to sustainable, from “never enough” to “enough,” from “making a living” to “living.” The views expressed in this space relate to our work, but do not necessarily represent the position of the network or its organizations.
We all know what junk food is.
It’s those products that provide a short-term high, but make us feel miserable later, probably shorten our lives, and/or require the destruction of orangutan habitat (or denuding the Amazon rainforest, or some other horrific environmental damage).
Our way of life is also full of the junk food equivalents of essential human experiences:
Junk food entertainment: Like brain-mushing dopamine cyclers like Candy Crush, and also overly violent and gratuitous movies and television. (Were we even alive during that hour or two?)
Junk food politics: The tweet or TikTok that sparks our outrage or plays to our tribal instincts, but has no real connection to improving the quality of our lives or promoting civic discourse.
Junk food experiences: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
A little junk food won’t kill us. But it becomes problematic when it crowds out real food, real entertainment, real connection, real politics and real experiences.
That’s why abstinence isn’t the best strategy for escaping the junk food life. We can’t just say no to junk food. We have to say yes to better alternatives.
Here’s my top 10 list of ways that I find joy that don’t make me miserable the next day or leave a scar on the planet:
- Camping. Every year I go camping with my family, and it’s like detoxing from our digital world. Things start to become more vivid. It feels like it takes me one night to transform: I wake up after the first night in the tent, and drink my coffee in the quiet and still gray, and it’s like the best coffee I’ve ever had.
- Hammocks. Enjoying hammocks is a skill. It’s a spiritual practice. Don’t bring your phone, it ruins it.
- Collective meal-making. I love cooking in a group. It seems to make everything you eat more personal, more enjoyable.
- A hike to a swim. Hiking is great. Swimming is great. But a long hike to a secluded body of water? It’s almost cheating, it’s so good.
- Pick-up games. Sports are really great, especially when there isn’t any pressure to be good, because I’m not good.
- Foraging. I love cooking a meal I caught or picked.
- Religious observance. People have been trying to connect to the deep stuff for a long, long time. They figured out some stuff along the way. We can all learn something from them.
- Laughing.
- Listening to great music. Me and my eight year old sometimes turn off all the lights at the end of the day, and listen to a few songs on the couch before bed. It’s the best.
- Making the world a better place.
