ethical sensibilities

[keannu]

Can you reflect your "ethical sensibilities" on your furniture? Does this writing imply that if you like decency, your funiture will be decent? Can you get the theme of this?

mo24)When we furnish our rooms or fill our closets, we say “I want that,” but we also tell manufacturers “make more of that” ― setting in motion a whole process of extraction, production, distribution, marketing, and sales. In the process, we tell each other that this level of consumption is normal, natural, and good. Each of our decisions, therefore, is a case study in ethics, a determination about the nature of “the good life.” As we peruse the stuff available to us, we’re making judgements about which goods are good for us and why. We don’t think we’re engaged in ethical reflection, but we are deciding what we value, and how we will embody our values in the material world. Our rooms and our belongings send messages about identity and community, but they also express our ethical sensibilities, whether we like it or not.

 

[konungursvia]

You can indeed. In Toronto most of our park benches now have so many armrests along their length as to make it impossible for a person -- a homeless person, for instance -- to lie down and fall asleep. This reflects that in our country, people have little sympathy for the homeless.

Also note that, at one University in Paris where I used to teach (Paris X - Nanterre, an essentially communist faculty if I ever saw one) the campus was at the the heart of the student movements in the sixties (before my time, but I heard a lot about it): the university authorities had 'renovated' the campus, placing 'fences' along the walkways and so on, to guide traffic, keep pedestrians away from the roads, and guide the movements of the people. The students called it 'fascist'.

 

[SoothingDave]

Also, in selecting goods like furniture, you can express your values by not buying certain types of wood if you believe them endangered, or buy from countries that might have questionable labor or environmental practices. Everything we buy is a decision to punish or reward some chain of suppliers and manufacturers.