ISU Bengal

Issue date: 9/26/07 Section: Life

Media Credit: Samantha Evans David Wann one of the authors of Affluenza: The All Consuming Epidemic, gives a keynote speech on Thursday, September 20.

Two of the authors of "Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic" came to ISU last week to discuss their book and inspire change in the ISU-Pocatello community.
David Wann and John De Graaf hosted a week of discussions on sustainable life styles and conservation as part of this year's ISU reading project. Each year, a committee of ISU students, faculty and staff select a book for the community to read and then sponsor the author(s) of the book to come and speak.
"There are some very energetic students, teachers and townspeople here," said Wann. "I enjoy looking out into the audience and seeing them engaged and processing the information."
The week included screenings of the documentary "Affluenza" and its companion "Escape from Affluenza" as well as speeches from how to "Take back your time" to how to write non-fiction. The events climaxed into a keynote lecture and book signing on Sept. 20 in the Pond Student Union Building.
The authors spoke on how it is time for America to stop being wasteful and to take the example its European friends and learn to live better on less.
"We need to slow down and see what we're losing here," Wann said. We should only consume the interest of nature and not the principle.
However, Wann remains optimistic. "America will rise up in the fourth quarter and make the changes that need to be made," he said.
De Graaf focused on how America ranked with the rest of the world in its consumption. According to his numbers the United States ranks worst in child welfare, income equality, air pollution per capita. It has the highest depression and anxiety rates, the lowest voting rate and the highest concentration of incarcerated population-30% of the entire world's prison population to be exact.
He quoted a letter from an American friend staying in Europe who asked, "Why does the country that can afford the most does the least for its citizens?"
He said that recently the most conservative party in the United Kingdom had put together a more than 500 page document saying that over consumption is not the way to happiness. "We've got to calm down, we've got to pay attention to the things we can't pay attention to at warp speed." De Graaf claims that the document is threatening to break the Tory party wide open because of its "liberal" stance.
"It's pretty interesting," said Freshman Josh Heyrend who is reading the book for his English 101 class. "At first I thought it was pretty boring, but it's good so far. I think that they make some pretty interesting points.
"I think that by the end of the book it will have a bigger impact on me. I never really thought about it (over-consumption) before I started reading this book."
Bonnie Frantz, associate director of the Pond Student Union Building and the Rendezvous Complex-who organized the reading project-said it was a good way to spread the message of conservation to "city planners or individuals who are willing to voice change to the city government or legislature."
"There are so many ways we as citizens can change the way we are living," Frantz said.

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