Could mass unemployment trigger post-consumerism?

What would you do with more leisure time? Do you know? Most people dream of having lots of time off, but when it happens, coupled with a decimation of income, it can be impossible to appreciate because of the social and economic pressures.

The hippies had a good idea, make love not war, have festivals, enjoy/live in harmony with nature. Admittedly long in the tooth and a bit derided, are these hippy ideals seeing a veiled resurgence, re-invented as post-consumerism? I know festival culture, boutique festivals such as ‘the big chill’ and ‘Beautiful Days’ nod towards that life ethic.

I have just listened to Kate Soper: http://is.gd/fI9O on alternative hedonism and she makes some very valid points about the next stage of our socio-economic evolution.

Maybe now a rethink of our addiction to consumerism is at hand, not a push towards “doing the right thing” which never satisfies the ego (vanity, pride, lust for power etc…) but a movement towards standards of enjoyment over standards of living.

Keeping up with the Jones’s (Jones’es? I really should know that one) could mean bragging about how much time you had off, or how much you enjoyed your latest party or dinner, how many friends you have (facebook, twitter…).

Unemployment en masse could have us all rethinking the value of things, which during the last epoch of progress, has been measured almost solely in currency, which affords financial “freedom”. So, the question begs – have we been buying back from capitalism what was always ours anyway, our freedom, and paying for it with our freedom?