Clowns from Amsterdam
11 years ago
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Less stuff
The frantic spending of some makes me wonder whether the relentless buying of shoes and garments or electronic gadgets has to do with unfulfilled needs, with replacing material possessions for unfulfilled non material needs. Those needs could be time, friendship, caring and sharing to name just a few. A peace buddy of mine lives outside of our 24/7 consuming society. He has a carbon footprint of a toddler, recycles, protects trees and peoples. He is a good and brave example because our society has shifted from a capitalist society with a utilitarian work ethic to a cynical consumer society who's overconsumption drives climate change and fuels the war economy. Thus beauty is replaced by kitsch and junk, space becomes stuffed, news flashes and reality soaps replace theater and poetry. So I think we should have less, but better things, not things that have inbuilt obsolescence and need to be replaced every so often. I strive for the durability that one finds in friendship, the sparse beauty of an Arizona desert, the appreciation of everything, remembering water during a drought in that desert or during a long bad freeze...
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ReplyDelete'koop dit kledingstuk alleen als je het echt nodig hebt.'.....
Call me crazy and mean it. I save clear appliance lightbulbs that have burned OUT, and I put them in front of a colored light on a string of lights. The symbionic relationship insures that the glass bulb stays out of the landfill, and the colored light has a new diffusion.I hang things from walls, and beams in the ceiling, and outside. It's challenging to create "stuff" from "junk". We did that a lot during the hippie days, but the country has been plagued by a horrible debilitating grating sound for a long time now, and heavily compressed into a half slumber. I fought my way out as soon as the "National Fool The Sheeple" activities began. At least I think so. I avoid Wal Mart. Junk yards, and thrift shops have more character. I have a 1947 toaster that still works. j
ReplyDeleteWhen you ask a typical American woman what she does for recreation, she says 'Shop'. Shopping has become a sport, but the rules are poorly defined, except the basic concept, 'More is never enough'. Whole 'industries' are devoted to make 'consumers' want things they don't need. When you meet a shopper of average intelligence, stop and consider that half of the shoppers are dumber than that. But if people were to start acting rationally, many useless things would become obsolete, unwanted, and national economies built on endless, acquisitive greed would collapse, And many people who spend their lives contributing to the providing of goods and services that are superfluous, would have to find something useful to do. Modern 'civilization' might not survive such a wrenching adjustment. That could be a good thing.
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