WEhab

Stop Global Warming. Buy less crap?


 Its 2010 and I would like to start a movement.


Save mother earth is everywhere! MYspace, Facebook, tv schools movies....everywhere you look. Products advertising campaigns. We join this group and that group watch this show and that show. We reduce our trash we recycle. WE manage the garbage we create. But what if we just didn't create so much?
You can't just say I don't eat animals and I wont kill spiders or I love and there's peace or I meditate. It's a lot of work and takes great commitment to pursue these ideals. But to go all John Lennon and imagine this "catching on" en mass in mainstream society as a way to save earth etc is unrealistic. It will simply take too long to achieve. We don't have the luxury of time. Sorry but just because you and your community recycle does not mean we are saving planet earth. It just makes us feel better when w go to sleep at night.
Stop global warming. Buy less Crap.


There is a definitive change happening in social thinking. You can see it. But the same generation that is pushing this movement is also mesmerized by and addicted to some of the most creatively indulgent technology man has ever produced. To find your nirvana, to embark on a "saving the earth" mandate it is about the self first and it takes a great deal of effort and commitment to achieve this. It is important for humans to find a simpler satisfaction in life more today than ever before and I support this path to personal spirituality. But I cant see many working mothers of two or three having time in their lives to take up this practice. To find their nirvana while folding their 8th load of laundry or searching for bargains in the frozen food section of The No Frills. They have to settle for a half hour yoga class at the community centre and they are lucky if they can find time to take a shower. Not everyone is capable of embracing this way of thinking whether they want to or not. I think it creates a great gap in thinking between the consumerists and the resistance to over consumption.


And to me it is about resistance. I have to work at resisting what modern technology has to offer and the convenience of first world living, the technological and aesthetic creativity of my species. Fortunately finances being what they are as a single mom I am forced at times to resist. I do covet however. There is a particular washer dryer set that gives me butterflies in my stomach whenever I see it! I justify this longing by telling myself it is energy efficient! And yes my Mom bought me a slapchop for Christmas.


Stop global warming. Buy less Crap.


So instead of taking this slow boat to spiritual enlightenment as a means to save planet earth I was wondering if we couldn't just get to the point? Skip the personal introspection for right now and skip the romantic philosophies and take the core principals and apply them in a more effective way. In a way that impacts change right away. In a way that does not alienate other religions or people of differing educations, social classes or cultures. And in a way that makes change accessible and easy for the masses to adopt. As it stands now it would have to be pop culturalized to reach the target audience effectively and fast.  And that won't happen in the mainstream media due to their symbiotic/or parasitic relationship with industry and capitalism. Oh they make us think they are doing it but we still BUY that which had to be manufactured, energy used to produce, natural resources used to create. Energy needed to operate.


 We have the power to demand that less is more. We try to educate our kids but then we over-indulge them and ourselves in toys and gadgets we sending some crazed mixed message to them? Yet somehow they are learning about it, better than us it seems at times. My daughter has been able to adapt to this philosophy easily. She still desires "things" but she also has learned to work through that desire and understand no matter how much she may want something she has to learn to want less to ensure a healthy planet. We have undergone a great deal of media literacy at home and in our schools. Yes learning to read is very important but learning how to resist big brother and the corporate media machine is as important in my opinion. The point is she understands and she is 12. And she understands because she was presented with a logical and simple solution.


Stop global warming. Buy less Crap.


Buddhism, Taoism and most spiritually enlightening faiths are are all based on deep logic. Base logical themes in human nature. Shakespearean themes, you know there are all the little plots and sub plots but there is always a grand theme that over rides all the rest. The big picture. Love vs Hate, Good vs Evil, More vs Less? So in a logical manner lets agree to work on our personal fulfillment less for right now in order to spread ideas and change to the masses more effectively. Produce change more quickly. Tackling global warming is a huge issue. It is the big picture, the one that over rides all the rest.


Finding the self can be as self indulgent as satisfying the self with a brand new home entertainment sound system for your computer and your giant tv! Because at their root both are about feeding the "self" on instant gratification, it doesn't have to take a lifetime to attain. The tree huggers and the Urban spiritualists strongly support global warming and environmental issues as pressing issues in the evolution of humankind and our future. That's good but their method of helping to promote this crisis and affect change is too slow. 


And the force to buy is powerful. Media is powerful and everything is instant and microwavable. The world of technology is fast, too fats to keep up with at times. We the masses have a powerful enemy. It knows our weaknesses. And medicates those weaknesses with crap! Crap we desire like slapchops and snuggies.
Stop global warming. Buy less Crap.


So we need to make an instant and noticeable impact on our environment. The way to do this is simple; we have to stop buying so much crap. Making so much shit. Slow down. Slow down industry? Globally? We could if we just stopped buying all those luxuries that are not so essential to life. We don't need practically everything we produce for ourselves now a days. Its about wanting. We have to resist advertisers and gadgets and toys and cars and boats and jet skis and movies and celebrities and world travel and electronic SUV's for fucking four year olds! (that is one of the stupidest ideas ever followed through on in the history of mankind) Yes lets put a four year old on a motorized vehicle and expect him/her to have the motor skills and brain power to operate this safely. Then lets put them in a backyard with a bunch of other little kids! How fun. Only $350.00. Too bad there was not a requirement for purchase that the parents have a licence to think too. Bratz dolls that look like streetwalkers and are made in less than economically fair factories in third world countries! We do not need every new kitchen electronic gadget that comes on the market or separate refrigerators just for our wine. We have to resist the disposable fuzzy socks at the dollar store!


What would happen to the global economy if we in the first world just reduced our consumption suddenly? We have the power. We are the buyers and the workers. What would happen economically? Job losses? Economic disaster? But maybe if we bought more locally we would create and support new jobs and industry at home instead of in another country? Would we have to work as hard or as much if we didn't need so much crap? To spend money entertaining ourselves and our kids. Or through the purchase of products that offer convenience we create more time for us to spend money entertaining ourselves. Could we go back to having one parent at home raising our kids? How would that affect society over time?


Stop global warming. Buy less Crap.


 We are at our tipping point of over consumption and climate change is in our faces finally for real. China, one of the planets greatest polluters and exploiters of earths natural world is all over our need to have crap and now lending money to African countries that were just spared billions in debt. People lobbied and worked for years to achieve this for these countries. And poof it starts all over again. Nice big stupid vicious cycle we have created. This is all because we cannot resist our own creativity as human beings and our own desire to "have" crap. Nice clothes, pretty purses, fancy living rooms, the latest cell phone and a big tv.
Our desire for this is root problem from which all the other symptoms spiral out. If we could express the root problems logically in short simple sentences skipping all the rhetoric and philosophizing it normally takes humans to get to the point!.....put it into one or two sentences we can affect change. We could then implement logical solutions. Like an advertising campaign. A movement.


Stop global warming. Buy less Crap.


Empower yourself and buy less crap!


What economic and social changes might occur if lets say Americans and Canadians made a commitment to buy less crap in 2010? Particularly crap for our kids. And personal entertainment.

Could we end wars if our demand for crap created less demand for fuel or oil?


What do you think might be the base root problem in human kind. One that could be logically summed up in one or two sentences. Think of it as creating a marketing slogan or the selling of a product. How can you get your message across most effectively. Or as a theme or plot in a piece of literature.




More to come......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY