Material Acquisition | Competition | Consuming One Another

Speaking of cultures exported from the USA and particularly in Italy, embracing ‘style and fashion’ as a high priority and status symbol. 

This graffiti ‘street art’ in a pedestrian tunnel in Verona, Italy eloquently displays how humans are drawn to wear clothing and shoes ~ sporting a handbag or hat or the most updated phone ~ thinking that this is ‘making it’ and making them more desirable. 

It is material consumption in the competition to be better. 

Somehow the facing wall of ants gnawing on items of food, but also eating and munching on each other, chewing on other ants, mirrors the human play of material consumption ‘consuming’ the ego of another, rendering them less special and lesser of a person. 

Be the change you want to see; smiling, interacting, conversing with other people, rather than material acquisition and competition as the main emphasis and focus in life.

New, Improved, Updated – Growth At Any Cost – Driving Global Warming, Ecocide and Addiction | Real Time with Bill Maher

I was astounded to listen to this last night for the first time.

New Rule: Growth At Any Cost | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO). 

No network news will EVER address this; NEVER address the business as usual, Profit for each Quarter status quo.

What if we just stopped buying and buying into it?

New and improved, just $19.99, $99.99, $99,099…

Bill Maher so boldly and eloquently unveils what we the consumer, blindly succumb to, the marketing tactics of the good ole United States of Apathy.

Where to begin to instate new habits and ways of seeing the world? Start with our unconscious addiction to buying. Consumerism bleeding the natural world.  

Great video depicting the tragedy of consumerism, Happiness by Steve Cutts

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e9dZQelULDkHappiness by Steve Cutts

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook and music composition

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the back yard of the family home where I was raised in Pennsylvania, USA

Anthropocentrism | Vandana Shiva on Social and Environmental Injustice of Industrialism – We are powerful beings in a powerful world

The two blogs I’m currently posting are intertwined, in that they are both on the subject of anthropocentrism, social and environmental injustice and the destruction of the natural world (including occupation of humans) through industrialization and the current capitalism paradigm.

Double Happiness

https://carolkeiter.wordpress.com/2021/07/07/anthropocentrism-mass-extinction-from-industrialized-fast-fashion-blind-consumerism/

I had a conversation last evening with an economics student who revealed that the farmers in the USA are squeezed out by licensing and the corporate industrialization of the farming ‘industry’, I recalled instantly that this theme replicates what Hasan Minhaj expressed in his show ‘the Patriot Act’ on the Marijuana industry. Small farmers forced out of the industry because it has become so massive and industrialized.

Vandana Shiva – physicist turned ecological activist – has been an advocate for Indian farmers, tens of thousands of whom were driven to suicide by the actions of Monsanto, who put a patent of ownership on farmers’ seeds. Monsanto is the same company involved in the production of industrial chemicals and insecticides (RoundUp) from their initial creation of nerve gas. She speaks of the arrogance of technocrats and industrialists.

In this interview with FRANCE 24, Vandana Shiva states that Bill Gates ‘is continuing the work of Monsanto’. 

In this exceptional interview with Russell Brand, Vandana Shiva talks about the hypocrisy of Bill Gates in this interview with Russell Brand in which she articulately demonstrates her clarity of issues on a grand scale. 

In it, she quotes Mahatma Gandhi

the “labor of our body in the service of the earth”.

She states, “We live in a powerful world of energy and as humans, have access to this creative power of the universe through aligning ourselves spiritually – dharma – with the right action.”

I first learned of Vandana Shiva when she spoke at one of the many events of the two week long educational and activism gathering – theplacetob – in Paris, coinciding with the COP 21 in 2015. Among the speakers, Naomi Klein.

We need to recognize – become recognizant – of this power, and occupy our own spiritual paths, intuitively – in community with all of the natural world.

Occupy Yourself

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook and music composition

The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

Earth Day 50th | We Love The Earth | Confronting Anthropocentrism | Look for the Good

Here is to looking forward! Change our hearts from our anthropomorphic view of only seeing the earth and all of its different creatures as resources and objects to use, to loving all earthlings. and recognizing our interdependency.

We Love The Earth

We Love The Earth animated video By Lil Dicky – Earth

The

50th Anniversary of Earth Day

was officially April 22, 2020. I watched the ongoing broadcasts and listened to many very articulate youth activists who fully impressed me. There were numerous featured scientists, artists and musicians and indigenous people bringing forth informative and inspiring messages as well. Thank you all so much for sharing and being part of the voice of the new evolving story.

What prompted me to write this blog in the first place, was synchronistically coming upon this powerful 20 minute video presentation by Eileen Crist, in her ‘Confronting Anthropocentrism’. Powerful information as a mirror for humanity to look into the mirror, and move forward.

Confronting Anthropocentrism presentation by Eileen Crist

Even Pope Francis speaks to power. The pontiff said that the (Wuhan virus) Coronavirus outbreak offers an opportunity to slow down the rate of production and consumption and to learn to understand and contemplate the natural world.

“We did not respond to the partial catastrophes. Who now speaks of the fires in Australia, or remembers that 18 months ago a boat could cross the North Pole because the glaciers had all melted? Who speaks now of the floods?” the Pope said.

Pope Francis says Wuhan Virus Nature’s Response to Climate Crisis

Imagining a Post-Coronavirus World: Ending Ravenous Capitalism and Our Consumer-Driven Promiscuity

Imagining a Post-Coronavirus World: Ending Ravenous Capitalism and Our Consumer-Driven Promiscuity, Andy Worthington

The Solutions to the Climate Crisis No One is Talking About with Robert Reich

Storyteller and film maker Julio Vincent Gambuto wrote an excellent article talking about moving forward. “Prepare for the Ultimate Gas Lighting”

“What happened is inexplicably incredible. It’s the greatest gift ever unwrapped. Not the deaths, not the virus, but The Great Pause”

And with this, I only will add two wonderful music videos by artists who contributed their work for Earth Day.

This astoundingly positive message by Jason Mraz – Look For The Good

EcoRevolution Now | The Years Project | Not an AltEarth

 

 

Collapsologie is a transdisciplinary study published in 2015 in the scientific journal The Anthropocene Review collapse of industrial civilization and what might succeed it. Developed by Pablo Servigne and Raphaël Stevens in their essay Comment tout tout collombrer: A short collapsology manual for present generations published in 2015.”

Why Everything Will Collapse

 

The premise of collapsologie,   

that everything will collapse,

is based on the supposition

that it’s highly unlikely that our governments will act

that humans are not able to coordinate effectively on the ground level

nor willing to make changes that may significantly reduce their lifestyles

 

I say, give it a shot

create, repurpose, plant 

nurture the earth and its species

stop buying, stop consumerism

 

actions taken together will bring us together

plant gardens, bee highways, plant fruit and nut trees

everywhere – for the present and your future

 

stop shopping, stop building

stop what you are doing

turn it off

tune in

~ to each other and the earth

 

What could be a universal wakeup call?

Stay tuned, and for $19.99, I’ll give you the first hint…

a FOOL’s joke regarding the system we need to replace

 

Start by going out into the streets, sharing stories and creating ways to regenerate.

Share what you value of the natural planet and its species.

Discuss the collective ideas and creative solutions

the Years Project Years of Living Dangerously

Join groups to participate in such as http://theyearsproject.com/

‘our years of living dangerously’.

 

I came up with some ideas I wrote down on paper. I typed it out to make it easier to digest.

ideas regarding what we can do now

 

Did you Know?

 

• We are in the midst of an ecological emergency

which threatens all life, humans too?

 

• Each of our actions < collectively >

will either delay or exacerbate and accelerate

what is already clearly apparent in many parts of the globe.

 

Do you Love / Value fresh air?

 

Given the choice

 

• Would you prefer walking among trees, flowers & animals

or

paved, treeless streets with no other life?

 

• Would you rather smell foliage

or

the sting of tar & asphalt?

 

• Would you rather walk around fresh air 

or

autos blasting heat & belching exhaust?

 

• Idling engines expel carbon monoxide,

which has been steadily building up CO2 carbon dioxide,

 resulting in increasing global temperatures

felt more extremely at the poles.

 

• Would you rather hear birds chirping

or

your conversation drowned out with loud humming, machines grinding, engines growling?

• There are presently forest fires in the Arctic and sweeping across every continent.

• Every one of each of our actions affect this system.

• We can make a difference if we all act together

< organize and participate >

10,000 sunflowers Providence, Rhode Island

flowers looking away against a dark sky

• Plant Bee Highways like these sunflowers

• 10,000 Sunflowers Activism Art – Providence, RI
• stop using plastic
• grow your own food
• plant fruit & nut trees
• re-use & recycle
• turn off idling cars
• stop or cut down on driving
• start bicycling, using alternative shared transport
• eat healthy foods
• eliminate or reduce your consumption of industrialized factory farm meat, fish & dairy
• eliminate junk food; mostly made from Palm Oil which is wiping out our earth’s rainforests, the most rich ecosystems on the planet and the only habitat for many of the earth’s treasures

 

India planted 66 Million trees – the population involved together – in 12 hours!

What could people from all over the world accomplish

with measurable effects, in one week?

if we would ALL TOGETHER simply

stop, turn off, and tune in

to focus only on immediate universal reconnection with the planet

NO DRIVING, NO GAS USAGE, shut down all Plants, stop business as usual

Shut down all oil, coal and gas production.

 

Together

let’s do this

many things are possible WHEN YOU THINK AND ACT DIFFERENTLY

 

 

sunflower bee smile

Many small individual choices & changes of habit can produce massive results

LET’S BE THE GENERATIONS ON THE PLANET

THAT BECOME INVOLVED  in making the difference

ACTING TOGETHER & STARTING A NEW TREND

LET’S START AN ECOLOGICAL REVOLUTION

LET’S GET TOGETHER TO BRAINSTORM, PLAN AND BEGIN ACTIONS

LEARN TOGETHER, SHARE STORIES AND HAVE FUN

IN A CELEBRATORY AIR WITH MUSIC AND LEARNING

 

Turn off and Tune In

GreenPeace link to
Ocean Plastic Tool Kit A Million Acts of Blue

 

World Wildlife Fund WWF has put together Teacher’s Resource Guides / Wildlife ToolKits

echoactivate eco revolution

 

Rise for Climate Global day of Action Sept. 8

 

words on brick by
Guillermo Gómez Peña
Providence, Rhode Island

words on brick by
Guillermo Gómez Peña
Providence, Rhode Island

 

Guillermo Gómez Peña~ wrote on the building:

 

WE, THE ARTISTS & INTELLECTUALS, FAMOUS & UNKNOWN.

WE MUD PEOPLE, SNAKE PEOPLE, TAR PEOPLE. WE, BOHEMIANS

echoactivate eco revolution

WALKING ON MILLENNIAL THIN ICE. OUR BODIES PIERCED,

TATTOOED, MARTYRED, SCARRED; OUR SKIN COVERED WITH

HIEROGLYPHS & FLAMING QUESTIONS  WE, THE WITCHES WHO

TRANSFORM TRASH INTO WEARABLE ART  WE, LIVING MUSEUM  OF

MODERN ODDITIES & SACRED MONSTERS. WE, VATOS CROMADOS Y

CHICAS NEO-BARROCAS. WE, BAD BOYS & BAD GIRLS

OVER 50, THE HOLLYWOOD REFUSENIKS, THE GREASER

BANDITS AND HOLY OUTLAWS OF ADVANCED CAPITALISM, WE,

AMERICA’S MOST WANTED, WITHOUT GUNS, WITHOUT

BIBLES.  WE, WHO

NEVER PRAY TO THE

POLICE OR TO THE

ARMY. WE, WHO NEVER

KISSED THE HAND

OF A BISHOP OR A

CURATOR.  WE, WHO

BARTER & EXCHANGE

FAVORS & TALISMANS.

WE, WHO STILL BELIEVE

IN COMMUNITY.

A MUCH STRANGER AND WIDER COMMUNITY. WE THE ARTISTS & INTELLECTUALS WHO

DON’T WISH TO COMPLY. WE, WHO TALK BACK IN RAREFIED SYMBOLS & METAPHORS

AGAINST THE CORRUPTION OF NORMALIZED RELIGION & ART.

WE, CRITICAL BRAIN MASS;SPOKEN WORD PROFETICA,

WE, THE URBAN MONKS WHO PRAY IN TONGUES & RAP

IN EXPERANTO. WE, WHO PUT ON HATS, MASKS & OUTRAGEOUS WIGS TO SHOUT: “YOU

JUST CAN’T TAKE MY ART AWAY.’ WE, WHO DANCE ON THE EDGE OF A CRATER AGAINST

THE RHYTHMS OF THE TIMES. WE, GOING CRAZY TO REMAIN SANE; LITERALLY DYING

FOR NEW IDEAS; PERFORMING AGAINST ALL

ODDS. WE, WHO SUDDENLY FREEZE! (PAUSE)

STANDING NAKED, RIGHT IN THE CENTER OF THE

STAGE OR THE STREET, WITH THE WORDS CARVED

ON OUR CHESTS: ‘PERFORMANCE ARTISTS: ‘WILL BLEED FOR FOOD’

‘OBSESSIVE ARTIST: WILL DIE FOR ONE IDEA,

WE CONTINUE TO TALK BACK, 

SPEAK UP & MAKE ART…

 

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz welcomes donations for her writing, photography, illustrations, eBook &amp; music composition

The PayPal donation button functions in Safari and Firefox, however is broken in Chrome.

bicycle before sunflowers

Carol Keiter
blogger’s contact card

Carol Keiter the blogger at a Climate March in nYc

Unbounded Spirit | Opposite of Addiction is Connection | Johann Hari “Chasing the Scream”

This short video “Drugs Don’t Cause Addiction” is one of the most profoundly accurate looks into our modern societal malaise and misguided notions about what is of value today. As the unbounded spirit acknowledges, “This Brilliant Animated Video Will Change Your View on Drugs Forever”, and I add, and Your View of Our Modern Society.

Everything We Think we Know About Addiciton is Wrong

Obviously much thought went into it, as this video project is a collaboration with Johann Hari, the author of the book “Chasing the Scream”. It reveals that pointing the finger of blame to ‘drugs’ or ‘the war on drugs’ is actually completely missing the point.

“Chasing the Scream” by Joann Hari – brilliant reviews

As is typical, the fingers are pointing in the opposite direction of the real problem. What we need to realize is that the real blame is our collective societal values of materialism over connection with others. As the western world has become more and more focused on material wealth and financial gain, this has been accompanied with increasing social isolation. The problem is not a drug, nor an individual addiction, but a collective one which has been driven by consumerism.

We need to rebuild our society towards values in which the individual derives happiness through accomplishments from actions in which he or she is engaged in which makes him/her happy and feel joy from emersion in that activity, and in which collectively we are sharing activities and experiencing joy through camaraderie and sympathy; recognizing that we are all living this life together and that only when all beings have peace, comfort and security can we all share in that joy.

Paraphrasing the video…

Addiction is just one symptom of the crisis of disconnection that is happening all around us.

People have an innate need to connect. When we’re happy and healthy we will bond with the people around us. Yet when we’re traumatized, isolated or beaten down by life, we will bond with something that will give us some sense of relief; such as:

Endlessly checking a cell phones

addiction to cell phones

addiction to pornography

addiction to video games

addiction to gambling

addiction to cocaine – drugs in general

because…as the video elucidates, we will bond with something, because THIS is our human nature.

Since the 1950’s the average number of close friends an American has, has been steadily declining, whereas the amount of floorspace in their homes has been increasing. Choosing floorspace over close friends, stuff over connection.

The path out of unhealthy bonds, is to form healthy bonds; to be connected to people you want to be present with.

It’s not the chemicals, it’s your cage.

We need not talk about individual recovery from addiction, but must talk about social recovery.

We need to change the unnatural way that we live.

The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, the opposite of addiction is connection.

I recall a ‘waking dream’ I had decades ago. It was not while I was sleeping, but during the day. I was witnessing what has since been created, virtual reality, before it existed. In the dream I was climbing a mountain. I could feel the breeze. The ‘camera’ pulled back so that I was then seeing myself from above, and then moved further away until I was high above my body looking down at myself and the earth. Then suddenly I was climbing out of a box, an isolation tank, in my living room. I then was disconnecting these wires from my scull. When I awoke from this engaging dream during the day while I was living in Washington D.C., I recall feeling very disturbed emotionally from the thought of having cheated myself by not ‘actually’ having the real experience of traveling to a mountain, and then to put out the effort to reach its summit. Instead, I was only alone in a box – the shell of the real experience. 

A few years later I was startled to watch a movie while I was traveling and visiting Europe called “Strange Days” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Days_(film) because it was recapturing the essence of the mechanics of how this ‘virtual reality’ of my vision and virtual experience occurred.

1995 film Strange Days

I have since continued to feel this conviction (even though I’m sitting here ‘working’ and writing, creating and communicating in isolation on my MacBook Pro – and loving and needing this machine – so I think 🙂 That if we don’t maintain a balance, our technologies will continue to isolate us from ourselves, from one another and from our connection to the natural world.

I had hypothesized that primitive people perhaps had not lost our special connection to the cosmos. A friend then pointed out to investigate my theory by looking at the aborigines of Australia. They once consistently demonstrated telepathy and ultra human powers of consciousness. As modern man relies more and more on our gadgets to do things for us, our human powers of mind and heart and connection to one another and the universal intelligence will atrophy. I believe human beings do have capabilities of telepathy and of connection with the divine through allowing ourselves to quite our minds and engage our spirits and heart – our sixth sense or intuition or gut instincts – whatever you want to call it. Yet, if our thoughts are constantly engaged and busy worrying about the past and the future and what we don’t have and judging one another and watching sitcoms and shit, we don’t have the time or space to tap into what is available to us as spiritual beings on the material physical plane. yep, I said it. I always thought it. And I keep finding other human beings who also reiterate and reverberate the same message….

This video was put together with http://www.patreon.com

patreon dot com description / kurzgesagt

http://addiction.mobydigg.de and the unbounded spirit.

Carol the blogger in her Moose-themed residence at her first WWOOF experience in Arizona

Here’s a pic of me, the blogger in my ‘moose lake lodge’ residence in the Sonoran desert where I’m participating in my first WWOOF experience on the Veteran’s Ranch, a means of avoiding homelessness while at the same time being very interested in learning about farming techniques from the pros – the people who run the farms and ranches – and I absolutely love and adore animals of every type.

When I’m not working with the animals or on my own projects, I’m taking pictures of sunsets.

Solitude and Serenity Sonoran Sunset Feb. 20th 2016

And I’ve started to take videos of the animals, with the incentive to capture the sounds, to then weave into some new music (sounds on the ranch 🙂

Carol Keiter aka nomadbeatz ~ As an avid blogger who is presently picking up where I left off with my eBook to complete it and and beginning again to compose music, I ask you rather unambiguously and unabashedly to please donate, if you are able. !-))

In addition to the fact that donations are always welcome and appreciated, I just discovered to day February 20th, 2016 patreon, which I am very happy to join and am about to create an artist profile. It is a very similar concept to something I conjectured a month or so ago: wishing there was an artist residency somewhere where the artists can collaborate if they choose, yet which is based on earning money for what they create. They are paid, as they commit to producing work. Well, patron is not a residency, yet it does offer capital, and I’m pretty stoked to have discovered it. Certainly it will act as a motivator for all artists, lighting a fire to keep them producing new work!!! I’ll sign on to patreon as a blogger/photographer/illustrator/author creating a profile tomorrow, and will be de light ed to find some patrons encouraging me to keep on producing work!

United States of Anxiety | the Commercial Messiah

Yet another mass shooting in the United States of Anxiety. Why did he do it? Where does the anger come from? or feelings of powerlessness?…Well, after watching the newscast which switched to a commercial break (which I usually mute and ignore), I looked at the commercials as a stranger in a strange land. Advertisements about happy, carefree, beautiful people who are laughing and having fun together … about to purchase more things to embellish their perfectly happy lives. I thought to myself; these messages are enough to drive a person who is already borderline weak and emotionally unstable, to feel even less worthy and more resistant & envious; magnifying what they lack, and increasing their loneliness and neediness…

I’m looking at this (shooting trend) not from a behavioral standpoint of an individual who’s been diminished and criticized with words by their parents -emotional abuse, physical abuse, or neglected completely – or as someone who perhaps all his/her life was deprived of comforts and security. I’m not looking at it from a psychological or chemical imbalance standpoint or the lack of nurturing families.

I’m just looking at it from the container of the cultural message packaged and sent out – of which TV is the most powerful medium – the lure of the commercials within the belly of this heavily lopsided consumerism bent world. The message; to buy more, purchase this or that and you’ll be happy. The message is laden with competition, to strive to be as cool as your peers.

Television and film/video is such a powerful medium: images fused with music to hit the emotional chords. The messages could be: the world is a wonderful place and we are in this together… kind and loving people here to help you and guide you… this world is awesome with all of its creatures and look at how happy and joyful you can be through the simplest activities. Well, yes, these messages are out there, and yes, one can turn off the television and electronic devices. Yet instead, the predominant messages coming from the TV is, if you don’t have this, or own that, you are ‘left out’ and socially bankrupt. If you don’t get in with the action and buy this or have this, you won’t get the attention you want and you won’t be able to pretend to fabricate this gleaming and glittering reality. If you are unattractive or weak or not in the ‘in crowd’, these commercial messages will be even more venomously received with anger and hatred.

That was my response looking at the commercials after listening to Obama’s words to the nation after yet another massacre. For the most part, the perpetrators of mass school killings are not doing it out of racism or inequality – they are typically caucasian males who randomly shoot without much care of the target. The killings seem to be rage from people who feel outcast within their own groups/schools/communities who see reality and their prospects as bleak.

Add the easy accessibility of guns to the equation and it gives the people with the anger, emotional rage, chemical imbalance or a history of being victims of torment and abuse the ability to easily carry out their impulsive or well-thought-out plans of (suicide / homicide ) with ease.

Buy what thou hast no need of

So I’m saying that this stems from the dis ease of the messages of rampant consumerism infiltrating our culture. It’s the slickness of the mirage that advertisers create for the companies who wish to sell their merchandise, at any cost. Okay, i’ve said enough, or not enough. Western culture is so bent on profit and short-term, short-sighted goals – at the risk of genuine human happiness and the welfare of all the different creatures that share our planet – that both the haves and the have-nots, have anxiety; the former, because of the threat of it being taken away, the latter, because of the material things dangling before them, which they can’t have.

 

Just a theory about a culture that keeps getting further and further away from the real, simple joys in life, enjoyment through sharing company with oneself, with others and with the natural world around them.

better place DaykEgner Mamasweed Kurci and Kay Degner

Go out into Nature and get Lost, without anything

Certainly this epidemic can not be reduced to blaming it on capitalistic commercialism. What’s the remedy? Go out into nature, without any electronic gadgets or stuff, and get lost.

Carol Keiter horse NYC Climate March ’14

mitakuye owasin | we are all related | the West has much to learn from Native American tradition

wow! Here’s a short article about how the Native American ‘Shapokee Mdewakanton Sioux community’ tribe in Minnesota, have shared the wealth from the riches they’ve gained through their casinos (a kind of taxation – except that the people are sitting around smoking and drinking and gambling ‘-). They’ve contributed to all of these fantastic progressive environmental and health programs and given money to other unrelated tribes and educational institutions. As the writer says, this tribe is keeping with the tradition of the Dakota Indian tribe which says ‘mitakuye owasin’, “we are all related”. This is a concept unfortunately terribly alien to our carnivorous and narcissistic, competitive and consumer-driven capitalist societies; in which we learn how to ‘use’ the other person, animal, resources until they are depleted, instead of the Native American way of taking only what one needs and respecting the source; sharing the rest (with other people, animals, the land, earth). Not to be wanton in glamorizing the natives, but as quoted “the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community have granted and loaned more than half a billion dollars to other tribes for economic development, and donated $14.5 million to the University of Minnesota for scholarships and a new football stadium. Far from its days of destitution, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community is setting an example any business would be wise to follow.” Just read about the various clever environmental programs they’ve developed and improvements in infrastructure. If other communities would follow suit, we would be creating jobs, educating the people and communities in instituting new programs, raising the level of health of people and the environments in which they live, to just create a higher quality of life. We, ‘Occidental European Western Culture’ have a lot to learn from the traditions of the Native Americans.

Read more: http://www.utne.com/arts-culture/shakopee-mdewakanton-sioux-community-zm0z12jazwar.aspx#ixzz21CAv2q27

Could be that we Really do have ! Too much Stuff !

Could be that we Really do have too much Stuff!

Sure, living in the ‘free world’ is great, we have so many opportunities and endless choices.  Just participating in America’s favorite pastime, shopping, can reveal how wonderful our life of excess really is.  Or is it?  Sometimes the simplest purchases can be a little overwhelming.  For example, when you just pop over to your local grocery store to say, pick up some tooth paste.  You find yourself becoming engrossed as you’re walking along an entire isle of merely different brands of toothpaste, trying to figure out which one to buy.  You scan the various colored packaging, slogans, highlights of which good-for-you natural ingredients are within, or additives which will whiten and brighten your smile to add more sex appeal to your life – ultimately most ads for every product from dish washing liquid to purchasing a new car will point to this latter detail.

You glance down at your watch, remembering that you need to get back home … and find yourself becoming a bit agitated that simply choosing a toothpaste has become a rather formidable time-consuming undertaking.

Well consider this.  With the number of things we buy to satisfy our desire to consume, beautify, display our fancy stuff; combined with the number of houses going into foreclosure, what happens if suddenly we’ve lost our home and no longer have a place to keep all of our stuff?  Suddenly all that we’ve accumulated has become a nuisance instead of a delight, a curse rather than a blessing.

George Carlin Talks About Stuff

Multiply all the stuff that we buy with the fact that in most cases, most items – particularly technical gadgets, have a built in obsolescence.  That means that they are meant to fall apart, in order for us to have to buy a new one.

What happens to all of the old carcasses of the electronic stuff that we’ve bought, well it has to be dumped somewhere.  And more and more it’s being dumped in our less wealthy neighbors’ countries.

this article talks about extoxics.

Not to mention, that at the beginning of this whole cycle of consumption, is the production of the materials, which in itself, puts a lot of strain on our environment.  In the case of computers, toxic sites are expanding right in the vicinity of where they’ve been produced in Silicon Valley, California.

It’s a whole cycle that has been brilliantly simplified for the purpose of educational clarity by Annie Leonard who researched the topic for 10 years and took it upon herself to bring to the publics’ awareness the topic of our environment, in order to update all the outdated textbooks that haven’t acknowledged our current crisis of ‘too much stuff’.

http://storyofstuff.com/

Maybe we better start adopting new ways of living, that recognize the simple fact, that the best things in life are free.  Health, beauty and happiness truly come from just living more simply, having a healthy diet and exercise routine and recognizing that education and awareness are what lead to dignity, self esteem and enjoyment of life.  A smile is much more potent than some material accessory propped by your side.

Creation, disregarding the complex interconnectedness of all life on this planetary organism on which we live, becomes destruction, which takes just seconds.

Though I originally wrote this blog in 2009, here’s an interesting article which reiterates the same theme. Written by Graham Hill and submitted to the New York Times in March 2013, “Living With Less, A Lot Less“.

Written by Carol Keiter, an American living in Berlin, Germany.