A friend said today “i have a few wind-powermills a few km. from my house and they make a lot of noise, my dog won´t even go near them”.
I said: “Yes, but isn´t that a small price to pay for getting environmental friendly electricity?”
She answered: “Well, that´s exactly what´s wrong with all this “green power” fuzz. It can be compared to us desperatly trying to find a cure for cancer, but it neever occured to us to eliminate the reasons we GET cancer in the first place.
We don´t reflect on that we maby are using to MUCH electricity in the first place and now we are off trying to create even more power sources so the market kan keep pouring out even MORE electric appliances we don´t need.”
She continued; “We create new energy resources in the name of progress. never reflecting on that it may be us minimizing power consumtion instead that would be the better solution.”
I have thought a lot about that today.
It´s true. We create a lot of problems by “overconsumption” in general.
Now, i would never go as far as to say “let´s be communists, have a plan economy and minimize use of all resources and share them evenly throughout the world”. (Oh, that sounded a little tempting, but we all know it simply does not work.)
What i´m saying is, that humans has a tendency of never stopping before something brakes.
The stock market “needs” to maximize profit, althought it would be better off lowering its demands on profit by a third, (still allowing individuals to be billionares) using that third to create a more balanced use of our common recourses. Doing so would create a stable, sustainable and prosperous stock market too! But NOOO…they have to MAXMIZE it. Just because they can. Never thinking twice about the long term consequenses. The Quarter economy culture may the the most destructive force on earth. The A-bomb included. At least the A-bomb is just an abstract and unreleased threat so far, while the uncontrolled greed of the big finance is killing hundreds of thousands every single day.
Today they invent, invent, invent, invent, creating a need, creating a need, creating a need, in consumers. By marketing marketing marketing marketing. Pushing the mechanism harder and harder. Leaving us less and less room to think and live by our own choices. And it never ends. It just keep increasing. The noise of “big-market-brother” pushing you into place. You hear it? Do you obey? Of course you do. We all do.
The market keeps pushing us into a corner, making us dependant. Controlling every dollar they rip out of our pockets. We are reduced to cows, brought in for milking whenever they feel like it. There is almost no free will left, coming to cunsumption. You just turn down one offer to accept the next one. There is always a next one you see.
All this OVER-consumption is mostly completly useless, as they invented everything we needed to have comfortable lives DECADES ago (fridges, stoves, central heating, hot showers and comfortable bathrooms etc.). But now… “new” electronic appliances are sold, that are not critical for us to get by in our everyday life anymore. We just… BUY it… use it until it breaks and then get a new one.
Automatic egg-boilers, low quality mp3-players, shitty plastic toys for children, you know what i mean…billions and billions of such things are just POURED out from third world factories. Just making a mess. Making no one happier.
We just… consume for the short thrill of having consumed. Would you really say that this has any deeper meaning or purpose for sustaining our happiness?
Are you suprised we have an energy shortage around the world?
Try to understand, that i do not preach communism. I´m just trying to make sense of something that has gone really bad. The market has made us shopoholics just to sustain itself. Yes. All of us. Because we buy a lot of stuff without any special thought. We buy things that makes no difference to us, our parents, the kids we are giving all the shit to etc. We just….buy.
If we could calm that tendency down, just a bit, just a bit. By say… a third. Then the world envorinment would no longer be at risk. BUT! -The world finances would collaps immediatly of course.
So we are all in the deathgrip of growth. It will eventually blow up in our faces.
Of course.
How could anyone claim differently. A 7-year old can understand this.
So. We are heading for a fall. A bad one. You don´t believe that peoples consumtionhabits will change over night do you?
We are simply killing the world with overconsumption, stock-market profit-maximizing and pure old greed.
It feels good to have understood this. It´s not open for debate. It´s a fact.
How would your arguments sound if you tried to convince me that i´m wrong?
“Well, Stefan.. i´ts not that bad, you know, people must be allowed to have automatic eggboliers, it will be fine.”
You reeeeally think so?
Naaah.. you don´t..:-) I know you know that i´m right about this.
We have to either lower the intensity of our consumtion, (collapsing the world economy, getting wars and poverty all over the place) or we can continue inventing, consuming and increasing the growth and erosion on the envoronment more and more… and that will eventually of course ALSO bring us to war, poverty and financial destruction.
Either way, the world will take a beating. I prefer the first option myself, because it leaves us with a chance of creating a lifestyle afterwards, with completly different values.
A life, where we use just enough appliances and high tech to make healthy food (no stupid, not over fireplaces in wooden huts and such new-age piss, im still talking a fairly modern life here), have some computers for integration and communication, and some environmentaly-friendly transportation options. For us to be warm, dry, well educated, civilized, clean and healthy.
The future of our evolution you see… is going to take place inside our mind, developing our human skills of empathy, responsability, respect, care and love. That will bring us forward as a specie.
Eggboilers, SUV:s, American Idol, plastic toys, glossy magazines and daytime soaps will not.
Of course.
No, i´m not a hippie. I just recieved an important letter, containing a message from my heart inside. It was the message of insight, truth, hope and love. I read the message, and agreed.
Do you agree?
/Stefan
