We live in a weird world. If you think about it (as I'm sure most of you have at some point), many of the everyday things we do are just plain... odd. Particularly as we don't pay any attention whatsoever to what comes before for after it.
Like buying a sandwich.
That's just weird.
Not that long before now, sandwiches were only attainable in the traditional way: buying bread, buying butter, buying meat/cheese, cutting bread, buttering bread, filling sandwich. A short while before that, most people would have grown the wheat and farmed the cow which gave the beef or cheese, in addition to the above steps.
Now, all we do is see sandwich, exchange money, have sandwich, eat, throw away plastic wrapper.
We have created a world in which the wast majority of us are completely out of touch with means of production for everything we use. As a consequence, we don't work for it. I'm not saying we don't earn it- which can be accounted for by the money we work in exchange for. But we are rarely involved with the creation of anything anymore.
Even the way we attempt to solve the problems that occur beyond the consumerverse seems very unattached. Give money, press button, African child's life is better. It's no wonder gap years are so popular- I don't think you can ever get rid of the human need to be involved with something that seems "real", and in this context, that means being phycially involved with charity rather that just throwing money at a problem.
I'm not saying any of this is necessarily a bad thing. It's probably neither good nor bad, on it's own. But it's worth considering the implications of the world of consumers where we live, where everything has already been made for us, and that which we leave behind is dealt with out of sight.
Is this shiny world of consumption we have woven around ourselves to blame for what is often a totally apathetic attitude towards the environmental problems of the age? Have we become so used to taking what we want from one depository and placing want we don't want in another, without having to be involved in what happens beyond the walls, that we simply can't comprehend the true implications of things like pollution, factory farming, or even poverty? If we saw where our waste went, would we waste less? Probably. If we saw where our food came from, would we be more inclined to do something about it? I suspect so. If we were more often involved with physically creating the material things we possess, would we value them more, and find ourselves in more sympathy with those without the ability to have what we have? I think we would.
Thus conclude my musings of the day. Apathy is bad. Avoid it at all costs.
Like buying a sandwich.
That's just weird.
Not that long before now, sandwiches were only attainable in the traditional way: buying bread, buying butter, buying meat/cheese, cutting bread, buttering bread, filling sandwich. A short while before that, most people would have grown the wheat and farmed the cow which gave the beef or cheese, in addition to the above steps.
Now, all we do is see sandwich, exchange money, have sandwich, eat, throw away plastic wrapper.
We have created a world in which the wast majority of us are completely out of touch with means of production for everything we use. As a consequence, we don't work for it. I'm not saying we don't earn it- which can be accounted for by the money we work in exchange for. But we are rarely involved with the creation of anything anymore.
Even the way we attempt to solve the problems that occur beyond the consumerverse seems very unattached. Give money, press button, African child's life is better. It's no wonder gap years are so popular- I don't think you can ever get rid of the human need to be involved with something that seems "real", and in this context, that means being phycially involved with charity rather that just throwing money at a problem.
I'm not saying any of this is necessarily a bad thing. It's probably neither good nor bad, on it's own. But it's worth considering the implications of the world of consumers where we live, where everything has already been made for us, and that which we leave behind is dealt with out of sight.
Is this shiny world of consumption we have woven around ourselves to blame for what is often a totally apathetic attitude towards the environmental problems of the age? Have we become so used to taking what we want from one depository and placing want we don't want in another, without having to be involved in what happens beyond the walls, that we simply can't comprehend the true implications of things like pollution, factory farming, or even poverty? If we saw where our waste went, would we waste less? Probably. If we saw where our food came from, would we be more inclined to do something about it? I suspect so. If we were more often involved with physically creating the material things we possess, would we value them more, and find ourselves in more sympathy with those without the ability to have what we have? I think we would.
Thus conclude my musings of the day. Apathy is bad. Avoid it at all costs.
Giving up anything for someone else, or for a greater purpose, is unpopular, shall we say. The 'You're worth it' generation has created an individualism which is never questioned.
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