In Canada's cities, homeowners passively enriched by exploding house prices still go to Costco and Wal-Mart for bulk goods while complaining about property tax increases. They impoverish the lives of others, destroy local shops and live with housefuls of shoddy goods because they are worshipping that Canadian idol, the Cheap god.
And by the way, the problem isn't plastic bags. The problem is that plastic bags are free. If they cost $5 each, trust me, people would pull them out of tree branches and hoick them out of the mouths of poor strangling fish already marinated in mercury. They'd probably frame them.
Heather Mallick quoted a "product-drunk" culture and a "junktastic ideology" from Mark Mumford, who had much to say...
We are not the slightest bit trained to care about waste, excess, the mindless accumulation of needless things. The notion of simplifying, of saying no, of intentionally and mindfully choosing to keep ourselves free of all the superfluous crap that's hurled at us by a product-drunk culture is so far from our junktastic ideology it is, as evidenced by my cashier's baffled reaction, nearly unthinkable.
Free plane ticket! Free iPod! Free colonoscopy! Free tank of gas! Free extra set of cheap useless knives when you buy the two other sets of cheap useless knives! Free supersizing of your Coke! Free upgrade to premium membership when you commit to a 10-year contract! Pay no money whatsoever! Seriously! No money at all! All we ask in return: countless, endless chunks of your time, your brain, your intelligence, your health, your soul, your respect for nature, just a little bit of your ability to think and feel and care about the world. Come on now, is that too much to ask?
Link to the article: Totally Free! Click Here Now!
My thoughts on these articles are still being formulated....
2 comments:
your blog is awesome. both interesting and challenging. mine's just pedestrian babbling. pretty mindless.
hope you had fun in the states. call on me this evening, will you?
cam
Do you know what I was thinking about today? Diapers....they are so wasteful...a baby pisses once and we throw out something that will never biodegrade....when everything is plastic nowadays, it is frightening to think what will become of us in 50 years...I bet we will have to colonize Uranus pretty damn quickly. But, then again, could I use cloth diapers for my baby...plastic ones are so so so convienent.
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