It's frightening, sometimes, reading these books from WWII authors which so accurately reflect the world we're living in at the moment - The Plague, Steppenwolf, Red Badge of Courage. The banality of war, the docility of the public which just allows their governments to do as they please because responsibility takes effort and isn't always safe. The self-righteous man who condemns the murderer to death and doesn't see the murderer in himself. How history repeats, over and over, and how little we learn. I'm reading The Plague again; Tarrou is the man seeking sainthood. He watched his father condemn a terrified man to death, and swore from that day onward he would never advertently or inadvertently cause harm to anothr being. Ironically, because Fate is cruel, he dies of The Plague shortly after the epidemic is over, but at least he dies a saint. Is it possible to live in the world without causing harm to another? Of course, no-one would consider themselves a murderer, would not even wish to think it. The vegetarians who insist they are not supporting the killing or suffering of an animal while they smugly eat vegetables harvested by illegal migrant workers who are underpaid and hungering themselves. The eco-conscious middle-class who gasps in fashionable horror at the Walmart sweatshops - then goes to Nordstroms, or to McDonalds, not giving a second thought to the people struggling for minimum wage, or making the mass-produced products they're consuming. Hell, I'm sitting at a computer right now...who built it? Someone who later became disabled, and was then fired for disability? Because that's how corporations work; get rid of the cogs that don't work, get ones that do. Forget human feeling because that doesn't make money. I want off the treadmill. I want off the bandwagon. I don't want to buy my clothing, mass-produced stuff that looks hideous yet I'm told it's fashionable and therefore looks great; keep your Emperor's clothes. I don't want to eat food shipped from some poor soul's farm at a pittance to be sold for a fortune. I don't want GM'ed food. I don't want to buy a one bedroom flat with no charm for a quarter of a million pounds, stacked like a hamster with all the rest of the consuming hamsters in the same boxes all over in a smoggy city. Give me air, give me water, give me plants and flowers. Why should these things COST MONEY?? They're free, the earth provides it. There's more food on this planet than anyone could possibly eat, but at the end of the market day we throw it away rather than give it out for free. Things go out of fashion, we have a sale - and when the sale is over, the stuff is destroyed and the wreckage put in a landfill. Not that the low-impact life is any better. Ironically, it costs even more. And now that such a thing is in fashion, everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Pharmaceutical companies patenting formulas for herbal products that every midwife alive knew about for years but now can't use due to copyrights. You need a degree for it now, and herbal medicine costs twice as much as traditional. Natural undyed cotton clothing costs big. So does organic food. So does fairtrade (which actually isn't very fair if you do your research on it). Bottom line - make the money. What really pisses me of is the apathy. The fact that everyone in the world can look at what their governments are doing, and just shrug their shoulders. The way the goth folks think it's "hippy-ish" to actually give a shit about something more than music or clothes or mind-altering substances. What, you mean you just sit around tables and talk about shit, but have no plans to back up all your oh-so-educated-thinking with actions? Now THAT's bs... I do what I can. I buy locally. I don't buy clothing anymore from big stores for myself - I sew my own when I can, and buy cheap things for my son as he grows out of them quickly, mostly from charity shops - which means I don't buy the latest crap gothic line of clothing made out of crushed velvet, guaranteed to fall apart within two weeks. One, the stuff isn't original, two, it's all bandwagon-stuff anyway; gothic items are a big seller, from dresses to hair dye to porn. I use public transportation. I stopped working for lawyers - talk about contributing to the Enemy. But am I doing enough? Is it possible to do more without just living on a mountaintop eating grass? Am I wrong to like my expensive boots? My MAC makeup and hairdye? To enjoy my expensive port? Is it possible to live a passionate enjoyable life and yet harm no-one in the process? LuCyFurr
It's frightening, sometimes, reading these books from WWII authors which so accurately reflect the world we're living in at the moment - The Plague, Steppenwolf, Red Badge of Courage. The banality of war, the docility of the public which just allows their governments to do as they please because responsibility takes effort and isn't always safe. The self-righteous man who condemns the murderer to death and doesn't see the murderer in himself. How history repeats, over and over, and how little we learn.
I'm reading The Plague again; Tarrou is the man seeking sainthood. He watched his father condemn a terrified man to death, and swore from that day onward he would never advertently or inadvertently cause harm to anothr being. Ironically, because Fate is cruel, he dies of The Plague shortly after the epidemic is over, but at least he dies a saint.
Is it possible to live in the world without causing harm to another? Of course, no-one would consider themselves a murderer, would not even wish to think it. The vegetarians who insist they are not supporting the killing or suffering of an animal while they smugly eat vegetables harvested by illegal migrant workers who are underpaid and hungering themselves. The eco-conscious middle-class who gasps in fashionable horror at the Walmart sweatshops - then goes to Nordstroms, or to McDonalds, not giving a second thought to the people struggling for minimum wage, or making the mass-produced products they're consuming. Hell, I'm sitting at a computer right now...who built it? Someone who later became disabled, and was then fired for disability? Because that's how corporations work; get rid of the cogs that don't work, get ones that do. Forget human feeling because that doesn't make money.
I want off the treadmill. I want off the bandwagon. I don't want to buy my clothing, mass-produced stuff that looks hideous yet I'm told it's fashionable and therefore looks great; keep your Emperor's clothes. I don't want to eat food shipped from some poor soul's farm at a pittance to be sold for a fortune. I don't want GM'ed food. I don't want to buy a one bedroom flat with no charm for a quarter of a million pounds, stacked like a hamster with all the rest of the consuming hamsters in the same boxes all over in a smoggy city.
Give me air, give me water, give me plants and flowers. Why should these things COST MONEY?? They're free, the earth provides it. There's more food on this planet than anyone could possibly eat, but at the end of the market day we throw it away rather than give it out for free. Things go out of fashion, we have a sale - and when the sale is over, the stuff is destroyed and the wreckage put in a landfill.
Not that the low-impact life is any better. Ironically, it costs even more. And now that such a thing is in fashion, everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Pharmaceutical companies patenting formulas for herbal products that every midwife alive knew about for years but now can't use due to copyrights. You need a degree for it now, and herbal medicine costs twice as much as traditional. Natural undyed cotton clothing costs big. So does organic food. So does fairtrade (which actually isn't very fair if you do your research on it). Bottom line - make the money.
What really pisses me of is the apathy. The fact that everyone in the world can look at what their governments are doing, and just shrug their shoulders. The way the goth folks think it's "hippy-ish" to actually give a shit about something more than music or clothes or mind-altering substances. What, you mean you just sit around tables and talk about shit, but have no plans to back up all your oh-so-educated-thinking with actions? Now THAT's bs...
I do what I can. I buy locally. I don't buy clothing anymore from big stores for myself - I sew my own when I can, and buy cheap things for my son as he grows out of them quickly, mostly from charity shops - which means I don't buy the latest crap gothic line of clothing made out of crushed velvet, guaranteed to fall apart within two weeks. One, the stuff isn't original, two, it's all bandwagon-stuff anyway; gothic items are a big seller, from dresses to hair dye to porn. I use public transportation. I stopped working for lawyers - talk about contributing to the Enemy. But am I doing enough? Is it possible to do more without just living on a mountaintop eating grass? Am I wrong to like my expensive boots? My MAC makeup and hairdye? To enjoy my expensive port?
Is it possible to live a passionate enjoyable life and yet harm no-one in the process?
LuCyFurr
