Consumerism, Again

sylvar / Foter / CC BY-NC

Gather around because it's time for my annual rant on consumerism. Here is how the story goes: Asian factories, which generally treat people like dirt, pump out millions of cheap goods. These products are then transported by container ships, which burn heavy diesel, to the U.S. Once in America (which is blessed by God because we are nice to Israel) the goods are then sold in retail stores. These stores typically pay workers below-poverty-line wages, so the employees must either live with mom and dad or get some type of government assistance.

On Thanksgiving Day, happy Americans give long, rambling prayers about how they are thankful for all the crap they have. But by 6 p.m., in a ritual now known as "Gray Thursday," they are in the stores buying more crap, and are helped by retail workers who are paid crap. And the point of this? Because buying and hoarding crap gives people a momentary high. But the high quickly goes away and then people need MORE CRAP. And meanwhile, there are prosperity preachers that give fiery sermons about how God wants us to have crap because that's how he blesses us. Never mind the fact that we are going to have plenty of CRAP waiting for us in heaven if we say the three-sentence salvation prayer. What a good fuckin' deal.

Religion

This leads to my second favorite rant topic, which is religion. Now, for the record, I will say there is nothing wrong with pure deism, which is to believe in God, and that's it. The problem begins when people wrap a story around their God and everyone starts saying their story is the only CORRECT story.

Every day I read the newspaper and every day I find several articles related to religious conflict. Thus, I cannot help but believe that if you take away the religion you'll take away a great source of adversity in this world. Maybe, then, we could have more peace.

Furthermore, when I think about the totally needless and pointless war on gays, I can only come to one conclusion: RELIGION IS ALL ABOUT ENFORCING CULTURAL CONFORMITY. Or, put another way, religion is simply a form of social control.

Cigarettes

When I see smoke billowing out of cars, I know what will happen next, and, sure enough, it always does. The window goes down a little more and I see a cigarette butt flung into the street. Then, if I'm behind the same car long enough, I'll see more smoke coming from the cracked window.

Smoking harms in four ways — people are littering, polluting the air, harming themselves, and hurting others with second-hand smoke.

There is one absolute about smoking — it's impossible to smoke without being stupid. This is a nonnegotiable statement, without exception.

The biggest challenge for me right now is to deal with the anger I have for smokers. When I see them flick their butts out on the road, or when they are at a store entrance and I can't avoid their smoke, I just have to relax and not think about it. Most of these people will die prematurely and painfully by their own hand. Some will say the three-sentence prayer and at least get a mansion in their next life, but in this life all they've succeeded in doing is adding to the litter and air quality problems and maybe giving a few people cancer (maybe like their own children). It's not much of a legacy.

Ahhhhh.....

Okay, I feel better having ranted about three of my top pet peeves. I feel relaxed and happy again. I shall now fly to the nearest pond and have a few minnows for breakfast.

Note: I have vowed to no longer use copyrighted photos in my blog. All images are either taken by myself or used through a Creative Commons, non-commercial license. Photographers are always credited and I thank them for allowing me to use their work.

Animal Compassion

27147 / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Among the many things that keep me melancholy is our horrific industrialized food system. Chickens, pigs, and cattle live short lives in concentration camp like conditions and then face grim deaths.

Now, I am not a vegetarian by any means. I am an evolutionist and appreciate the role we all have in the food chain. However, I believe that the animals we eat should be treated with respect and compassion. After all, they are giving us protein and keeping us alive.

Chick-Fil-A

Now, if I were a Christian, and thank God I am not, I would see my compassion for animals as a natural extension of my compassion to fellow humans. You can't have compassion for one group and not the other without having a major disconnect and moral lapse. So, in the case of Chick-Fil-A, here is a Christian company that is so upset about those kissy, smooching guys marrying one another, but they don't seem so worried about the savagery of industrialized chicken farming.

Millions of chickens destined for one of the more than 1,600 Chick-fil-A outlets [Cathy] controls will spend the day packed wing-to-wing in dark, stifling warehouses, wallowing in their own excrement and bred to grow so fast that some of them can’t even support their own weight.  — Christopher Moraff

Now, respectfully shoving Christianity aside, I do not see how you can be a complete, balanced, and moral human being without giving compassion to both your planet and fellow animals, in addition to fellow humans.

And do conservative Christians really give compassion to fellow humans anyway? Well, not if you are a Palestinian, gay, immigrant, food stamp user, environmentalist, Democrat, liberal, etc... And when compassion is given, it is often because "God likes it" instead of "it's the right thing to do." Or maybe people just want a three-car garage in their heavenly mansion instead of a two-car garage.

Turkey Day

Our culture is full of traditions that we practice regularly and rarely question. As for Thanksgiving, it is one of those WTF holidays. Even Christmas makes more sense than Thanksgiving. So, here we are in 1621 enjoying the first Thanksgiving with the native Americans, and soon afterwards we are killing them, giving them diseases, stealing their land, swindling them, giving them firewater, and then shoving the survivors in an unwanted territory called Oklahoma. Let's be thankful for the few Indians who survived, for they provide us with something to name our sports teams after.

Oh, and why do Americans need a feast once a year when we feast every day? For the most part, Americans are disgustingly fat and feast regularly thanks to drive-thru windows. The medical industry has MUCH to be thankful for because they make millions treating all the diabetes, heart disease, and other obesity related illnesses.

Last but not least, am I the only one who finds the president's annual pardoning of a turkey just totally fucked up? I mean, hello, is just everyone gone crazy in this country? What about the millions of turkeys who are raised in brutal conditions, like the poor chickens mentioned above? Is anyone going to pardon them? No, we just run into the grocery store two days before the holiday and expect one to be in the open freezer. And sure enough, there they are, all shrink wrapped in plastic, and ready for the gravy and stuffing. If you want a turkey, go hunt it or buy a free range animal. And when you are at the dinner table saying grace, don't thank God for the meal. Thank the turkey. He's the one who gave his life for you — not some imaginary, mythological deity.

Post Industrialism

Brandon Christopher Warren / Foter / CC BY-NC

Even if we stopped polluting the Earth today, the artificial poisons we've placed into our air, soil, and water will haunt us for milleniums. Our planet is a rare, pristine jewel, floating through space, and we've already fouled it, perhaps forever.

So, no wonder I go through life melancholy. I have to live with the guilt that I'm part of the problem. Although I've tried to become part of the solution, I'm sucked into and enslaved by this industrial world and I can't seem to escape it.

I think about all the shampoo, household cleaners, and other chemicals that are going down my septic tank and straight into the soil. Yes, I do try to buy plant-based cleaners instead of petroleum-based products, so maybe I'm helping a little. But then there's shaving cream, face cleanser, and dozens of other products we all use — going down the drain where many of the artificially made chemicals will remain forever.

Do the Evolution Dance, Baby

Since I began my blog in 2004 the dominant theme has been environmental sustainability, but lately I've expanded it to the topic of social evolution. The subject fascinates me.

First and formost, I see religion, the turning of mythology into hard beliefs, as some sort of odd byproduct of our evolution. Somewhere in our early development religion must have provided some evolutionary advantage. For instance, maybe the social order provided by religion provided tribes with a stronger hierarchy and gave them an edge in war or general survival.

But the great irony of religion is that while it helped us get through the early years of our development it's now on the verge of destroying us. This is quite possibly why our radar satellites are not picking up intelligent life in the Universe. For, the religion that evolves us and leads us to intelligence ultimately kills us.

The daily newspaper is full of articles about religious violence. The Big Three religions fight one another, and even factions within the same religion, such as Shiites and Sunnis, kill one another. Religion is synonymous with violence, but then I have had Christians and Muslims look me straight in the eye and say they follow a religion of peace. What the fuck? Our only hope is to eradicate this destructive social disease from our culture.

New Beginnings

I'm hopeful that with the election behind us we can begin focusing on our environmental problems like global climate change. Reducing our carbon emissions will require a major realignment in the way we live. We simply arrived to where we are at today through a sort of industrial evolution, with no plan or thought for how we would impact the future. We just started driving cars in the 1890s with no worries that there would be billions of them 120 years later. We had no idea that our global population would jump from 2 billion to 7 billion in just a handful of decades. It all just happened. We didn't think it out. And now we live in a totally unsustainable world. There is NO WAY we can continue dumping all sorts of crap into the trash, flushing chemicals down the toilet, and then expect to live like this indefinitely.

It will be exciting as we re-engineer our lives and find a way to live peacefully with each other and our world in the post-industrial age. I envision a slower, quieter world with lots of small, local farms, solar panels, and wind turbines. People will get out and start walking again. Right now, the obesity epidemic should tell us something is deeply wrong with our society. I hope I don't offend too many folks by saying this, but I'm tired of looking at fat people — they are a living symbol of a society gone totally bad. In the new, green world people will again be walking and working with their hands. And they'll be eating healthier.

And as for the end of Hostess Twinkies -- good riddance! The old age of obesity, laziness, and stuffing whatever tastes good into your mouth is going away. And a new, healthier, happier age is arriving.

Right Wing Fear

seyed mostafa zamani / Foter / CC BY

As Ronald Reagan's America continues to unravel I am finding deep satisfaction. Those with rational minds are finally making progress against a generation that holds onto their childhood lies rather than embracing the future. My gut feeling is that logic would always prevail, and this prediction appears to be coming true.

The "conservative right" is a euphemism for fear. The breadbasket folks of America are afraid of change, afraid of the future, and afraid of what might happen if they let go of their mythology. These people still remain the guardians of the dominent American culture but their "base," you know, the one that propelled George W. Bush into power, is shrinking. Now, they are freaked out.

There are always "fear" tools that are in style, which the right wing places into their own mental psyche because being afraid of something is the only way they know how to live. After Obama's reelection last week I heard from some relatives who said they were going to "buy a gun" or get a "concealed weapon permit." For, without fear they could not function as the victims.

First, let me address their favorite "fear of the week," which is the Muslim plan for world domination. As for me, I don't worry about this at all. I know that ALL religions are invented by men. I know that as humanity continues to socially evolve, Islam will lose steam, unravel, and go away just like all other religions. Islam and the Arab nations are simply behind the cycle. Christianity has already gone through its angry, reactionary, violent phase and is now in deterioration. In many Western nations only its shell remains. And Islam is simply a couple of decades behind.

I predict that religion will simply evolve away ....

But there are other fears. The one that makes me laugh is the fear that God is going to take his "blessing" away from the U.S. because of abortion and homosexual marriage. My first question is, why did God "bless" atheist Russia with so much natural gas and Muslim Saudi Arabia with so much oil? I thought God didn't like those guys. But this gets back to the point — when you follow religion you CAN NOT follow any type of logic.

Then, there are more fears, like the fear of crime, so all the Christians, who follow the teachings of a pacifist Christ, go out and buy guns. Then, the deaths by gun accidents and "moments of rage" actually become greater than the deaths by evil gunmen who break into your house late at night wearing Obama masks.

There are actually so many fears that I can't discuss them all now. All I can say is that I'm deeply happy that I don't live a life of fear. I am glad that I am not haunted by imaginary enemies. I don't believe that hippies and occupiers are going to hand our country over to the communists. I don't fear that the socialists are going to take my gun away, brainwash my children, and turn us all into pot smoking heathens.

So, for all of my fellow Americans, who happen to be paranoid, Fox News-addicted gun fanatics, all I can say is "let go." Besides, your God is supposed to protect you anyway, so you are simply not showing enough faith. Yikes, once again I bit you in the ass with your own circular logic. Sorry, guys.

Vanity

I've been obsessed with watching WWII documentaries and clips on YouTube. The German army particularly interests me. They had all the training, political indoctrination, cool uniforms, and best equipment. Yet, they were fighting a war on three fronts and were simply swarmed by the greater numbers of their enemies. Their factories were simply outproduced by the factories of their opponents.

First of all, during my Christian upbringing I was told several times that the Nazis lost because they were evil. But I have been fascinated with WWII nearly all my life and have studied it since age 12. The fact is that the Nazis won battles and lost battles. Ultimately, they lost due to poor strategic decisions. I can't say that they lost due to "luck" because both the Allies and Axis had good and bad "luck," as well as unintended surprises during their campaigns. In key campaigns, both sides often failed to think far enough ahead, and in war, it's simply impossible to factor in every conceivable contingency. So, God didn't have to help beat the Nazis at all. Their own mistakes and the vast industrial capacity of their enemies defeated them. It's all about the matériel that you can bring up to the front line for a given battle — that is ultimately the bottom line.

Second, the vanity of the entire war amazes me. All those young German men, in their sharp uniforms, were simply slaughtered on the massive Eastern Front. Their impressive Tiger tanks were simply swarmed by the less expensive and more numerous Soviet T-34 tanks. These men were marching for an evil cause to begin with and were fighting an unwinnable war. I can only imagine the hopelessness that they secretly felt inside.

Such is my life. There is the vainness of seeing the climate behave exactly as climatologists predicted, yet there is little political or public will to do ANYTHING about global warming. There is the vainness of seeing the prophesy-obsessed fundamentalist Christians whoop and hollar about the "last days," as they create their own, self-fulfilling prophesies.

There is the vainness of unrequited love. To love another with passion and ferocity, in a love that's so logical that one is confused when the love is not reciprocated. It is like the knight who loves the damsal, and then gallops off to the next battle to face his death. While the poets call it beautiful, it's not beautiful at all. It is simply vain.

Perhaps all of life is vain, and we simply have a problem admitting it. We fight on, all knowing the inevitable outcome. Despite our nice outfits and neat appearance, despite the smiling, chipper facade we can muster on the surface, we are broken on the inside. Why, because some of us are cursed with too much intelligence and a forever pondering mind, and we've figured out what no one else wants to admit —it's all in vain.