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.