Monday, April 04, 2005

Ironie du sort

I am finding myself in an ironic situation: beginning to earn some money from my lectures - which pretend to help people raising their awareness above the non sustainable capitalistic consumeristic patterns - I caught myself getting trapped precisely in one of these patterns: the strange urge to buy with the money I earn, to fulfill some new needs which did not exist before the money was there, the need to earn more to replace and to increase the money I spend, and the consequential stress associated with the whole thing...
 
Posted by Djaloki at 01:37:20 | Permanent Link | Comments (2) |
Comments
1 - hmmm, I think you have been in America too long. American culture is defined as "democracy of the market...the freedom to exercise your choice of society and personal life style through products". once you have been here long enough how can you help but join the culture. it is what you do, observe and try to relay your message in the voice that can be heard. but the medium of communication here is itself a trap. that is the completness of the U.S. and its way of life. Try to advertise a new way and it is either bought and sold just like any other product or it is passed over. Try to mass produce it to get to more markets and you have lost the original value. Try to make better commercials and you just look like you are a sensationalist or evangelical priest. Try to change the package to make it more appealing or to make the message ride easier and the impact is lost. but either way even a new message is just a product here. As you said that day we talked, we are caught in the trap of choice. too many. So, what does one do when one has money? what everybody else does, goes out and interacts in society. casts a vote at the ballot box of the cash register. Hey, and we even get a receipt to show how we voted.

this is just the flip side of the coin as to how we are all judged by external appearances. What we wear, how we keep our hair, what we drive or don‘t drive, even what we eat is all judged as a sign of how one votes on a day to day basis.

There are those that clearly, by action and dress, don‘t vote. these are the "dissenfranchised" people. The homeless, the poor, the very ecentric. They are at once feared and awed. and both for the same reason that they represent something outside of the system that traps and dictates how life has to be channeled. Life in this america is predetermined and overdetermined. the color of blankets that cover the baby determines how people will treat them from the start. It seems that only grandma can make the homemade sweater or blanket that doesn‘t conform to set patterns and get away with it. because she is already on her way out of society and both doesn‘t have to conform and is given a pat on the head for having conformed so long. she has earned her right to be her own person. Grandpa never gets a chance because he dies too soon.

but, spending and buying are not the real problem. we have to live. we have to eat and cloth ourselves to function. since we don‘t barter anymore we have to use money and go out to central places to shop. the problem is when the goal to spending and buying is to have something. being attached to the owenership of the things we buy is the problem.

Tools are something we have to have to build. even my computer is just a tool. all my worldly things can fit in a 12 foot by 30 foot room. that is the size of my apartment. and most of that space is empty or my bed. but i have even had a problem with that much stuff. tools lose their value if they just sit. so now i am gardening again for a while so that i can grow beauty with my tools and enjoy being part of the cycle of nature that grows and dies and grows again.

so if you have some more things that you buy while you are here that can help build your life and carry your message there is nothing wrong with that. i am sure you could never buy so much that it becomes useless items just sitting around. and if you do get lost in the american medium of communication for a while then I am sure it is not forever. just look at it and understand just how big the trap is for the rest of the world.

Chris
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Written by: Chris at 2005/04/04 - 21:07:34
2 - mwah hah hah hah!!!!!!!!!!

funny how that works, isn't it? and not so funny, too. when i, with all sorts of good notions about the world and not much money, anyway, find myself addicted to shopping all of a sudden, i wonder, HOW THE HELL can people who actually own stuff give that up? and if we don't, what hope is there?

okay, this is maybe why i haven't been writing on MY blog lately. a little too bleak in outlook.

dja, tell me. is port au prince a war zone right now? so a friend reports to me. be well, love. (Comment this)

Written by: casey at 2005/05/31 - 07:53:06
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