by hmwut » Fri Jan 16, 2015 12:59 pm
moral consumption isn't a luxury, it's a necessity. that anyone can argue otherwise is an effect of a sad system designed to distort truth and exploit individual from start to finish. using and consuming things that are free of human or animal suffering is incredibly easy for the western individual, especially today. we just don't care enough or don't have the time to find sources. both are consequences of the society we live in, where agricultural and crafting tradition is decimated and locally sustained farms and businesses have been hounded out by global supercorporations.
this applies to clothes. in fact it's hard to find an industry where this model has not been followed. craftsman is destroyed by corporation, tradition of craft decays and is forgotten, corporation uses vacuum of knowledge to exploit laborer and consumer. it's the way of modernity.
our bodies are awesome, self-sustaining machines. we need to consume very little. food and water primarily, not much of it. the rest is frivolous. corporations have turned us through the promises of advertising into overworked gluttons and lined their pockets with our fat. you don't need all these fucking clothes, you don't need this big fucking house, you don't need all these god damn things. they ultimately only serve to confuse, isolate, and desensitize you.
we all know about the industrial slavery that exists in asia as a result of our culture of consumption. despite this we still let it happen every day. we still buy from h&m, we still eat at mcdonalds, we still talk about and advocate businesses built on countless graves. why? i think here lies the problem of globalization and globalized economy. we are connected by our wallets primarily, not much else. we do not come into contact in our lifetime with those whose suffering we actively contribute to, let alone our day to day existence. this isolation is not coincidental. it is an active component in the exploitation of both of us.
here is the crux of modern oppression. divide and conquer. not a new strategy, but the methods used are. technology has allowed for powerful means of isolating people. it is very discomforting that i have never seen the face of the maker of practically everything i have bought in my life. if there even was a face instead of metal. this is the reality we live in. we can live every day alone in a room, never seeing another. and when you do not see, you cannot care.
people with only their boss's best interests in mind are all over the internet looking for your money. digital modes of consumption are disgusting in their waste. imagine how much cardboard, plastic, gas, chemicals, manpower is used to support digital consumerism, to support arbitrary convenience. we've seen already the amount of damage modern consumption has done to our environment, and with this emerging culture of digital consumption it will only escalate faster and faster. more people will suffer, more will waste, more power will be given to those who do not have our best interests in mind.
how we live is unsustainable. terrifyingly so. widespread environmental destruction, poverty and slavery, war, famine, nuclear armageddon are all intimate threats of our lifetime if not realities. conspicuous consumption is only one facet of a schema gone awry. keep track of the news, nearly every major event today is the systemic product of this toxic culture we actively participate in. when it all falls apart, those we gave all our money and power to will abandon us in gated fortresses and we will be left alone to deal with an exhausted and poisoned planet. rightly so for us, because it's been our fault all along. but the poor and "undeveloped" of the world will suffer far more, as they've always done.
our society is artificially sustained by high consumption. we're buying into the lie that we can keep doing this when we're increasingly aware we can't. we keep doing it though, i think, because we're terrified of the unknown after. marx and engels talked about socialism not as an alternative to capitalism, but the logical end result of it. whether or not they're right is yet to be seen. the fact is though, we live right now at a crossroads of society. change is coming, if we do not make it the environment will. and if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
the problem of conspicuous consumption and the exploitative labor that naturally follows it begins and ends with you. the wealthy westerner. reuse, consume less or not all. learn how to make and make, if you need to buy, buy local and in person. there are many ways to address the problem but only you can determine how to act specifically in your environment. think for yourself. use your own senses and thoughts to find value and trustworthiness. no one else can do that for you.
specifically to clothing, if you live in america or europe you have access to a huge range of locally made, fair-priced, quality pieces. you know the names. there is no reason you shouldn't be buying from these vendors, if you need to buy at all. which you more often than not don't.
build your own house. grow and cook your own food. make your own clothes. make your own identity. make not buy. who you are is not the sum of your wealth. refuse exploitative systems and seek better ones. educate yourself on your personal cultural heritage, how your ancestors lived their lives free of contemporary corporate influence. the internet is a good resource for this, the library is a better one.
look to eastern schools of thought such as buddhism and daoism for flintstone on consumption and living in general. there is a reason why these ways have survived for 5000+ years. they work.
most importantly, come together. take part in your community, do things with and for the people who live around you. you need them as much as they need you.
everything written here is something i've personally struggled with and am especially criminal of. i do not wish to be high and mighty, i simply wish to convey some recent conclusions i've made in the hope i speak some truth. in fact i'd like to thank care-tags and it's community for prompting me to question certain ways about how i lived. the way we live today and the means we use to do so are very unsettling.
tangential stuff:
Last edited by
hmwut on Fri Jan 16, 2015 1:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.