We’ve made the Earth our bitch by exploiting resources and habitats instead of adjusting to them. How are we ever going to evolve again if we keep forcing our environment to suit us rather than adapting to it like all the rest of nature? We’ve nearly killed all the fish and the buffalo. While we keep supporting the corporations that dump all the sludge all over the world, we give them silent approval. Consumerism supports the exploitation, extraction, and destruction of the world we have lived in for millions of years as various animals, the world we know is true in our bones. I’m glad to say that because of this economic downturn, the consumerism bug has lost some steam. As Tyler Durden said in Fight Club, “We work long hours at a job we hate just so we can buy shit we don’t need.” Most people look at something they bought and never think, “This came from the Earth.” I’ll admit, I used to be one of these people.
Factory farms has taken away the thrill we used to get from hunting. When you have to catch, kill, skin, gut, and then cook an animal, you appreciate it more. Now we can pick it out of a bin at our local grocery store because the animals we eat are put in cramped cages and are already skinned, gutted, and blodless by the time we get them. I’m not really an animal rights activist because I believe you can love animals and still eat them, but not to the extent the average American does. As long as it is organic and unprocessed, there is nothing wrong with eating an animal. I’d prefer it was an animal suicide. But, I’ve never heard of such a thing in nature, but on a factory farm…
We think as humans that we’re so much better than the animals. We are an animal, albeit an intelligent one who has self-awareness, but instead of using it to raise our consciousness, we use it to exploit the world around us, well aware that this cannot last forever. A highly conscious person knows this and eschews material possessions. They don’t buy something just because it’s in style, they buy things because they have a practical use. They don’t support corporations that do horrible things to our earth and they try not to support any exploitation whatsoever. As an example, sugar plantations have conditions close to slavery because the sugar cane grows on tropical islands where there is no other work. It’s either take the 12 cents a day or starve to death. It is very hard work to get sugar out of those canes, too. There used to be wars fought over sugar because it was so rare and such an enticing resource.
So when you buy your shoes from Nike, imagine not only the terrified cow on the killing floor, but also think of the 4 year old Vietnamese child tha was forced to make it under heavy durress. Think of how we take, as humans, without giving back to the Earth and that this cannot possibly be sustainable. If you already own materials that were used for exploitation or created from it, you can either keep them or give them away. You can speak with your wallet and your lifestyle.
How do you feel about the mass destruction of the Earth? Is it that selfish feeling that your life may be inconvenienced someday because you don’t have a clean place to live? Your own little habitat? Or is it because you have a genuine concern for the world as a whole and all the creatures in it? We’re so far out of balance it’s unbelievable. I hope that someday we’ll get it back, preferably before we go extinct.
Amen, brother.
=)
Not that I’m totally impressed, but this is more than I expected when I found a link on SU telling that the info here is awesome. Thanks.