Tis the Season . . .

And That Ain't All Baby

Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship

 So, a couple of months ago I started this blog as an assignment for a Politics of Sustainability class at Indiana University. Today, that class is over - but I've had so much fun I'm going to keep on writing. Why? Must be because I'm a narcissist  -it sure ain't because I have a huge following. My #1 fan is a spambot from Russia (I suddenly want to drink vodka, read Pasternak and have naughty dreams of Mikhail Baryshnikov)

 The following is an excerpt from my class final:

 Do you think that Americans will continue to tolerate current economic inequalities?

In my opinion, yes, Americans will continue to tolerate the drop in income, standard and quality of living at the same time tolerate the gap between poor and rich as it grows to outrageous proportions. Why, because Americans are really quite lazy. Americans, even when the system is not working are loathe to change it because to go against the capitalistic American myth, (which has never really worked) is . . . is . . . well it is ‘un-American’ and any alternative reeks of the dreaded communism or the feared socialism (Americans don’t like isms  - they like ists: capitalist, evangelist, elitist, Titleist (as in golf balls) . . .)

       Americans are like fat, hairy legged, curmudgeonly old men who like to sit around in their underwear, talking back to the TV, complaining, but never doing anything about anything. (lovely mental picture) 

      Real change takes sacrifice and pain, and Americans just aren’t into that kind of stuff (well some are, but not in that way).  I hear it on an almost daily basis – as I post my daily rants on my Facebook wall about whatever is ticking me off that morning. Today, it was a rant about Walmart – how they are evil incarnate, treat their workers like dog crap, pay minimum wage, expect the sun and the moon, give them enough hours to disqualify them from food stamps and Medicaid, but don’t pay them enough to make up the difference and employ Nazi tactics to keep folks from unionizing. Not to mention what it has done to economies as it devours local business and strongarms vendors into selling below cost if they want to do business with Walfart. (Did you ever notice how cheap pickles are at WallyWorld? Vlasic got roped into a contract where they didn’t make any money from most of their products sold in Walmart. For the record, I do my part - I buy my higher priced Vlasic kosher dills at Kroger).

        Every single one of the people commenting on my post thought I as total crank. They didn’t care about Walmart’s employees, and felt if they were treated poorly, it was their on faults for working there, besides they justified their shopping at the devil’s warehouse because they “could not afford to shop elsewhere”. If some harried soccer mom doesn’t care enough to drive her SUV to a more ethical store – then we are all doomed

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       The truth of the matter is, even the poorest folks still have a bit to fall before they are living like their counterparts in Bangladesh. I am not saying poor folk’s conditions aren’t bad (I am a poor folk myself) but we have homeless shelters, and food pantries and just enough assistance to stop people from getting angry enough to take a baseball bat and go after the politicians and special interest groups who caused this in the first place. I know, I know, there is the Occupy Movement and maybe this is the beginning of something – maybe not, but the fact is most occupiers are running around with a picket signs in their hand, not guns and cleavers. (What would Madame DeFarge Do?) I do not look forward to suffering and misery – but I think that is the only way apathetic America will ever get off their collective fat asses and do something about the situation.    

    

      We Americans are not a very collective action, collaborative lot – we prefer our identity politics, and class warfare; about the only things we share in common are overeating at Thanksgiving and overspending at Christmas . . . and football. About the same number of people watched last year’s Super Bowl as voted in the 2008 Presidential election – when asked what I think will be the tipping point I always say, when folks can no longer watch the Super Bowl, because they can’t afford cable, or electricity, or chips and beer, or gas to drive to a Super Bowl party – if that day ever comes then the politicians and CEOs better run for cover. You can ship our jobs overseas and enslave our children with student loan debt – but don’t you EVER mess with our Super Bowl!

For the full episode of South Park, Something Wall Mart This Way Comes click the link below

http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s08e09-something-wall-mart-this-way-comes

 I'll post the second half of my final in the next few days

Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm

Warning! Serious Navel Contemplation Ahead

 

   
          OK - so this week our assignment was to read the Conservationist Manifesto. Yeah, I know, I got all excited too when I read it on the syllabus, BUT NO - I read it wrong, its not the Communist Manifesto . . . bummer, right?

(FYI Karl Marx was a little more interesting) So the author, Scott Russell Sanders is a retired Indiana University professor  - Brown and Cambridge alumnus, married to a biochemist.
They are well heeled, well educated, well traveled, and own a home in Bloomington.

     What's that got to do with the price of tea in China? Just hang on to your granny panties because the irony of this will become apparent a little later on.

      Dr. Sanders seems like a nice enough guy. He's written a gazillion books which you can buy on Amazon. He holds seminars across the country, has intriguingly furry white eyebrows, wears nice sweaters and when he was still teaching,  I bet he had a legion of graduate student sycophants following him around campus carrying his pens.

          The whole premise of his book can be summed  in one sentence; we can live better lives and treat the earth better if we live more simply and stop being massive, greedy voracious consumers. There are only 2 problems with this - first, after laying out this thesis in the opening paragraphs Sanders drones on for another 265 pages - about what? . . .EVERYTHING. At times he goes into such touchy feely flowery description of minutia, that I can't help but wonder if he dropped some windowpane or shrooms before he hit the keyboard.

         Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm hating on all my granola eating, herbal tea drinking, Kumbaya singing brothers and sisters - its just that JEEZ - sometimes a tree is just a tree. And sometimes, a book is little more than literary Ambien. And if I had a dollar for every time Sanders says I, Me, My or Mine, I might actually have enough to buy his books - and that  leads the second and I feel the biggest problem of the book - Sanders is a total flatout, undeniable hypocrite. He preaches about the evil of consumerism, yet he himself does not abstain. He sings the praises of trade and barter but sells his books. He waxes poetic about the virtues of making your own clothing, yet his clothes look very J. Crew to me  - either that or he is not only furtively keeping sheep in his basement, but also some very talented third world seamstresses as well.

       There are a bunch of other ironies, such as Sanders decrying the despoilment of the land that is tourism, which he calls 'merely another form of private consumption' yet justifies his own travels as exempt because they are in pursuit of wisdom. WTF? I guess the paid speaking engagements he flies to from coast to coast don't count either. Or maybe Sanders like Phileas Fogg travels by hot air balloon - or maybe he is secretly a super hero like Superman and doesn't require a plane - or better yet - maybe he can be teleported to far off locations like in Star Trek. The possibilities are titillating.


       Perhaps most absurd of all is that Sanders says that all means of transference of wisdom and education should be free and open to everyone - this had me both laughing out loud and shaking my head. This from a man who was paid handsomely for a thirty year career teaching at a public university where students now have to finance their education with loans that amount to more than what their parents paid for their houses.

       And this is where very heart of the problem lies - too many hypocritical people at the top trying to demand of others what they themselves are not willing to do. Should you read the book? . . . Naw, if you really care about the environment you'd be better off reading Gary Larson's Far Side. And if you want, you can barter for it, trade for it or check it out from the library, hell, I'll even lend it to you - I LOVE the free transference of knowledge. Now, beam me up Scotty.

A spectre is haunting America — the spectre of consumerism.

Check out these 2 clips from South Park: College Know It All Hippies & Hippie Infestation
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/154822/college-know-it-all-hippies
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/103809/hippie-infestation