Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
Moderator: Guild Officer
Re: Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
Every day I find myself checking the news to see if anything has gone right by that stupid hole in the earth. Every day I find myself disappointed and terrified. I do what I can to be at least a little eco-friendly, but it never feels like enough. Things like this-http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/0 ... e_oil.html - make me hate myself and the rest of humanity even more. However. It is really, really easy to blame the previous generation, as it is easy for them to blame us. But each generation donates something to the next to at least help prepare them to deal with the disasters left behind. Without the BB or Gen X we possibly not be communicating now to voice our outrage to one another. Sure, greed got us into this mess, but maybe, just maybe our combined innovation will get us all out of it.
I'm not a bitch, I just play one in your life.
Re: Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
I find this interesting as a topic, the idea of optimism and generation vs. generation. As a literature student, and studying post modernism... just... damn Postmodernism as a literary concept is downright depressing. No meaning, the myths of human progress abolished, nothing to agree upon, so why even try to write coherently? A major theme is talking about how horribly things got messed up with the last world wars, and how people have given up on the ideas of progress.
As someone that wishes to be an optimist, I look around the world and see a lot of shit going on as all the mistakes of the last hundred years come back to haunt us. Our raging capitalistic ideology corrupting, the waste of our reckless surge of materialism poisoning the world, watching as in some ways, a bizarre feudalism occurs while corporations buy out entire cities. Ice is melting into the sea, and species die around us. The media feeds sound bytes and blurbs, ignoring so much good news and actual information while instead we listen to 'he said she said' and the facts are lost.
Yet... there is so much out there that we can look forward to, new ideas that are springing to life. Right around where I life, sustainable farming is blossoming, and more people are using farmer's markets instead of processed foods. Urban farming is a trend that is starting to get national coverage. Some organizations are working tirelessly to finally wean us off oil and quick, easy solutions that cause long term, horrible problems to difficult and slow working plans that will be fruitful.
We have so, so many problems in this world, and a backlog of concerns, anxieties, and messes that dates back several centuries. Many people in the modern world, and of our own generation, choose to ignore these issues, disappearing into the internet or technology, putting it out of mind. But there ARE a lot of people that are trying, honestly truly trying, to change the world. What matters now more than ever are the small choices we make, what to buy, what to invest in. Each purchase from a mom-and-pop store is a step away from corporate monopolies, each plant which you tend and grow yourself is one less product that needs to be shipped cross country into your supermarket.
Gah, that last part sounded like preaching, but those are the people around where I live, the choices that they are making to 'fight the power' in their own way. Its something that now that I'm living on my own, I am trying to do myself. By living responsibly and with an understanding of how the damn systems work in our society, that itself is arming ourselves for a better future.
As someone that wishes to be an optimist, I look around the world and see a lot of shit going on as all the mistakes of the last hundred years come back to haunt us. Our raging capitalistic ideology corrupting, the waste of our reckless surge of materialism poisoning the world, watching as in some ways, a bizarre feudalism occurs while corporations buy out entire cities. Ice is melting into the sea, and species die around us. The media feeds sound bytes and blurbs, ignoring so much good news and actual information while instead we listen to 'he said she said' and the facts are lost.
Yet... there is so much out there that we can look forward to, new ideas that are springing to life. Right around where I life, sustainable farming is blossoming, and more people are using farmer's markets instead of processed foods. Urban farming is a trend that is starting to get national coverage. Some organizations are working tirelessly to finally wean us off oil and quick, easy solutions that cause long term, horrible problems to difficult and slow working plans that will be fruitful.
We have so, so many problems in this world, and a backlog of concerns, anxieties, and messes that dates back several centuries. Many people in the modern world, and of our own generation, choose to ignore these issues, disappearing into the internet or technology, putting it out of mind. But there ARE a lot of people that are trying, honestly truly trying, to change the world. What matters now more than ever are the small choices we make, what to buy, what to invest in. Each purchase from a mom-and-pop store is a step away from corporate monopolies, each plant which you tend and grow yourself is one less product that needs to be shipped cross country into your supermarket.
Gah, that last part sounded like preaching, but those are the people around where I live, the choices that they are making to 'fight the power' in their own way. Its something that now that I'm living on my own, I am trying to do myself. By living responsibly and with an understanding of how the damn systems work in our society, that itself is arming ourselves for a better future.
Re: Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
Daug and I are doing the same, Mugs, but it's a really hard battle to fight, because it's one where you just don't see the "big picture" having any results.
It's hard to see a difference when I bring a bag of canvas sacks to the grocery store and forgo plastic (and then incredibly frustrating when the bagger puts half my stuff in plastic bags and then puts THOSE in the canvas bags while I'm not looking. This at a store that SELLS the canvas ones. /facepalm), because it doesn't seem like it makes any difference. It's easier with produce - I see a difference in my grocery bill right now because we're eating almost entirely out of the garden for vegetables and will hopefully continue to do so for the summer - but even then, does my not buying a pound or two of zucchini a week really make a difference to my grocery store?
But then I turn around and realize how lucky we (Daug and I) are that we CAN do those things. That our local grocery store is a regional chain that's managed well and focuses on bringing us as much produce and food products that are grown/made in Texas as possible (to the point of sporting a big GO TEXAN sticker/label on stuff so it's easy to see). Even helping people buy "local" by having local farm produce on the shelves next to the Chiquita Bananas. That we can get by on just his salary (since I've been out of work almost 10 months), which gives me the time to spend working on the garden and taking the time to prepare a lot of food that otherwise would get bought ready-made and almost certainly wrapped in plastic.
It's oddly both depressing and hopeful at the same time. I'm not about to change or give up, but some days it really does seem like it doesn't make much difference. Maybe that's a factor of where we live?
It's hard to see a difference when I bring a bag of canvas sacks to the grocery store and forgo plastic (and then incredibly frustrating when the bagger puts half my stuff in plastic bags and then puts THOSE in the canvas bags while I'm not looking. This at a store that SELLS the canvas ones. /facepalm), because it doesn't seem like it makes any difference. It's easier with produce - I see a difference in my grocery bill right now because we're eating almost entirely out of the garden for vegetables and will hopefully continue to do so for the summer - but even then, does my not buying a pound or two of zucchini a week really make a difference to my grocery store?
But then I turn around and realize how lucky we (Daug and I) are that we CAN do those things. That our local grocery store is a regional chain that's managed well and focuses on bringing us as much produce and food products that are grown/made in Texas as possible (to the point of sporting a big GO TEXAN sticker/label on stuff so it's easy to see). Even helping people buy "local" by having local farm produce on the shelves next to the Chiquita Bananas. That we can get by on just his salary (since I've been out of work almost 10 months), which gives me the time to spend working on the garden and taking the time to prepare a lot of food that otherwise would get bought ready-made and almost certainly wrapped in plastic.
It's oddly both depressing and hopeful at the same time. I'm not about to change or give up, but some days it really does seem like it doesn't make much difference. Maybe that's a factor of where we live?
[5.OOC] Beltar: Hammer of What The Fuck Were You Thinking
Re: Major, potentially nonsensical, rant.
Luckily, I live in hippie land, so the mentality is here in a lot of ways, a pleasant backdrop at times. At others, there is a lot of resentment as the different worldviews clash in interesting ways, consumerism and sustainability. Others exploit the new lifestyle senselessly. But it is a step! One thing I need to look into are food swaps, where you pay or pitch in vegetables and other natural foods to get others for several months, organic, and often off-the-normal-grid.
I have a long, long way to go sadly, thanks to both budget and simple weaning. More natural foods are certainly more expensive, and growing your own vegetables is something that isn't a walk in the park. But it is a lot more rewarding. Cooking my dishes with chives and mint from outside my windows is a simple pleasure, and I can't wait until I can harvest the tomatoes which are growing now. Hell, during the spring frost, my girl got the crazy idea to try making birch beer and syrup, so we ran outside with makeshift canisters and screws and boiled down sap. The pancakes were freaking delicious. I suppose that, in my rambling, I mean to say that there is a lot of rewarding grassroots things to do to try and take power back into the hands of yourself. Our society is sometimes so consumer based, things happen like that ridiculous double-bagging you were talking about Aelfaed. But if more people started to support things small and individual, empowering the person and not corporate machines, I sincerely think that it helps spread the word to others around us. If enough start, that voice will be heard.
And I'll echo what others have said - the fact that we are having this conversation on a freaking World of Warcraft forum makes me cackle madly. Hopefully, our generation, and those of the 21st century will learn from the mistakes of our past, instead of using our newfound technological inheritance as an escape... much like our consumer culture was for the last fifty years.
I have a long, long way to go sadly, thanks to both budget and simple weaning. More natural foods are certainly more expensive, and growing your own vegetables is something that isn't a walk in the park. But it is a lot more rewarding. Cooking my dishes with chives and mint from outside my windows is a simple pleasure, and I can't wait until I can harvest the tomatoes which are growing now. Hell, during the spring frost, my girl got the crazy idea to try making birch beer and syrup, so we ran outside with makeshift canisters and screws and boiled down sap. The pancakes were freaking delicious. I suppose that, in my rambling, I mean to say that there is a lot of rewarding grassroots things to do to try and take power back into the hands of yourself. Our society is sometimes so consumer based, things happen like that ridiculous double-bagging you were talking about Aelfaed. But if more people started to support things small and individual, empowering the person and not corporate machines, I sincerely think that it helps spread the word to others around us. If enough start, that voice will be heard.
And I'll echo what others have said - the fact that we are having this conversation on a freaking World of Warcraft forum makes me cackle madly. Hopefully, our generation, and those of the 21st century will learn from the mistakes of our past, instead of using our newfound technological inheritance as an escape... much like our consumer culture was for the last fifty years.