America’s Mass Consumption
April 26th, 2008A Blog Post by Kell
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Have you ever stopped to think about all the stuff you have, all the food you consume, all the waste you make? Have you thought about it for more than one second at a time? Have you thought about how much you “need”, how much you want, how much you use in a week, a month, a year? How about your entire lifetime? Do you have any idea how many tubes of toothpaste you will go through during the span of your life? Do you even care?
Over the past couple years I have been taking notice of my consumption, I have been making conscious efforts to reduce my wants and “needs”. I have been restraining my urges to buy, buy, buy…every time I decide I might “need” something, I try to scrutinize that “need” from all angles. Do I really need that new pair of shoes, do I need that new lip gloss, do I really need another pair of earrings? And so on. It usually turns out that the “need” is actually a want. When you start to realize that you don’t “need” all this superficial stuff, the shopping urges slowly fade and you start to understand what you really “need”.
I have become more aware of the impact my consumption has on Earth. Every time I use a paper towel (made w/ recycled paper of course) I cringe and wonder if I really needed to do that…could I have used a rag or a sponge? Every time I take a shower I think about all the water I’m using…and how lucky I am to even have fresh water to use (even if it is stinky)…not to mention the soap and chemicals that may be washing down the drain. Which is part of the reason why we have decided to use all natural soaps, shampoo & conditioners, laundry detergent, fabric softener, dish soap and cleaners.
Anyway, back to the tubes of toothpastes. Although I have been taking note of my consumption on a day to day basis, I have never actually thought about my weekly, monthly or yearly consumption until the other day when I watched Human Footprint on the National Geographic Channel. For example, do you know that one typical American, throughout his/her entire life will: use 1,200,000 gallons of water (not including showers); 31,350 gallons of gas; have owned 10 televisions, 12 vehicles, drank over 43,000 cans of soda, have eaten 6 full sized pigs, 5 cows and it goes on and on. Think about this, Americans are only 5% of the world’s population YET we use 25% of the world’s resources. WTF?????? Something is wrong here.
Everyone should watch this show! It was an eye opener let me tell ya. It struck a nerve and by the end of the hour I was ashamed, I was sad, I was wracked with guilt…I had suddenly realized that America has turned into a gluttonous pig. What America originally stood for doesn’t exist anymore…the America of today is not about family, values, hard work, freedom. The America of today is all about money…our “need” to live in big houses, drive big vehicles, have good paying jobs, expensive vacations…it’s all about stuff, stuff that we have been tricked into believing that we “need”. We don’t have freedom, we are slaves…we are in a jail with no bars, we are never free from our incessant desires to have more, to make more, to be better, our desires to consume, to buy, our desires to keep up with the Jones’. We are not free. We are lost, we have gone astray. The roads (although not paved with gold) were paved with good intentions but something has led us off the map. Something has taken us over, something has gone terribly wrong.
All my life I’ve wondered why I’m here, here in Pennsylvania. Why wasn’t I born elsewhere? How did I get so lucky to be born in this great country, the best (?), most powerful country in the world? Why wasn’t I born in Africa or Russia, Mexico or Cambodia? I have always felt so lucky and so grateful for all that I have, for my so-called freedom, for having access to plenty of food and clean water, for having access to stores, malls, restaurants, having a car, going to school, etc. I have always felt so extremely lucky, so grateful…up until the other night. The other night, after watching Human Footprint, I started to think that maybe I’m not lucky…maybe I would be better off without having so much, without having plenty of “things” to desire for, choices available. It’s hard to explain…but I am starting to get the feeling that I might actually be able to understand why the Amish live the way they do, why there are still so many primitive peoples that remain in the jungles…away from the trappings of modern society. Away from the variety, away from the constant desires and yearnings to have this, have that…away from it all. They are free. Think about it…not knowing all that is out there, all the variety, all that is available…just might be the most the most free you could ever be. If you don’t know that your life could be different, better (?) or more satisfying (?) then you wouldn’t feel bad about its current state. We wouldn’t have all these desires for the “things” that we think will make us happy. We wouldn’t be on a constant search for the perfect “thing”, the “thing” that will make a difference, the “thing” that will satisfy…..the “thing” that will inevitably let us down, it won’t hold our attention for long. And then search starts all over again.
Anyway, geez, back to the show…Human Footprint. Wonderful. Powerful. Watch it.
