[MD] An Empty Stomach of Consumerism

[Heather Perella]

Hey Case,


> [SA]
> Even the homeless are contrasts providing how much
> everybody else consumes
> or how little they do. 
> 
> [Case]
> So do you think they do this on a quota? Like, these
> scruffy guys wake up
> hung over every morning going, "Crap, if I'm gotta
> show another 20 suits how
> little I can do before noon, I better start pissing
> in some doorways." 

     Not a quota.  Yet, this society, this culture
offers a space for these people.  It is this way, so
something has it this way.
 
> Or maybe you mean the woman who finally gets her
> three kids away from the
> father who was sexually abusing them but can't
> afford day care and a roof no
> matter how many part time jobs she takes on. The
> kids probably feel a lot
> better wearing thrift store school clothes, knowing
> they are providing a
> much needed contrast for the SUV crowd.

     Again, this culture provides a space for this to
happen.  The culture is the mindset of a society. 
This culture provides policemen, too.  Why do we need
policemen?  Because we have criminals.  The contrast
is in the culture, not by these individuals thinking
one day they want to live like this.  Maybe some do, I
know Kurt Cobain, Nirvana lead singer who committed
suicide, did live under the bridge before he made all
his $ and fame.  He liked living under the bridge. 
Monks beg from door to door.  These are examples of
intentionally living poor, poor considering how much
most of the population strives to have more and more
things and must consume to have a healthy economy. 
Consumerism makes for a healthy economy in this
culture.  The more $ we have to spend and buy things
the better off this culture is.  This consumerism is
the mainstay or measure of how this culture thinks it
is doing.  What is the price of oil?  What is the
stock market doing?  These are headlines even when
wars, poverty, and sickness plagues some parts of the
world.  The answers to these questions are the
interest of the U.S.  How well or poor the economy is,
is always a top priority in political campaigns.  Up
there with war and possible nuclear strikes.
     The desire to have, have, have, more and more...
the need for more and more ideas, and then just living
was the mainstay long before Greek philosophy and
continued on in many parts of the world until Columbus
sailed the ocean blue.  Even after all of that, the
spiritual world and the teachings of the old people
still are intertwined with the daily and nightly
activities that are real, the stories have meaning
even when women make bread or men build houses.  When
people in for example New Guinea make a house or kill
a pig ceremonies that feed the mind and provide
spiritual food also satisfy the souls.  It is not just
a matter of buying lumber to put up a deck.  When a
roof goes up in these less consumer oriented cultures,
a spirit goes up, songs are sung with meanings that
teach those spaces in our minds, hearts, and spirit
that are present and want satisfaction that in this
culture these spaces in our minds, etc... would be
considered either not real, stories for children,
and/or not factual, not practical, and thus, have no
value for what this culture would deem reality.  Yet,
the persistence and seeking of these spaces (mind,
heart, spirit) that need to be dug deep inside of us
and mean something and have a place deep inside of us,
they are still here.  What are these deep places in
our soul that no matter how much we avoid or believe
to be untrue they still persist and live on misguided,
thinking/believing that consuming a lot will satisfy
the discontentment?  The desire is present, yet, where
is the desire guided?  Consumerism is an empty stomach
that does not get filled.
     What do you think?  

Thanks,
SA




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