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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iDXtETwP7G17BQsO07DecwxuziLgD94O1UD01
You see? this is the kind of stupid bullshit, the kind of mindless, soulless horror of a culture we've been brainwashed into. Getting shit from walmart at 5am is somehow more important than the life of an individual, or the wellbeing of others. What kind of mob mentality are we at, at all points in our lives? The ceaseless beating of the capatilist drum, "Buy. Shit. Buy. Shit. Buy. Shit." Consume consume consume as much as you possibly can at the cheapest you possibly can as often as you possibly can.
We keep consuming as if it fills a void inside us, totally convinced that if we get just that one more thing, that one more gadget or car or somewhat valuable object, we are somehow one step closer to being 'whole'. There is no wholeness in that direction, only more vapidity, as we forget those around us, as we multiply to the point where our neighbors are anonymous and a man crushed under a door at the whim of a mob somehow seems like a reasonable sacrifice for us and our dysfunctional, unhappy families. Even when we are aware what we are buying is made by kids in sweatshops on the other side of the planet, even when we are aware that our pointless cycle of buy-a-new-one-every-year adds more to the ecological garbage heap that'll be our planet in a few centuries, we still do it. Why?? Why the fuck did you go out today? How much did you really need that shit?
But, we don't see a way out. This is what we have been doing and it's what we've been taught to do, and it's much easier to buy and throw away than to look inside ourselves and find out what's really making us unhappy, or (god forbid) contemplate any other method of living.
If you so goddamn dearly want to part with your money, give to a charity. If you so dearly want to get up at 5am for any reason at all, volunteer instead.
Every year it seems like I could be filled more, happily, with the holiday spirit, and yet each year it seems like there's more and more reasons for me to be a fucking grinch. I have no other reason other than family and/or loved ones to celebrate the holiday of a religion whose symbols meaning's have been forgotten, a religion where the actual kind, helpful people who participate are swallowed underneath the loud, bigoted, consuming zealots. I have no reason to be part of a cultural phenomenon where if you don't buy something for everyone who you love, then you have somehow disproved you loved them in the first place.
There is something terribly off about a culture that causes some of its participants to want to reject it entirely. On the most basic level of human sociality, it is common culture which keeps people, families, clans and nations together; like food and shelter, we have to have a common culture and language in order to not feel (or be) absolutely alone. For me to spend my whole life rejecting the basic culture I was born into, there must be something terribly, terribly morally wrong with either it, or me. And seeing as I haven't yet shot up a college or shopping mall, I don't think it's me....
You see? this is the kind of stupid bullshit, the kind of mindless, soulless horror of a culture we've been brainwashed into. Getting shit from walmart at 5am is somehow more important than the life of an individual, or the wellbeing of others. What kind of mob mentality are we at, at all points in our lives? The ceaseless beating of the capatilist drum, "Buy. Shit. Buy. Shit. Buy. Shit." Consume consume consume as much as you possibly can at the cheapest you possibly can as often as you possibly can.
We keep consuming as if it fills a void inside us, totally convinced that if we get just that one more thing, that one more gadget or car or somewhat valuable object, we are somehow one step closer to being 'whole'. There is no wholeness in that direction, only more vapidity, as we forget those around us, as we multiply to the point where our neighbors are anonymous and a man crushed under a door at the whim of a mob somehow seems like a reasonable sacrifice for us and our dysfunctional, unhappy families. Even when we are aware what we are buying is made by kids in sweatshops on the other side of the planet, even when we are aware that our pointless cycle of buy-a-new-one-every-year adds more to the ecological garbage heap that'll be our planet in a few centuries, we still do it. Why?? Why the fuck did you go out today? How much did you really need that shit?
But, we don't see a way out. This is what we have been doing and it's what we've been taught to do, and it's much easier to buy and throw away than to look inside ourselves and find out what's really making us unhappy, or (god forbid) contemplate any other method of living.
If you so goddamn dearly want to part with your money, give to a charity. If you so dearly want to get up at 5am for any reason at all, volunteer instead.
Every year it seems like I could be filled more, happily, with the holiday spirit, and yet each year it seems like there's more and more reasons for me to be a fucking grinch. I have no other reason other than family and/or loved ones to celebrate the holiday of a religion whose symbols meaning's have been forgotten, a religion where the actual kind, helpful people who participate are swallowed underneath the loud, bigoted, consuming zealots. I have no reason to be part of a cultural phenomenon where if you don't buy something for everyone who you love, then you have somehow disproved you loved them in the first place.
There is something terribly off about a culture that causes some of its participants to want to reject it entirely. On the most basic level of human sociality, it is common culture which keeps people, families, clans and nations together; like food and shelter, we have to have a common culture and language in order to not feel (or be) absolutely alone. For me to spend my whole life rejecting the basic culture I was born into, there must be something terribly, terribly morally wrong with either it, or me. And seeing as I haven't yet shot up a college or shopping mall, I don't think it's me....
