[Infowarrior] - OT: Our culture is toxic

[Richard Forno]

While I don't agree with everything presented, or the rationales therein, this does make for some interesting food-for-thought.  -- rick

Our culture is toxic

by erik on January 20th, 2011

http://snowedin.net/blog/2011/01/20/our-culture-is-toxic/

Welcome to the sewer. Here’s your haz-mat suit.

Want to send a nice, artful note to a friend to commemorate an important event? Well you can’t make you’re own. You don’t have time or you’re bad at art. Just buy a nice card from Hallmark and add your note. That’ll be $2.95 plus tax. But you have to drive to Target to get one. That’s $1 for gas and car maintenance. Oh and while you’re don’t you want to buy some other things? …

Our culture takes away from us our divine ability to create art. And sells crappy commercial art back to us. Our culture is toxic.

You’ve been sitting/standing/running around all day… don’t you want to move to some music? Don’t you want to feel rhythm and melody move through your body? You can’t make music. You suck… when was the last time you practiced? Don’t practice. Have you heard The Black Keys? Isn’t their sound incredible? You can’t do that. Anyway, their album is only $9.99 on iTunes.

Wait, you’re dancing alone in your house? What a loser. You should be hanging out with people. It’s friday night. Invite people over? OK, you better clean the house. It should be spotless. You need a Swiffer. Go to target and get one, it’s only $19.99. And you need appetizers. What’s that, no one ever taught you to cook? That’s OK. Go to Trader Joe’s. They have amazing spanikopita triangles you can just put on a pan and bake them. $4.99. And some hummous and pitas. You don’t even know what’s in hummous do you? That’s good. $4.99 for 8oz. Boy, pitas are a mystery aren’t they? I wonder how they make them*. $3.99 for 10. I should get a bottle of wine too. $2.99 for Two Buck Chuck… classy. More expensive must be better. $6.99 for this one, and it comes from Australia. Sounds exotic. $2 for gas to Trader Joe’s and Target. And your guests will each bring $10 worth of alcohol or snacks. Good work, what a classy party. Now you’re not a loser who is totally alone.

Our culture is toxic.

Or maybe you want to avoid that. Go out somewhere. Much easier than throwing a party. And just as cool. Maybe cooler. Too bad every square inch of property for 10 miles is owned by someone, and it’s illegal to tresspass. There’s a park down the street, but don’t go there. Parks are dangerous at night. Drug addicts, you know. Anyway, there’s a bar two miles away. Why not drive there?  You don’t want to drive though… drunk driving and all. It’s too bad you live in an enormous residentially zoned area where it’s illegal to operate a bar. Guess you’ll have to get a cab. $10 plus tip.

Great, you’re at the bar. You now have permission to move your body to music. As long as you pay the $5 cover. That’s not much money, is it? After all that bottle of wine you bought would’ve been $5 more, but the grapes were harvested but undocumented workers who don’t have any way to get health care. That’s $5 burning a hole in your pocket! Give it to the bouncer. Great.

Now you’re in the bar, time to buy a drink. Don’t get a beer, it’ll make you fat. Vodka is sexy. Absolut. Reminds you of sexy skinny women in tight dresses, right? That’s the whole point of this bar thing, isn’t it? $4 for well drinks. Tastes like shit… maybe I’ll get a specialty drink. Ginger spiced moroccan pear vodka with algerian tonic. Mmm, tasty! $8 is a lot… but boy, I feel fancy! We’re really living it up, huh? Boy this drinking makes me want to drink. Sure I’ll leave my tab open. $20. Sure I’ll buy you a drink! $30. Tip. $40.  I wonder how they make alcohol. What a mystery. Thank god for bars.

Want to get home? That’s another $10.

Our culture is toxic.

You’re moving to a new city? Great, you need an apartment. Too bad all of the properties cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, huh? Oh, you found an apartment that’s $300/month? Ew, gross. That’s a bad neighborhood. Filthy. And listen to that music the neighbors are playing. You know that’ll keep you up on the weekend. Here’s an apartment. It’s $1200/month. You and your boyfriend can afford that, can’t you? Good. Sign a 1 year lease. Oh he cheated on you? OMG DUMP HIM! Good, now 50% of your paycheck is going to rent. Better not lose that job. What’s that you’re thinking about starting your own business? Sorry, bills to pay.  Anyway, you need furniture for your new house. Thrift stores are gross. Don’t bother with craigslist, how are you going to get those things home? Oh, you want to borrow a truck? Too bad all of the business around are huge chains. You don’t know any of the local businesses owners, so no one can lend you a big truck. How about Uhaul. $29.99 per day in town. Plus it guzzles gas, so that’ll be another $20.

But that’s all crazy, isn’t it? Why not just go to IKEA? Everything is flat-packed in China by people who earn $0.50 a day! Look this couch is $150! And it’s new! No weird smells. You don’t want someone else’s couch with weird smells. You want a new couch. It smells like advanced chemicals. The chemicals they have these days! So adanced! Good, you’re buying it. Now you need end tables right? And a coffee table. And a dining table. And a breakfast table. And a desk. Otherwise your house will feel empty. And so cheap! $49.99 each! And look at these paper lanterns! Only $9.99! You might as well buy 4! And look at this cute shower curtain! I wonder where plastic comes from? Whatever, it’s so cute!

Our culture is toxic.

Oh, are you bored? It’s Thursday. You’ve been working all day, haven’t you. You deserve something nice. There’s nothing happening anywhere near you, is there? That whole residential zoning thing. No free plays. No free music. You’re dog tired from having worked under the thumb of your boss for 8 hours, and then commuted 45 minutes each way. Traffic is frustrating isn’t it? You spend 45 minutes with hundreds of other people literally feet away from you. But don’t talk to them. You’re in a glass bubble, there’s no talking to the other commuters. You have to keep your eyes on the road anyway. All of you, focus on the road for 45 minutes. You can talk to people later, when you’re paying $5 an hour for the privilege of talking to your friends in a bar.

OK, good. You’re all sitting there in the car… bored, but tied up. Aren’t you bored? How about some radio? XM is only $9.99 a month? That’s nothing! You just saved $200 by having your furniture made in China where they can leech those chemicals into the environment indiscriminately. That’ll pay for almost two years of XM! Go for it. Or just listen to FM, it doesn’t matter. What’s that you’re listening to talk radio? How about a new mattress? Your back is hurting you from driving, right? Let’s get you a new mattress. You deserve it. Aren’t you making more money now that you got promoted? Let’s sell you a new mattress.

Our culture is toxic.

OK, you’re home. Why not watch a movie? Netflix is $9.99 a month, and none of your friends, no one in your neighborhood can make anything nearly as entertaining as Netflix. This is amazing art! Films of the decade! So entertaining…. so easy… don’t stage a play. Don’t write a song. Just pay $9.99. Anyway making art is work. You’re too tired for that. And you don’t really want to go OUT to see something, do you? Too tired for that. Stick to your day job. And Netflix.

What’s that, you want to make some cupcakes? OK, great. You love baking. It’s good to have a hobby. Here’s some books you should buy. And look at this blog… look at her cupcakes! Lavender infused Madagascar vanilla bean! Look how beautiful! You should just by this $100 worth of exotic ingredients and tools so you can make cupcakes like that. Yours should be perfect. Perfect.  You can make this perfect. What, you want to start a business selling cupcakes? Hah. Try to do that while paying your bills. And anyway, you only make cupcakes every couple weeks. You’re not that good. You’re not good like these people with blogs… look how good they are? This is just a hobby. Anyway, you can’t sell them to your neighborhood. Your kitchen isn’t certified by the city. That would be illegal. You could pay hundreds of dollars to get your kitchen regularly inspected… but no one wants to buy food outside of the grocery store. They have to buy their cupcakes at the grocery store. And the grocery store is a huge chain. They don’t care about you. They would never sell your cupcakes. Even if the manager wanted to they couldn’t. That’s just how things are.

Our culture is toxic.

Everything we do, everything we love, everything we think of as the normal way to live, eat, work, relax, and celebrate, is designed to do two things: take away our ability to take care of ourselves, and then sell it back to us.

Every holiday tradition.

Every leisure activity.

Every piece of music.

Every magazine.

Every article of clothing.

It’s taking away our livelihood.

Or it’s selling it back.

We’re swimming in toxic waste, nickel-and-dimed all day for the privilege of living in a tiny, pathetic bubble of modest protection.

* Flour, water and yeast
** Take something with sugar or starch in it, add yeast and let it sit around.