Thought for the day
Nov. 16th, 2011 01:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anigoSo I was walking the dogs this morning and a thought hit me. In the 30s and 40s, during the depression and the war, people managed. We all have stories about how grandmothers made war cake. How buttons got sewn back on until the fabric was almost liquid below them. People made do with what they had. They weren't necessarily happy, but they did the best they could.
Today is garbage day on my street and I walk early enough that it's out and hasn't been picked up yet. And the thought dawned on me on what a disposable society we've become. The stuff that gets thrown away is insane. Nobody fixes things anymore. Nobody bakes bread. Few people even make soup anymore. Its instant dinners. And today's fashion. And if it's not perfect or if it's outdated, throw it away and get a new one. (Or perhaps sell it on ebay)
And here we are on the edge of some very bad times(tm) and sacrifice for people means skipping the trip south this winter, or (gasp!) buying the no-name ketchup.
I don't think we're even remotely prepared to go through anything worse than a dip in the road. We could be. We could buckle down and make soup. Buy a bag of $0.99 dried beans and bake beans. Buy a needle and thread and sew the button back on. But we don't. (Or most of the world doesn't.)
It's scary.
This random thought brought you to by Halifax Regional Municipality's Waste Management program and my dogs.
Today is garbage day on my street and I walk early enough that it's out and hasn't been picked up yet. And the thought dawned on me on what a disposable society we've become. The stuff that gets thrown away is insane. Nobody fixes things anymore. Nobody bakes bread. Few people even make soup anymore. Its instant dinners. And today's fashion. And if it's not perfect or if it's outdated, throw it away and get a new one. (Or perhaps sell it on ebay)
And here we are on the edge of some very bad times(tm) and sacrifice for people means skipping the trip south this winter, or (gasp!) buying the no-name ketchup.
I don't think we're even remotely prepared to go through anything worse than a dip in the road. We could be. We could buckle down and make soup. Buy a bag of $0.99 dried beans and bake beans. Buy a needle and thread and sew the button back on. But we don't. (Or most of the world doesn't.)
It's scary.
This random thought brought you to by Halifax Regional Municipality's Waste Management program and my dogs.
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no subject
Date: 2011-11-16 08:57 pm (UTC)And you know why? Because the corporations have spent billions on advertising for the last three generations to persuade us that the path to happiness is to BUY NEW STUFF! Our entire society has been perverted into a money-making cash-cow for the benefit of a few. To this end, common sense means of making savings have been all but eradicated, pooh-poohed as old-fashioned and so on.
You're right though, people are SO not prepared for what's coming.