Complexity hides chicanery.
There are times as I wander around in this civilization where I feel like a townie at a carnival shell game. Just another mark to be suckered out of his dollar, which of course, is what I am. The few commercial human interactions I engage in are between myself and some poor clerk making minimum wage, slaving for some corporation that has appropriated the skill based economies of previous eras.
"We work hard, so you don't have to". This on a can of cleaner, this, the epitaph of our age. In the name of "progress" we have surrendered the idea of work and skill as quality traits, for the idea of convenience and leisure. What we did not realize is that with that, we also surrendered our freedom and self respect. Our progress, as we can see now from the failing institutions around us, those institutions that assured us they could provide that wonderful life (failing to mention that they needed to destroy the planet in the process) is enslavement wrapped in the complexity of corporate legalese and government complicity.
This isn't working. I look around at the freeways, the high rises, the power lines, the carbon spewing vehicles, the tainted food, the collapsing economies, the destruction of ecosystems required, absolutely required to maintain a material economy, the economic oppression of billions of people and I think ... "we couldn't have meant this, we could not have meant it to be like this." Probably not, but someone did, and still does.
This civilization is not working.
The struggle for me, the fight for freedom, is not finding them and overthrowing them, or making them wear silly hats and signs and marching them through the streets. The real struggle is in unplugging as an individual. It is a struggle to re-discover the common skills that households contained just a short time ago, before we all lost our balls and became slaves to corporate convenience.
It's flashing in bright neon now: This civilization can not sustain. The oil that fuels it will dry up very soon, the climate is already seeking balance from our emmissions and waste, and our economies based on plunder are falling apart as I write this.
Sure, sure it's a pipe dream, a fantasy, but it's time to shut off the machines. Time to turn them off, melt them for new materials, and put everyone to work at a much slower pace. Retrain for a slower, less energetic world, where my commercial interaction will be between the artisan, or a small shop keeper who knows the artisan, and my purchase of a fine tool, or a finely woven shirt. One or two degress of separation between maker and user, rather than this tangled web of credit card purchased, ocean borne, sweat shop produced fabric that serves to only enrich a few hands, but equally serves to impoverish us all.
This rant was prompted by this wonderful list of Victorian skills found here. I would imagine that all of those brokers (borkers?) : P might start here for finding a new skill that enriches us all.
Peace and bone carving, yeah.
No comments:
Post a Comment