Mindful Consuming

Mindful Consuming

Be Gaia-conscious, always do the best you can. Don’t shame each other, but shame the 1%.

In personal conversations I get angry because people are apathetic. And I know that apathy is the desired result of neoliberalism, I know they are being conditioned, and I sometimes get angry – controlled anger but nevertheless anger. I am also angry at their lack of mindful consuming but then I am angry at myself for that. I don’t want to be angry with them, I don’t want their apathy to cause me frustration but it does. My anger is usually detached.

Nor do I want to shame these people – I don’t know the 1%, life is hard enough without having someone banging on bending their ear. But it takes so little to change, being Gaia-conscious requires such little adjustment to their lives. Gaia is being destroyed and they just accept their conditioning.

And for the people I know they can do so little, they are retired. But I know in their lives they have just consumed, spent what they had, and if they didn’t have it they didn’t buy it – consume.

So why do I bother? Because I am alive I have no choice; the only choice I have is not talking to them. Gaia’s problem is the 1%. The way we allow the 1% to continue without any control is destroying ourselves because it is destroying Gaia. These psychopathic egotists turn away from the consequences of their actions, continue to profit through resource exploitation, and most people stand by and watch because they feel powerless.

But they are not powerless because the money they spend gives them power. If we all controlled the way we spend money, then there would be an impact. If every member of the families of the guys I spoke to controlled their consumption that would be a lot of people.

We are at a stage where sacrifice is required, mind you, shame on me, we have been at that stage all my life – it is just worse now.

In the UK we have a phrase “keeping up with the Joneses”. This basically means in every middle-class home, in the home of every Liberal, we are competing. We are competing to have the latest gadget, we are competing with the latest fashion. We are forced to wear various forms of uniform for work, suits, being respectable etc. Apart from being clean do we need a variety of these? We waste our time with consuming entertainment and drugs. What about getting together and listening to each other? In our houses – not in pubs. Why not just entertain ourselves by being together and talking? Talking can be fun if we are not ashamed or guilty.

What about food? Do we eat to provide ourselves with the nutrition to live a healthy life? Or do we eat to show which restaurant we have been to? For those who can afford it, do we eat organic? Or does our wage-slavery make us too busy to cook fresh foods, to spend the time finding organic veg – free-range eggs?

Do we join together and help the Palestinians through the BDS movement?

All my adult life there have been various levels of green activism, yet why do we still have single-use plastic bags? Why is the gyre expanding? The 1% should be ashamed of this as they could invest in the research and development that would enable better recycling. Instead industrial responsibilities are passed onto government, or ordinary consumers are blamed for using plastic bags. Ask consumers to change but blame the 1%, we cannot choose single use bags.

Why aren’t our cars electric run by rechargeable lithium batteries? Because of the 1%, we know this. Can you afford and use a car (EV) that is electric – use it based on the current limitations? Why do we still have these limitations when R&D could have removed them? The 1% - shame them. Look at the advances in smartphones and computers, why? Because there has been investment, the 1% choosing the way the market goes. Do we need every upgrade?

The point about mindful consuming is that we need to be conscious of how we spend, and try to reduce it. Make some sacrifice but not so much that our lives are “hell”. Spend what we need, not what we have. Do what you can.

And remember this with your consuming, the 1% are responsible. They should be ashamed. Take every chance to shame them, and the best way is to be a good example of mindful consuming.

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