lolatconsumerism:

We have allowed it, we’ve welcomed it. Our laziness has always pushed us in the direction of the easier choice. Until reason kicks in and tells us that perhaps society won’t view us as highly if the lazy option is taken. Motivation through societal consciousness, it’s a real thing, but you’re lazy, because you’re distracted. Diverted. Misdirected towards the consumerism that drives the gluttony that is the lifeblood of industrialization, the recklessly managed capitalist-inspired globalization. Because you have to consume. It’s the culture, a culture based on petrochemicals, and overindulgence. Oil is in everything around you, from your medicine, to the plastic all around, it’s what drove the American dream, and propelled phenomenal technological innovation. But the tragedy is in the design. Capitalism, socialism, communism, are all created with the flaw of not accounting for finite resources; the fundamental principles and guidelines for the organization of our societies incorrectly assume an ever-growing and ever-plentiful access to energy. 

Human laziness gives birth to faith, and allows it to overtake reason. Faith is easy because it absolves us of critical thought. Faith cushions the believer with confidence that the worshipped is an agent of their best interests. Faith is a creation of the powerful to continue the belief in an ideal that clever people shouldn’t accept; its principle tool is emotion, and the elicitation of emotional responses to cloud reason-based judgement. Faith is dangerous, and detrimental to progress.

How have we let oil and its by-products define Westernization, without accounting for its depletion? Why do automakers continue to create combustion engines when alternative, zero-emission technologies have existed since 1842? (You shouldn’t have faith that I’m telling you the truth, verify my claims for yourself) Why are humans incapable of long-sighted action to thwart the externalities of the poor decisions made by our predecessors? Perhaps because it’s easier to forget about the problems of others and continue allowing ourselves to be distracted. Distraction trumps action. 

According to the official United Nations climate data, if we don’t adapt quickly enough and stay below a 2.0C rise in global average temperature, we cannot ensure the survival of the majority of the people on this planet. And we sure as hell are not adapting fast enough. You know it, but it’s a problem for the governments to solve, isn’t it. 

Revolution is overdue. Revolutions achieve. We’ve been coaxed into thinking that civil unrest is unpatriotic, yet if you believe that a nation should be a reflection of the citizenry, the citizenry must exert itself to the forefront of the political arena. The birth of the military industrial complex facilitated nations in the pursuit of the interests of an elite, to the detriment of the citizenry, at an unprecedented scale. Fortunately, when the  awareness finally spreads, anger and frustration will surely be packaged into the final deal that liberates the consumer from the shackles of “civilized society” to return the consumer to the original model: the citizen.