It is much more than just personal choice -- far more. That was and is the problem with things like "50 things you can do to blah, blah ..." and "population is THE environmental problem." They let corporations and governments off the hook and they totally disregard how little control we have over the range of choices available to us.
Bombardment by advertising and our reaction to it is certainly a big issue. The flip-side of this is how little information we have about the real issues that affect our lives -- mainstream media deserves a lot of blame for this. But there's more.
Our choices are limited by the corporate culture that we live in and by our own reactions to the stress of everyday life. It is difficult to make good choices when the choices either are not available or we are too stressed and crazy to make them. Look at the dotcom gold rush and the irresponsible grab for riches. If one had the information one would have known that it was and is (we're far from the bottom still and variations will plague us for decades) a totally unsustainable business model.
Something that is designed from the bottom up to advertise stuff while content and real benefits is down near the bottom of the priority list (if at all) is bound to fail yet educational institutions, investors, planners, governments, non-profits, boosters of all stripes -- most everyone -- tried in one way or another to jump on the bandwagon. Many will still try -- perhaps more partnering will help, or peer to peer, or wireless this and that -- more baloney! But even if all this was known -- all of the negatives -- would it make a difference?
No! How could it when we live in a society where real wages for many have been dropping, where job security is dead and gone (6 or 7 careers in a lifetime -- give me a break!), where housing is tentative at best ...
The future for growing numbers is something to fear and dread. Everyone must figure out how to survive on a near day-to-day basis. We are all becoming mini-entrepreneurs of self-interest whether we like it or not. There are few alternatives.
And what about available choices? Most all of our "practical" everyday and life choices are constrained within a very narrow range -- a small subset of the potential. This range is not designed for human and non-human well being but for profit for the few. The self-propogating "trickle down" myth justifies this while history tells us that time and time again it does not work -- it is not justifiable. We have no capacity for learning from history.
Our political reaction is tempered by stress and fear. Democrats and republicans operate within this narrow range. Many of our most well funded non-profits -- those that have the power, that "sit at the table" representing US -- operate within this narrow range. The real potentials, the promises of life and living are not even on the table.
It's as if history is learned and known as its opposite. Bad becomes good, negative becomes positive and we build upon it creating an upside down world of increasing inequality, insecurity, dread and fear. How in this world can we expect to be rational?
Well, that's a small bit of the story. Most amazing is that this is nothing new. Social critics have been talking about the negative aspects of "modern" life for generations and ...
Reimagination - Reimagining, exploring and celebrating the changes in infrastructure, politics and culture that will help us live in harmony with each other and the earth now and in the future.
