Is this all we are, consumers? According to most of us, it seems that to be one is the B all and end all of this life. We seem quite content to be labelled and called consumers. So we breathe in air, take and consume oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, which in turn is taken in by the plants and they breathe out oxygen, a beautifully controlled balance of consumption. Similarly with water and food we take what we need and pass on the rest for future growth. Well that was before we became civilised and had flushing toilets. And all the things we need now, our cars which we use to zoom around in, we have consumed most of the organic carbon, fossil fuel, that our little planet took millions of years to deposit, and hurled it into the athmosphere, in the blink of an evolutionary eye. We are encouraged to consume all sorts of stuff, because this is what makes the economy tick and makes us prosperous, makes some of us exceedingly rich.
Meantime on another part of the planet there are some of us who do not have the food and water to survive, to live a dignified life. This reality makes the very fabric of our consumer society a travesty, an obscenity even. The market economies that dominate this world are our freedom loving democracies. Are these rich countries using this well meaning, but flawed, system of government to further the cause of capitalism, where the rich get richer and the poor, well they can get screwed. Time to take a fresh look at ourselves, see beyond our selfish desires. Stop rushing towards the promised land of satisfying every want and need. Stop and take some time to consider what we have already. we might just find we have a great capacity to love and appreciate life as it is. We are Human Beings, not consumers.