Buy and consume, worst time of year for the environment.

So much waste and junk produced for people to make each other feel good. People buying shit that will go obsolete by next week or break. The next generation of consumers are being taught to associate pleasure and love with toxic material things.

The world as usual and the big winners are the same as usual. The big wasteful modern industries, keep feeding them.

A smile, good health, and kind words are my gift to all.

 

I put these little signs next to all the toys in woolworths last month reminding people that all that junk would end up in land fill. They didn't stay there for long..

 

Fair play to ya shirley all the same! We need more people like ya!


I'm trying to have as green a Christmas as possible.
It's wrecking my head trying to explain to people why. No one seems to care. They're too busy shopping to notice.
Oh well guess I'll just have to set a good example for them
(and give them a bit of a kick in the ass!).

Peace and love.

 

It looks like we're going to have a green christmas, but not in a good way.

 

I guess there are some gifts which would be O.K. for the planet, like bicycles, walking shoes, compact fluorescent light bulbs, L.E.D. lights, insulation kits, organic food, outlet timers, sweaters (so one could turn the heat down). But these gifts aren't very big sellers.

 

Materialism is very rampant. I think you have a very good point. It's all pointless, good example: My little sister. She's six and all she wants is Barbie dolls. She takes very good care of her stuff and even plays with them when they break. My cousin however is the opposite. She leaves her toys in the floor and throws them away when they break. Yet her parents keep buying her new toys. I'm trying to teach my sister that material items are just that and hold no real worth, but as she is only six I want her to have as much fun as possible(the fun that I never had).

 

Sadly in a world that is based on Religion, Politics, and Money, material items are more valuable than anything else. Not on a personal, person - to - person level, no, but realistically, it's very true. It's not fair, but we have to deal with it.

 

shattering the myth that material posessions result in happiness can be difficult or impossible with some people. i lived with a woman who kept an entire house-load of junk and refused to throw any of it away, yet wallowed in the worst kind of self-inflicted depression. if you tried to talk to her about anything that clashed with her view of the world she would simply stop listening. that kind of stubborn mindset is impossible to crack open without also destroying the person. but this person needs to be destroyed in order to realize the obvious truth of her situation.

in this age we have whole industries that feed off our unhappiness. why are we unhappy? we exist! that should be enough reason to celebrate. alas, things aren't always the way we want them to be. the world seldom (never?) lives up to the fairytale we were taught to believe in as children. the awakening to reality can be painful, but once there, reality offers all kinds of oppourtunities of its own. if you want to do something... you just make it happen. the only limitation is the one in your head.

have no doubt- we are under extreme cultual pressure to conform to the christmas ideal and buy things. the spirit of christmas is a rotting corpse, but you can breathe life into it by making your own gifts. they are more personal and don't contribute to killing our future.