Consumerism

Well I'm walking along the street in Oxford today. On saturday's the city centre is just packed full of people wandering around going into the high street stores which are the same up and down the country. There is a guy from Oxfam collecting for Haiti appeal, and homeless guys selling copies of the Big Issue. People with hands full of bags of clothes which they probably don't even need just walk by most don't even have the courtesy to say "No, thank you"

And im standing there and just thinking this fucked up. On one side of the world there is thousands of people dying from a horrific natural disaster. Here in my own city there is people who don't even have somewhere to sleep at night. Our our priorities right? Really? I mean I'm a student with very low income, I don't make out that im on moral higher ground but really some of us need to wake the fuck up.

People say they can keep their money because they worked hard for it, fair enough. But shouldn't we feel obliged to help right some wrongs? It just makes me feel that if people aren't willing to be charitable fuck it, force them through tax. Boo hoo you can't go on your skiiing holiday this year, theres more important things to deal with.

Gahhh

Taxes just piss people off. The only thing that can really solve and prevent problems is education.

Yeah but taxes can get results if used correctly. I suppose we live in very different cultures. If you have a redistriutive tax system the majority of people who are on low and middle incomes don't get pissed off because money if flowing from the rich to the poor.

I do get your point that education is important. But unfortuantely I feel that in the education system in the UK the very little time that is spent on social justice is nothing to compete against the millions of pounds spent on advertising. Maybe this could be changed but I doubt it.

I just can't help feel like as a human race we are losing our way.

I don't know a lot about laws. I just feel without education people will break laws anyways. With education people wouldn't break laws, so whats the point of even having the laws? The only thing the do is take freedoms. But yeah, taxes and laws are ok now I guess. Only because people need more education.

and yeah as whole humans lost there way a long time ago.

Yeah the way has been lost...and I feel exactly the way you feel Loz. But I'm just a piece of shit like the rest of those guys with their bags full of rubbish. I'm just like them. I don't do shit about the situation. I feel like I want to make a difference but when I try it just feels hopeless...like I'm trying to go up a down escalator.

hed_2012 wrote:

Yeah the way has been lost...and I feel exactly the way you feel Loz. But I'm just a piece of shit like the rest of those guys with their bags full of rubbish. I'm just like them. I don't do shit about the situation. I feel like I want to make a difference but when I try it just feels hopeless...like I'm trying to go up a down escalator.

At least you are aware of it. Some people mindlessly spend their money away.

Some related videos:
Bill hicks on Marketing
two full documentary's:
Consuming Kids
Affluenza

Bill Hicks is one of the greatest men who ever lived. He is a huge inspiration for me. He had somvery profound and ballsy things to say about society, government, drugs and the economy...but with a very funny spin. R.I.P.

Yeah its sad, but true, the moral status of our society is just going to shit. I myself helped in the Haiti crisis because I felt the need to help my fellow man. After all we are all brothers and sisters here, we help each other. It does make me sick to my guts to see instead of progressing as a race getting more civilized and "out of the jungle" so to speak we are falling apart. I work as a supervisor at a large pharmacy retailer chain in the US known as CVS/pharmacy and the amount of theft in these stores is just sickening. People are so selfish and self-indulgent that they dont ever think about what they are doing is going to effect other people. People are losing jobs left and right here and its because of selfish people like that. Sorry but activity like this just gets me pissed. /rant

lozz wrote:

Yeah but taxes can get results if used correctly. I suppose we live in very different cultures. If you have a redistriutive tax system the majority of people who are on low and middle incomes don't get pissed off because money if flowing from the rich to the poor.

I do get your point that education is important. But unfortuantely I feel that in the education system in the UK the very little time that is spent on social justice is nothing to compete against the millions of pounds spent on advertising. Maybe this could be changed but I doubt it.

I just can't help feel like as a human race we are losing our way.

but then the rich get pissed and they call the shots so tough luck on the poor!

and sure everyone should spare a dime especially when dissastors like this happen. But you can't count on the average Joe to save the world, the politics and reforms and shit is where its at. Us normal ppl can only do so much.

Hey Sinister. This will probably get you pissed but I feel the need to say it...

America's health care system is completely fucked up. I'm not at all surprised that people steal from pharmacies. They're probably trying to save their loved ones from disease...kinda like in Britain where people HAD to steal bread to survive. Maybe it's naive of me to say this but what if they're doing it for survival purposes rather than capital driven purposes? You'd know more than me about the situation, I mean you live in America...but still, just a thought.

Has anyone ever noticed that in every shopping center there is at least one of these stores: pizza, karate, nails, Chinese food. Is this only America or are other country's like this?

hed_2012 wrote:

Hey Sinister. This will probably get you pissed but I feel the need to say it...

America's health care system is completely fucked up. I'm not at all surprised that people steal from pharmacies. They're probably trying to save their loved ones from disease...kinda like in Britain where people HAD to steal bread to survive. Maybe it's naive of me to say this but what if they're doing it for survival purposes rather than capital driven purposes? You'd know more than me about the situation, I mean you live in America...but still, just a thought.

CVS is a convenient store, that now builds there stores as big as a grocery store all over the place. I hate seeing them and and any big store go up all over the place, literally a mile down the road from each other.

I image most people that are stealing from CVS are kids stealing candy, make up, or cough syrupy.