This picture kinda sums up the mood in U.K right now and probably most other places..everyone eyeballing everyone else like they might be the ones to give them the dreaded lurgy…suspicion is becoming as contagious as the virus. This lot giving me the stares should poss be checking out the dude to the right pumping spit into a sax & blowing it out the other end…that can’t be good.
In the book “The Future we Choose” by Christiana Figures and Tom Rivett-Carnac, a book focussing on positive solutions for climate change there is a chapter which demonstrates how fear of scarcity creates scarcity. They illustrate this concept with an example of Tucson, a desert town in Arizona which had the perception they were going to run out of water so over-pumped the available supply and created the very thing they were afraid of. If they had not panicked they would have been fine.
Anyone who is stockpiling toilet paper is demonstrating perfectly how, if we continue to focus on our own individual needs and concerns, we are doomed. It gives a chilling look into how people behave when they panic. If this is how they react over toilet paper, what will they do when food and water become scarce? We must stop thinking that we are up against each other and realise that our only chance of survival is to think and act collectively. It is imperative to our survival. Either “we all win or we all lose” as it states in the aforementioned book.
Or if I could put it slightly more offensively to the gentleman carrying 63 rolls in this photo (yes I counted) and others like him: don’t be a selfish fucking twat and calm the fuck down. You’re an embarrassment to your species.
Carnaby St. (where all shots this week were taken) recently erected a giant whale & other sea life made out of recycled parts to show they’re really concerned with the environmental impact of the fashion industry, These assorted creatures hovered directly above the outlets of the companies that are directly responsible for the problem in first place. And not at any point did anyone who worked on this project think that maybe this was a conflicting message to the consumers below: Be aware of the destruction caused by fast fashion, but still continue to buy it from our shops.
By tomorrow I would have completed one year without buying any new clothes. I signed up to the ‘no new for 52’ XR boycott fashion pledge and have stuck to it. Not looking for pat on back as it really wasn’t that hard as mostly buy previously owned anyway and rarely have spondoolies to spare so did not find it too much of a hardship. Did my consumerist abstinence make a shit of a difference to anything? Of course not but I wanted to see first hand if it was possible to live a life without unnecessary consumerism.
My conclusion is, not only is it possible, it is actually more enjoyable. The longer it went on the easier it got. And then I extended it to everything else that I didn’t really need and in the last 12 months have only bought consumables, work related items or replaced something that was broke. And that’s about it.
I now think I can maybe get to death without buying any new clothes (bar mebbe some undies n socks) so now I just mooch about looking at things and not buying them. This is, in fact, quite joyful and better than actual shopping as you no longer have to suffer the dilemma of whether you should purchase something or not. You also then don’t feel flat and unsatisfied when that very fleeting sensation of pleasure from retail therapy subsides and you are left with a hole that still hasn’t been filled.
I have also saved a ton fuck of money as you can imagine. So it’s a proper win win and that’s before you even take into account that if, as a unified species, not just as isolated individuals, we drastically reduced our consumption and production of crap we don’t actually need we might just be able to get ourselves out of this dire situation we have created.
I recommend trying it as you will soon see there is a life to be had that doesn’t involve just buying stuff, despite what they tell us. Just don’t think of it as denying yourself, think of it as liberation.
Ok, just wanted to say that, now I’m going back under my rock. Goodbye…
