There’s been a lot of talk about the wrong direction our society is taking. Yeah, we all know it to be true (well most of us anyway), but most of us are also painfully aware that we are trapped into an economic inertia that doesn’t seem to offer any way out. We all have bills to pay right? How else are we going to do that but work in whatever job we can? Ideally, we would like it to be ‘sustainable’ but most of the time that’s not a choice we can take.
For why, is a bottomless pit of a talking point. Suffice to say, it’s a merry go round of production feeding consumerism ad infinitum (or at least that’s what some would like you to think). Our race to acquire has left little time for anything else, so we get others to do things we can no longer do, make and create the items we need to get by and follow the marketing shtick that allows these products and services to seem like the best and only solution to our many needs.
As has been pointed out so eloquently elsewhere, manufacturers and advertisers now have another niche to exploit with their voracious and insatiable appetite; the marketing godsend that is the green movement. Yep, using the age old device of guilt, the money men have capitalised on a new scene to flog all manner of new and exciting ‘sustainable’ (that word again) products and gizmos to respondent masses (basically anyone who has tired of shitting in their own drinking water). Apparently there’s an urgent need to recreate a whole pile of stuff to augment your green lifestyle.
Never mind that a whole load of this junk already exists and is lying around ready to be used, reused and bastardised; Its not lucrative to point out that most of it is nowhere needing replacement.
One thing seem to miss out on is the fact that they might actually be able to do a lot of the manufacturing themselves. Some may not know their community but there’s a whole load of skill still available to download from other people. Things that our grandparents took for granted can still be reclaimed..
To relearn what we once knew and to make more use of our resources – those already in the world and that of our own know-how – could be a revolution! By actually making your own stuff you’re cutting off another supply to the system that churns night and day to swallow the planet in return for lining the pockets of the few.
If you’re looking to make yourself handy, Beetroot Books will be holding a large listing of titles detailing ways to get good at practical skills – just look under Maker Revolution
For why, is a bottomless pit of a talking point. Suffice to say, it’s a merry go round of production feeding consumerism ad infinitum (or at least that’s what some would like you to think). Our race to acquire has left little time for anything else, so we get others to do things we can no longer do, make and create the items we need to get by and follow the marketing shtick that allows these products and services to seem like the best and only solution to our many needs.
As has been pointed out so eloquently elsewhere, manufacturers and advertisers now have another niche to exploit with their voracious and insatiable appetite; the marketing godsend that is the green movement. Yep, using the age old device of guilt, the money men have capitalised on a new scene to flog all manner of new and exciting ‘sustainable’ (that word again) products and gizmos to respondent masses (basically anyone who has tired of shitting in their own drinking water). Apparently there’s an urgent need to recreate a whole pile of stuff to augment your green lifestyle.
Never mind that a whole load of this junk already exists and is lying around ready to be used, reused and bastardised; Its not lucrative to point out that most of it is nowhere needing replacement.
One thing seem to miss out on is the fact that they might actually be able to do a lot of the manufacturing themselves. Some may not know their community but there’s a whole load of skill still available to download from other people. Things that our grandparents took for granted can still be reclaimed..
To relearn what we once knew and to make more use of our resources – those already in the world and that of our own know-how – could be a revolution! By actually making your own stuff you’re cutting off another supply to the system that churns night and day to swallow the planet in return for lining the pockets of the few.
If you’re looking to make yourself handy, Beetroot Books will be holding a large listing of titles detailing ways to get good at practical skills – just look under Maker Revolution
