Like Christmas Day Every Day!

May 01 2008

Published by Steve N. Lee at 7:31 pm under consumerism, environment

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Christmas? Everyday!

[Costingtons department store boardroom; execs sitting around a table.]

CEO: Okay, people, we need to cook up a new holiday for the summer. Something with gifts, cards, assorted gougeables.

Exec #1: How about something religious? We had great penetration last spring with Christmas Two.

Exec #2: Oh, I know. Spendover, like Passover - less talk, more presents.

[Everyone starts talking at once]

CEO: No, no, no! No, it’s gotta be warm and fuzzy. Something like, um, “Love Day”, but not so lame.

[Days later. The Simpsons’ living-room. Marge enters.]

Marge: Happy Love Day, everyone!

Lisa: Come on, Mom, the stores just invented this holiday to make money.

Homer: Lisa, don’t you ruin another Love Day!

Earth Day - just another Love Day?

In 1970, Earth Day was inaugurated to further environmental issues. 38 years later and what better way to raise awareness of deforestation, climate change, pollution than by, oh, I don’t know…

taking a Virgin flight and increasing carbon emissions.
investing in a HP computer that will be obsolete technology in six months.
buying Banana Republic clothes even though 75% of your wardrobe rarely sees daylight.

In theory, Earth Day is wonderful - 17,000 organizations in 174 countries, coordinating millions of community development and environmental projects. But - and that’s a big ‘but’ - we are allowing it to be hijacked for big business to make big bucks.

Pardon?

You say what?

Virgin, HP, AND Banana Republic are all recycling or donating to environmental organizations to celebrate Earth Day?

Oh! Sorry. So they’re NOT milking us dry by jumping on the green bandwagon!

Okay, so let me get this straight:

Because the company promised to donate a gigantic $3 to environmental causes for every customer flying with them on that day, Virgin’s invitation to the world’s press to take a celebratory Earth Day flight was for the sake of the planet and was NOT a cheap stunt to raise awareness of Virgin’s new U.S. airline.
Likewise, HP is solely interested in recycling old PCs for the good of the environment, NOT in its Earth Day promotions luring us into buying things we don’t really need, that will be obsolete virtually as soon as they’re unboxed.
Banana Republic honestly believe that the best way to conserve resources and save the planet is to buy, buy, buy, buy, buy because they’ll donate a whopping 1% of the sales made during Earth Day week to charity. They did NOT launch an organic line just in time for Earth Day to exploit the day.

Silly me. All I saw was:

Richard Branson (i.e. Mr. Virgin) is the 20th richest man in the U.K. with a $5.3 BILLION empire!
HP sold 11 MILLION units in the first quarter of 2007 making them the biggest PC seller in the world!
Luxury brand Banana Republic helped its parent company GAP earn $15.8 BILLION in 2007!

They see a bigger picture to solving the world’s problems that everyone else can’t! Thank God they’re here to push us in the right direction - by encouraging all of us to save the world by wasting more.

WOW! That’s some philosophy! ‘Consume more to use less’. Very profound! Wonder who said that first, Confucius or Aristotle?

But…

- and excuse me if I seem ungrateful after all they’re doing for us -

… isn’t that like trying to lose weight by bingeing on chocolate cake?

I believe Christmas was once some sort of celebration that didn’t include the worshipping of game consoles, golf clubs, shoes, jewellery, but the evidence for that is long since buried under Rudolph’s crap. There’s probably an organization or two that still indulge in quaint traditional customs but it’s nothing that the general populous is interested in really.

Why?

Because we’ve been brainwashed into spending every penny we can to prove to those around us how much we love them.

Why can’t we show some restraint? Why do we need 20 pairs of shoes, a TV in every room, so much food we throw away 30%…?

Why can’t we see that we are invariably manipulated into needlessly buying utter crap?

If we could jump off the consumerism merry-go-round, think how much more money we’d all have to spend on… oh, I don’t know… how about our -

Children
Education
Health
Vacations
Hobbies
Retirement
Security
Travel
Family
Friends
Charity

Food shortages are causing riots around the globe - Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Mauritania, Mexico, Senegal, Uzbekistan… Are we really so dumb that we believe ‘it won’t happen to us’? We scorn junkies, yet we’re addicted to consumerism and no logic, prayer, or threat can wean us off it.

But do you want to know the really weird thing?

All those highflying execs that manipulate us into buying all this crap so wasting resources and screwing up the entire world… you know what they like doing?

Skiing the pristine pistes of Aspen.
Basking on powdery beaches in the Caribbean.
Marvelling at magnificent beasts while on safari in Africa.

Yep, they blow all the money they extort from us on enjoying the very wonders that they’re destroying. Wonders they’re denying their children.

Now, I’m no psychology guru, but isn’t that just plain dumb? Ain’t that like taking a dump in the casserole you’re cooking for your family’s dinner? (Though, I should point out, I’m no cookery guru either, so I may have chosen a poor analogy there!)

I suppose that’s why I’m not on a six/seven figure income - I just can’t see the bigger picture that they can.

But why do they do it? Why do we let them?

Why do they want every single day to be like Christmas Day? Don’t they understand what it’s doing to the planet? Don’t they understand the disaster they’re forging for the future?

Luckily, Homer can answer that - “Just because I don’t care doesn’t mean I don’t understand.”

Enough said.So go. See. Feel. Live.
Steve

If you like my blog, you’ll absolutely love ‘What if…?’, a roller-coaster thriller blending political intrigue and high-octane action with a thought-provoking exploration of poverty and environmental crises.

When a mysterious stranger fights to end world poverty, his seeming ability to heal with just a touch catapults him to fame but thrusts him into a deadly struggle with corporate America and the White House that like the world just the way it is: under their control - poverty, disease, wars and all.

But can the stranger heal? Or is he the biggest villain of all, perpetrating the most elaborate scam of all time?

Is it any good?

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15 Responses to “Like Christmas Day Every Day!”

# Melissa D. C.on 02 May 2008 at 3:37 am

I was disappointed by the whole SOS Earth thing that Al Gore put together… I truly admire Mr. Gore, but it seemed as though most of the Bands and singers that he got for this had no idea what they were there for. They were all asked, “What is one thing that you would like to tell people that they can do for our environment?”, and most of them said the obvious things (i.e.: don’t let the water run while brushing your teeth, switch your light bulbs….) And there were very few that sang songs of protest or hope. Sorry if this is a bit off subject, but your words brought that to mind for me.
I am already pretty sick to death of the PR things that every oil, gas, electric company, and car company have been airing, both on TV and the net.. The saddest part? The “masses” are falling for it.
~Melissa~
# Melissa D. C.on 02 May 2008 at 3:48 am

We all need to simplify our lives… I donated more then half of my “stuff”, and refuse to buy more. It has helped me be more oganized, has saved me money, has reduced the junk we inport from China, and has just made me feel better about myself.
I care, I understand, I do what I can… and I also don’t cook. ;-)
# Terrie Won 02 May 2008 at 4:09 pm

Good post Steve, as usual! :) I never get tired of your ‘analogies’ LOL.

I too am sick and tired of mega-corporations programming and propagandizing the masses into buy, buy, buy–spend, spend, spend. And on what?! CRAP!!! Crap we don’t need, seldom use and then dump either into landfills or on to other people who don’t need or want it either.

You can’t eat oil.
You can’t plant computers.
You can’t harvest X-Boxes.
And you can’t drink ethanol.

What part of ‘unsustainable’ do we not understand? Consumerism is the sickness and the multinational corporations are the pathogen. What part of that do people not understand? They understand, they just refuse to ‘cure’ the ailment because it might be painful or inconvenient. There are, however, some of us out here that DO ‘get it’, that DO understand and ARE taking the cure. And our numbers are growing–slowly but surely.

Unfortunately, like the junkies that the rest of the masses are, they will not ‘kick the habit’ until either some life-threatening event occurs to them personally or they loose everything/everyone who cares about them. When they finally ‘hit bottom’ will they begin to seek help with their ‘addiction’. By then, having nothing left, will they understand the destruction they have suffered and caused to suffer.

My fear is that by that time of bottoming out by millions of people it will be too late for the planet and our species as a whole. The ‘cancer’ will have become terminal and no amount of ‘radical therapy’ will save the victim (the victim being life on earth and the earth itself).

When will people ‘get it’? When greed is no longer King. When coveting that which one does not have, does not need or does not even want really, is eradicated from the human psyche. The ‘Seven Deadlies’ are called that for a reason–because they ARE deadly. What we do, what we buy, what we CONSUME does indeed kill. Cause and effect–these are universal laws.

Until people stop buying into the capitalist wet dream of mindless consumption and soulless profits, there will be no end to the virus–it will continue to be fed. That is — until the last fish gasps, the last steer bellows, the last tree falls and the last flower fails to bloom.

But there is still hope! WE, those of us who are AWAKE, must not give up trying to wake up the rest of the brain-dead, xombied out, worker-drones. They can still be reached, they can still be cured. The window is not wide or long or endless, but it is still open. We must not preach or pontificate our mission. We must lead by example. We must engage them on their level–in their own terms of understanding. When we do that, we CAN reach them and awaken their self-preservation gene. The light bulb turns on and they ‘get it’!!!

As for ‘man-made’ holidays, they only serve the rich to fill their voracious appetites of greed for gold. Their God is our money. Starve the Beast and feed our families, our spirits, our lives. Get back to what is truly important and not superficial.

Oh, by the way, I and my family, we do not ‘celebrate’ ANY holiday with mindless spending on mindless crap to prove our love to eachother. We ‘celebrate’ eachother EVERY DAY of the year with kindness, respect, honor and understanding. LOVE. We spend what money we have on the essentials to life, not on useless crap we don’t need. Our home is not filled with ‘things’, our home is filled with love for one another, respect for the earth and all things living and compassion for those who have even less. We don’t have much (by a consumer’s or corporation’s standard) but everything we have WE OWN. And we are THANKFUL for what we have-every day of the year.

Try it, people, you might like it! You might learn what is really important to you–or should be. You too can achieve consciousness, awareness and personal responsibility. :)
# Susan Lon 03 May 2008 at 8:40 pm

Steve,

Enjoyed your blog. I agree with you. Earth Day did pass with very little notice and that’s too bad. I guess some of us do care and are doing what we can. I planted a few trees in my yard, which at the rate I’m going, will soon be overgrown with trees. We’ve let our “lawn” return to the natural grasses, etc. that belong in what was once the field where our house is build. I’m tempted to spout “We Shall Overcome” if we keep trying to open people’s eyes.

Perhaps it will take the power being knocked out for several days for people to learn how to get along without electricity and X-boxes once again, but I fear they would not know what to do to entertain themselves, as even the children seem to have lost the ability to do that. A sad situation in an ever increasing sad news world!
# Liz Don 04 May 2008 at 4:52 pm

Oh I did like that……thanks once again, Steve for keeping us aware of the *real* reasons behind some *Green campaigns*
# Penelopeon 06 May 2008 at 4:19 pm

Yup and we would be infinately better off all of us if we diverted the money from arms production and the militatary to feeding clothing healthing sheltering etc the world’s population - In fact a fraction of what is spent on the military alone would do that . Conflict would then beconme uneccessary and so would all this priming of the sales amount as solid things could be producedeg houses farms and happy people.

Also if we all not only the billionares emptied our bank balances and flogged our goods and took seriously that stuff about giving all our goods to the poor and following him.

I do not see either of these things happening certainly not overnight.

That there are idiots and irresponsible greedy people programmed by advertising and peer pressure and the American way of life to do these things you complain of cannot be denied.

At least if they were contributing as much to charity as some governments (I mention no Names) ie one percent - it is a small thing but a contribution which could mount up.

We the butterfly collectors of care2 do not it seems to me do well to slag anything that is a move in the right direction however miniscule.
# Steve N. Leeon 06 May 2008 at 5:29 pm

Good comments, guys.

I saw in the press today that Bush has asked for another $70 BILLION for the war in Iraq - wonder how many mouths that would feed, penelope?

Can never have too many trees, Susan! ;-) But, yes, it’d do kids good if one day a week they had no electricity so they had to entertain themselves by using their brains for mental exercise or a ball for physical exercise.

Melissa - I saw someone slag off Joss Stone (British singer) for that very thing today. If we all made tiny concerted efforts it would make a world of difference.

Terrie… Well, that’s SOME comment! All very valid points. Maybe hitting bottom is what we really need as a species. Maybe that’s really what it will take before we learn our lesson. It would be horrific, but Mankind, if it survived, would come out stronger and healthier for it. Unfortunately it wouldn’t only be us who suffered - everything on the planet would, too. Maybe that’s the next evolutionary step for us.

Pleased you enjoyed it, Liz. Thanks for the support.

Glad you enjoyed the post, guys. Always good to hear from you.
Steve
# nancyon 06 May 2008 at 7:19 pm

Thanks so much Steve for sharing this with us. It’s a sad world they live in when they feed us so much bologna when they should actually practice what they preach.
# Roxannon 15 May 2008 at 5:51 am

good job Steve thanks for sharing. :)
# Deniseon 21 May 2008 at 6:14 am

Such a good point & well said! Steve you’re the best!
# Steve N. Leeon 05 Sep 2008 at 10:50 am

Nancy, Roxann, Denise, thanks for the comments. Sorry it’s taken me so long to reply. I’m supposed to get email notifications when people comment so I know to post a reply. Unfortunately, technology being what it is, these work with only about 66% of the articles I post.

Anyway, thanks for the comments.
Steve
# Black Golf Shoeson 01 Apr 2009 at 8:35 am

You rock. World needs more souls like you.
# Steve N. Leeon 01 Apr 2009 at 12:24 pm

Thanks, Black Golf Shoes. Much appreciated.
Steve
# <a href="http://www.ledsdirectory.com/" target="_blank">LED Manufacturers</a>on 18 Oct 2010 at 8:00 am

greatttttttttt post .. bless you :)
# Steve N. Leeon 18 Oct 2010 at 8:42 am

Thanks, glad you liked it. Call back anytime for a browse of my other posts. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them.