Saturday, June 02, 2012

the economy and a fly

I had this nice little point i was going to make but then by the time i had signed out of one account and into another a pesky fly started zooming around my head space and landed on the computer screen.  Apparently you shouldn't kill other things, so i catch them and put them outside.  When i was a kid i would catch grasshoppers and put them in a spider web and then watch the excitement as a spider raced out on the web and rolled up that "cling" as we called them and then bite the fucker causing one final kick of the hind leg.

My Dad thought that was great, he loves biology and hates garden menace insects, and has the common sense to not use poison on vegetables he wanted to eat.  In fact years ago i offered to make a "railway tie" retaining wall for a mound up at the cottage, and after careful consideration he declined because he didn't want the toxic tar from the railway ties to seep into the well water.

How did we get from online shopping to well water?  Serendipity i believe, because the point is about the local economy.  CT bought some shoes online and they arrived in the mail today, they were a real deal but then she mentioned how she was reading how when you buy things online you are "hurting " the local economy.  Now i get that, and on principle i agree, it's just that i disagree with the word "economy", perhaps disagree is the wrong word.  I just don't think economy really works... the word has kind of been ruined, having been used as a fear tool to motivate sheeple, and then collapsed, only to be propped up again by sheeple, and now we need to worry about it again.

So if i buy my shoes down the street the guy can pay his rent to somebody who lives where and then he can have more shoes shipped in from some where far away...  I have had similar arguments with many "working musicians" or "aspiring artists" just to put the ball back in my court.  They say you need to make and sell CD's to survive, and that people should support the buying of CD's.  I mean if anybody wants to buy some CD's i have plenty of sealed pressed cd's i can cut you a deal on... but really when you get to the point where you are justifying making a piece of plastic is your only avenue for survival then you know for sure that you have hit the zone we like to refer to as "INSANE".  I'm insane, i put out a CD last year... i went without the shrink wrap and printed on a recycled cardboard sleeve, but i still produced a plastic CD that is essentially an undesirable piece of crap to most of the population of the neighbourhood.  Is it better for me to set out a stand in front of the house and try to "sell" my plastic to people, or is it better for me to find a better way to be happy stable and sharing music.

The answer is as obvious as it is clouded.  It is not acceptable to buy into a system that creates unnecessary waste, even if that waste could benefit you in the short term.

when the system brings you down
when the system changes how you feel
its is time to change the system
it is time to bring it down
             -"fuck the system" Sons of Freedom

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