Every day is election day. Each consumer choice is, in a sense, like a choice on a ballot--with money being the vote.Let's assume, for a moment, that the average person spends a very conservative estimate of $300 a month on groceries. In a year, that's $3600 of buying power. Ten of us, for 3 years, and we are talking over $100,000. Thirty of us, for ten years, and we are talking over a 1,000,000 dollars. 300 of us, perhaps the number of friends on someone's Facebook page... in 10 years, that's ten million dollars.
So, even a small number of us, who are mindful of our purchases, can have this impact. Some, granted, is lost in the transactions, and it doesn't go directly to the cause--but very much in general, what are we voting on?
I'm not in favor of a world where corporations control the media and buy or sway elections, but, for now, that seems to be the reality.
If the money does go to a parent company, what is that company supporting? Who and what are they lobbying for? Who do they empower politically? Do they own a news station or a media conglomerate? Are they going to bat for sustainability? Probably not.
Let's take Coke-a-cola, for example. That company is investing in an anti-labeling campaign for genetically modified foods. Keep in mind that many GMOs modify plants (to withstand more toxic pesticides and herbicides.) Some of these GMOs are patented... Farmers can even be sued when their fields, by no fault of their own, are cross-pollinated.
Coke's leadership wants GMOs to slip under the curtain, because it's better for business. The product, however, contains the very ingredients in question.
So, genetically modified foods... yes or no? Sustainable farming practices.... yes or no? Excess plastic packaging... yes or no? Chemicals sprayed on the ground... yes or no? Nutrient dense whole foods... yes or no? Nutrient depleted foods related to depression and disease... yes or no?
Foods that contain synthetic dyes... yes or no? A vote for a dye production facility... yes or no? Local economy... yes or no? Animal testing... yes or no? Flavors, perfumes, sweetening agents? yes or no? Air pollutants... yes or no?... or at least... how much? Sustainable energy... yes or no? Human rights... yes or no?
Want money out of politics? Maybe that won't be a reality right now---and, fair enough, maybe it isn't always black and white--but how about aligning money with principles to whatever extent possible.
That said, there is a paradoxical opportunity: support an entity that uses its financial pull to get money out of politics. I'm referring to "The super PAC to end all super PACS": MAYDAY.
Until then, perhaps we let the money find its way, in correlation with the vision, to the extent that we are able. Every little bit helps. It may start with the grocery cart, among other things.
We are capable of so much more. We have to follow the strings though, and that's a lot of responsibility. Sometimes the web shifts and is tangled up. Sometimes it adjusts to our actions (to find another way in.)
How we are marketed to will shift as we shift. Economic challenges for families have to be acknowledged. Sometimes basic survival is at the forefront. So, none of this is to say it's easy... or always possible.
Nonetheless... if we want to sustain, we need to harness whatever power we do have. This means seeing past the music & the nostalgia, past the one 'green' product (or charitable endeavor) the business parades out--to deceive us into granting it our economic support... our vote.
To them, we are statistics. We are counted and purposely manipulated. This doesn't mean we have to forget that businesses are full of sentient beings like ourselves. It means that we simply ask the question of whether we are feeding own (or our children's own or society's own) demons.
People get excited around election time, and yet there are elections every single day day. That same feeling of power, potential and change could be in the air. There are quality places to place value in... sustainable practices, high quality foods, businesses with integrity.
Maybe, for now, it is true that the corporation empowers the politician, through money and media, but who feeds the corporations anyhow? Who buys the products? Who holds the power? The system is like the breath. It goes on by itself... unless we become aware.
That said, our personal, literal, automated breath is generally in our best interest. Leaving this broader system to automation is to surrender quality and sustainability.
We tend to treat our planetary condition the same way as we treat a disease... by addressing only symptoms. Then we put our leftover energy into fighting it. So we burn at both ends.
Its easy to give up, fall asleep and live in a plasticky sub par environment with our ambivalence
People are always talking up freedom, but what is the point of democracy if people fly the banner of their own news station, no questions asked... to vote home team and to buy... based on program.
We aren't really voting... corporate interests are. We become the puppets. They become the hand. We surrender the real world... to live in a false one they've injected into our heads, mostly to enrich themselves.
Democracy (if we actually had one) doesn't work if people are sleeping. It's perhaps just as flawed as any other system.
The company (or CEO) becomes the king rather than a person. The tragedy is that we've got minds capable of so much more. That said, often people are unwilling (or unable) to change. They simply can not (or will not) wrap their minds around the game.
Nonetheless, there's still the potential for the rest of us to bring it to critical mass. We make it easier for them follow suit, once it becomes convention... the rabbit they reach into the hat for.
We can be better than plastic bottles, individualized coke bottles, styrofoam carryout containers, misuse of science (in the form of chemical ingredients, animal testing.) Under the influence of passion, I might say... please prove to me we are truly intelligent. Lets raise the bar and get this shit together.
If 100 of us were to go out and invest in sustainability, compassion and the illumination of complexity... if one third of the people on the average person's facebook page were to become conscious spenders... that could be over one million dollars a year consciously invested.
Want to take down the system? For starters we stop handing it building blocks. We make it run out of legos & get about the business of building something else.
Like Solar Roadways... or something equally innovative with the same principles at heart.
We also may vote with our thoughts, but that's a whole other story. Although... to be a conscious spender is to hold a vision. We put ourselves on a particular road and gradually pull society toward that road... or at least curving it away from the cliff. We buy ourselves (and our collective ecosystem) time.
Democracy (if we actually had one) doesn't work if people are sleeping. It's perhaps just as flawed as any other system.
The company (or CEO) becomes the king rather than a person. The tragedy is that we've got minds capable of so much more. That said, often people are unwilling (or unable) to change. They simply can not (or will not) wrap their minds around the game.
Nonetheless, there's still the potential for the rest of us to bring it to critical mass. We make it easier for them follow suit, once it becomes convention... the rabbit they reach into the hat for.
We can be better than plastic bottles, individualized coke bottles, styrofoam carryout containers, misuse of science (in the form of chemical ingredients, animal testing.) Under the influence of passion, I might say... please prove to me we are truly intelligent. Lets raise the bar and get this shit together.
If 100 of us were to go out and invest in sustainability, compassion and the illumination of complexity... if one third of the people on the average person's facebook page were to become conscious spenders... that could be over one million dollars a year consciously invested.
Want to take down the system? For starters we stop handing it building blocks. We make it run out of legos & get about the business of building something else.
Like Solar Roadways... or something equally innovative with the same principles at heart.
We also may vote with our thoughts, but that's a whole other story. Although... to be a conscious spender is to hold a vision. We put ourselves on a particular road and gradually pull society toward that road... or at least curving it away from the cliff. We buy ourselves (and our collective ecosystem) time.
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