fashionRIP: Retail ReDux

Friday, June 4, 2010

Retail ReDux

Do bars & walls keep "the other out" or just cage us in?

The whole of the following excerpt is posted on the new sustainable fashion- the papers blog

As Americans, we have become accustomed to a lifestyle that is manipulated, unavailable on a large scale due to finite resources and though at first it was fairly consensual, we are starting to realize that it is an abusive relationship. Now more and more of us want it to stop! We feel we have been duped for the benefit of a very few, while the majority is played as scapegoats and pawns.

British research verified the truth of the shoppers high a few years ago. “During a shopping experience, the human brain apparently releases the chemical dopamine, ....... which has a role in our ability to experience pleasure or pain. It appears also to have a role in addictive behavior. Simply put, if an action makes us feel good we want to repeat it.” (Kopp, C. 2005)

This seduction has a huge cost that is not extracted from the bottom line by the production model we have constructed. Product lifecycle considerations are now questioned as is the transportation and resource abuse we have tolerated in the name of lifestyle. Now we realize the huge price tag we were encouraged to ignore. The bill is coming due and we need to accept that fact. (& this just addresses the physical damage, the mental is another story to be continued.)

As we heal the earth, we may heal ourselves and vice versa. We need new stories to promote that healing; stories not of fear but of love. “Storytelling has always been the preferred tool of great wisdom teachers.” (Wolz, B. p. 14) Well if it works for them, maybe we have a chance. If you have a story share it, it is time.

graniness achieved by shooting with a pentax digital still camera. I wasn't intending to do this video until the Easter Island Maoi figures "told me to."

See all the "STUFF" at

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

1 comment:

Hermans ECO said...: Nicely put together makes you think I love story of stuff.; June 7, 2010 at 12:03 PM

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Why it Matters

What's the matter with more and more fashion choices?

It sounds good; we love to be able to pick the perfect outfit. You wear it once or twice and then ....what was the real cost here?

Your time to shop and the money spent, not so much ....go a little deeper and consider the fiber source, the dyes and chemicals used, the health toll on the workers, the energy to run the machines, the transporting carbons...and now it just takes up closet space. But so what? It's been going on for-almost-ever and you didn't make the rules.

In fact we are told this is what a "healthy" economy looks like.

You will recycle it after all, give it to charity or your sister. This is more transportation and more release of those greenhouse gases. We are using a lot of our personal energy and the resources of this planet to make, use and dump "trash" Some rags, remnants and tawdry bits will molder for eons in landfills, as nature's microbial actions are hampered by our normalized, everyday toxic lifestyles.

This goes beyond dumps as the breakdown cycle that nourishes the life of this planet has been sorely challenged by GMO crops, fertilizers, pesticides, antimicrobials..RIGHT!!. All the "living better through chemistry" propaganda after WWI and II- AKA how to sell your "garbage," is our legacy. Well no more, not on my (our) watch, we are seeing things quite differently.

As we now carry 298 toxins in our bods that weren't there in the 1930s the toxic residues of normal are haunting us more and more. Ironic, no? Advanced is merely a word.

Go to the So Whats the Point blog in February for the numbers.

fashionRIP posts are copr at time of posting thank you

Extinctions ...So What?

Life evolves, some species survive some don't. We like to allude to Darwin's "natural selection" or Herbert Spencer's "survival of the fittest" because we are so good at reproducing and taking over this planet and justifying that side of our natures. The fact that we are wiping out the food chain by destroying habitat, fouling air and water and generally behaving like arrogant, tinkering idiots, is called business as usual. .....Well I and others are no longer buying that "sell."

We are wising up to the idea that we too, are dependent on these resources. We too, are physically an organic species and we really don't know what little extinction will be the start of the chain reaction that collapses the structure that we too, are dependent on.

Is this the price we are willing to pay for a pair of plastic shoes?

I say no, that despite the focus on the physical, we are more. We are heart and soul, mind, body, spirit. We are born of stars and we can and will leap over this world view based in old, untrue beliefs led by a science of isolation and religions of patriarchal, hierarchical constructs (your basic dominating Dad- with self reflective rights to rule). It is time to come together and heal. To transition into our fuller expectations and open the new possibilities. We are born with genius...let us help each other get to where we all can shine.