fashionRIP: Killing Us

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Killing Us

A Beautiful Rebel, part of my On Busses photo series

I had a wonderful conversation last Sunday with a friend of mine. We meet along with one other friend, for coffee talks on a regular basis. He is Oxford educated, taught eastern philosophy and is now at Microsoft and she is a former Pilates instructor married to an MD who came to the US at the age of 4. We have the best chats. Time flies as we learn and appreciate each other and what we bring to the table. I highly recommend this do-able act of sharing, caring.

I had brought up the schizophrenic nature of modern culture that is connected to the current sociopathic economic model that systemically built what can only be called USA Inc.. Step by step, over time, i think western culturel became immersed in a machine designed under the influence of a faux Darwinian legacy. This justified creating wealth for the few at the expense of the many and the environment. Now we are experiencing the chaos of the reality check.

However:

As major media is controlled by the largest benefactors of the crusty, old dysfunctional machine we are unfortunately still inundated with messages from the source of the problem. Even as corporations recognize their environmental errors they seem reluctant to face up to the emotional, physical, spiritual, social health and welfare of an interrelated, connected living system we call Earth.

So, in the course of the conversation my friend asked for the link to "Killing Us Softly" a video lecture of the series on women and advertising. I had mentioned the Madonna/Whore dichotomy that American women are still plagued with ( i know, hard to believe that silliness is still around!) and the schizophrenic culture that swallows it without knowing what exactly is in the bite.

Killing Us Softly #2, #3 and #4 are all worthwhile and a great way to start understanding the consumer model of economics. Thank you Jean Kilbourne for your pioneering work.

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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.