We love stuff, we love shit. We are in a culture… nay, in a lifestyle… that loves to love stuff. Anything really… you name it – we will buy it. Even if there is absolutely no use for it – then we really want it!!
I recently was fortunate enough to participate in a Buy-‘n-Go. It works like this: the University has a lot of extra stuff that they throw out; beautiful solid wood tables, chairs, cabinets, old school authentic bureaus, etc. Then they mark it down to next to nothing (you won’t be able to buy candy from a baby with that money), and then it is open for the public to purchase. You have to go early to stand in line. Then they open the gates – now you have to stand behind a marathon-like line. When the foreman says go and you run faster than you’re legs can carry you and put a sticker on you’re desired item. Then the item it is yours – CONGRATULATIONS!
What do you think is going to happen? Let me give you a hint, take a bunch of stuff-loving humans, let them loose in a hanger full of first grade stuff priced at prices that seem to need a extra couple of zero's at the end. What do you get? That’s right barbarism!
What does Barbarism mean? Let’s be civilized and agree on a definition of barbarism. The famous anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss explained barbaric behavior with the metaphor of a train; that two cultures are like two different trains crossing each other: each one believes it has chosen the good direction.
Thus, the Buy- `n –Go was barbaric. Each of us had a destination; a track laid towards it and everybody steamrolled towards their beloved artifacts – no conductors, no traffic lights, no schedule, no platforms, no tickets… just pure buying lust driven by adrenalin and low-low prices.
So there I was, standing in the line, waiting for the foreman to give the go-ahead and let the wild herd loose. The moment evaporated in front of me: first, he said ‘go’, then I was shoved to the left, I tripped over my own – usually loyal – feet. I recovered – reached out, grabbed a flock of hair from the nearest head and pulled myself upright. I used my elbows to beat fast little children who was annoyingly on my heals. I was getting closer to MY table; if I can only plant the flag… I mean, if I can only put my sticker on it. My sticker will seal by colonization… I mean, if will declare my ownership and I, oh I, would once again be fully happy. I was so close – I could smell my table. When I got to the first green chair I had to make a sharp right. Someone was blocking my way, I panicked, but then this unimportant person got shoved and my way was cleared - there were good in the world after all. I got to my table. The shear force of my momentum carried me over the table – while I was sliding over the table top I kept busy by sticking stickers as far as I slid. I fell over the other side on the hard cement floor, smiling.
Afterwards… well, it was awkward. Because now you have to face the people with humanity, trying to ignore the fact that moments earlier you screamed a war cry, pissed in your pants and try to slam their face on to the cold wet (from your pee) cement. So you give them a polite: “Well done, Sir.” Or “You are very fast…: or “Would you like a tissue to stop the bleeding?”. Yes, we are barbaric.
Shopping doesn’t always take on this intense form. Mostly we just go into a store and buy something. Return home – enjoy our purchase for a day or two and leave it on the top shelf were it will soon be full of dust and forgotten. Yeah, you can never have enough of something you don’t need. And we have a lot of it!
But even this seemingly innocent purchase can be – and probably is – a barbaric train on the track and storms forth. Crossing a destroying other invisible tracks. ‘Invisible’ trains, like child and unprotected laborers working in China (or wherever else) to produce cheap stuff. ‘Invisible’ trains like, the environment in developing countries that is just to glad for a bit of money, food, clothes or liquor; they will give up centuries of trees in literally 15 minutes. ‘Invisible’ trains, like workers of Wall- Mart that earn a mere $8.75 per hour (Windy City's Pullman) in contrast to the barbaric train of a CEO of Wall- Mart Michael Duke that earns $35million per year (approx $16 826,92 per hour) … please note that Duke earns more in a hour than his bottom workers in a year… Duke, you are an idiot!
It would have been one thing if we were better off for it, but you are probably just as (un)happy after your shopping war as before. But just remember you are going to have to face your invisible trains someday. Don’t let it be awkward if you have to return from barbarism to “civilization"*
*Please note 'Civilization' is a bullshit word!
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