Why Union Square Matters

It is disgusting the amount of abuse, neglect, rape and outright oppression our "freedoms"  have wrought upon our planet.  We are not content with the elimination of other species we must include ourselves in the process of elimination.  The question, is this our fate?  To kill ourselves and prepare the planet for its next phase.  It is as if a train wreck, we instinctly know what is on the other side of our tendency to overconsume yet we can't help ourselves to watch ourselves kill ourselves, as if we are a third party.  

Is our need to be accepted in this society worth the price?  So many are afraid that if they don't consume they will be rejected.  We are addicted to acceptance through consumption, in fact it is beyond addiction it is such a way of life it is not even questioned anymore.  We are born to take up and not give.  To suffer even a little is an outrage.  Don't even suggest lowering the heat in your home or riding a bike in the cold.  WE ARE WEAK!  We have been feed that we need because we are weak.  We cannot survive without the cell phone.  We cannot learn to live without modern conveniences.  We cannot survive without this destructive way of life, yet we don't prosper in it either! 

It is a LIE.  We are very resilient and competent.  Don't let the corporations, who can't survive without our buying into this lie, sell you short.  You deserve so much more than they can offer.  We have settled for this second hand life for too long.  We have suffered the oppression of being slaves to a machine that brings us artificial happiness.  I am exhausted of being ground up by it.  I am sad of seeing everyone around me ground up as well and wondering why the promise of happiness and security is always out of our reach.  I have lost all hope of the promise of it.  I feel as if I am a prisoner of this way of life.  I see my daughters falling in this trap and yet even as my daughter comes in and asks for something I fall into the trap myself.  

I have taken some steps to reduce not only the spending but also the way of life.  I have eliminated television or rather cable or any tv stations influence from our daily life.  I was very upset about the whole conversion to digital.  So that we could see a clearer picture the cost is how many converter boxes hooked up to the electrical grid?  So I refuse to convert.  And guess what I not only survived but I feel such a huge weight lifted off of me.  I also saw a huge shift in my daughters outlook on life.  They became closer to each other and their ideas and philosophies of the Disney channel and consumerism seem to be slowly melting away.  I am not saying there are not other influences in their life they still go over to friends houses that have TV and they have friends that may question why they don't have certain things.  But I have been able to give them the opportunity to see that they can live without the shiny stuff.  That they can question not only the society that they live in but also themselves and that is allowed and healthy to do. 

It is funny that we are told we are consumers but it is it really we whom are being consumed?