I recently found the website of an underground culture whose adherents live in a way which I feel just might start to turn around the current helter skelter race to self-destruction which I see happening in the so-called developed world. These are 21st century, urban hippies, living as free as possible from all the trappings of consumerism, capitalism, economic growth, globalization and, some might say, society.
Dumpster divers, perennial protesters, often homeless, usually disheveled, the kind of humans who are looked down upon for living their lives and leaving the smallest possible footprint as they go along.
An excerpt from Freegan.info:
"After years of trying to boycott products from egregious corporations responsible for human rights violations, environmental destruction, and animal abuse, many of us found that no matter what we bought we ended up supporting something deplorable. We came to realize that the problem isn't just a few bad corporations but the entire system itself."
That sure strikes a chord with me. I try to use fairly traded products, foods that haven't used too much pesticide to grow or fossil fuel to travel and have been harvested and processed by people who are being paid a fair wage to do so and clothes that haven't been made in sweatshop conditions. However, I still end up feeling that I contribute far too much to others' miseries by the way I live.
If you care about what life is going to be like for our grandchildren or great grandchildren, take the time to read through the material on Freegan.info and try to visualize a world with double or triple the present population, where clean water and safe food are the stuff of legend and housing, health care, education, electrical energy and personal transportation are available only to the elite who live in fortified and guarded mansions.
If this post sounds like the product of a raving lunatic, hey, maybe it is. On the other hand, maybe it isn't. Only time will tell.
1 comment:
That sounds cool.
From another grumpy old man.
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