thought food.
I've been thinking a lot about the things I eat and the things I buy.
Dan just recently lent me "The Omnivore's Dilemma" which I have been reading.
I have been a vegetarian for a few years now, most recently, and was for five years before I went to college. I've been raised to chose whole wheat, unproccessed, fresh over white, proccessed, frozen. I've been flirting with veganism now for several months because of a close friend who is vegan and is an interesting influence. I always drink soy or almond milk and buy vegan cheese and when I go out to eat which is super rarely I don't often buy things that have eggs, cheese or milk in them. "Mushroom Matar hold the cream"
Additionally perhaps because of my exposure to learning the intricacies of packaging and branding in all my co-ops over the last few years I've been more and more aware of how controlling and creepy and psychological the marketing business is. I ultimately don't trust an industry that is all about irresponsibly creating desire for inferior products. You can go into all kinds of moral debates about how reckless this industry is. You control people and drive an economy into a recession by convincing the public that they need and are defined by the products that they buy. People no longer think about what they need "I need a new pair of shoes, mine have holes in them" but what they want. Built in obsolescence.
For a good simple explanation of how this happened watch this series by the BBC. It's about how Freud's ideas about the unconscious were utilized by psychologists and sociologists post WWII to consciously shape the consumption driven mindset of our society. Purposefully they sought to make buying the new nationalism in America, to control people and keep them docile, out of fears that the human being untamed was wild and capable of great evil.
http://www.freemoviescinema.com/content/view/2473/89/
Century of The Self: E02 - The Engineering of Consent
"The programme explores how those in power in post-war America used Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses.
"
So I've tried to live my life consciously. I buy less and less, not just because I'm poor. I get really excited when I fix things that are broken or find a new solution. I just made a new bed by buying five industrial paint buckets, a giant piece of plywood and a mattress. I take plants from burnet woods and put them in old jam and condiment glass jars and take care of them until they get big, then I prune them off and give them to friends.
Last summer we had the Really Free Mobile Market at our house for a couple of months, which is an anti consumerist, slightly anticapitalist idea that most major cities in the US have regularly; you basically have a free barter market. Also I spent about five months co-organizing GRASS which was a huge trunk show event at the Niehoff Community Design Center in Cincinnati designed to give artists and designers who are independent a platform to sell their things and be known. I spend my money supporting my friends and independent creators who are like tiny fish in a big sea.
But what I guess I'm saying is, its not enough. Its easy to get a little self satisfied if you are living a lifestyle that is significantly different than most of the population, but truly its a drop in the pond.
And I'm not talking about sustainability or poverty. If I see another graphic design or crafty company dedicated to sustainability I will scream. It's something that should be agiven, an awareness of the world around you, and your place in it. It shouldn't be a selling point. Of course not eating meat is the best thing you can possibly do for world poverty and sustainability. Duh. Of course you should be aware of what effects the things you make and buy have on the world. Duh. I feel like its lazy to make this your selling point. I am all about experimental, innovative, new ideas, conceptual thinking, GOOD design. And most design that relies on sustainability to be its separating factor is lazy and bad. You can never view something without cultural context. And sadly sustainability has become an empty trend. Full of catch phrases and color cues and not full of anything that's truly that different than what else is out there.
It's just despite making these choices, I still feel utterly disconnected with the food I eat, the environment I am surrounded by. Reading an ingredient label is mind boggling. The culture of self-gratification is absurd.
What happened to eating for pleasure, of real food, bread and wine and fruit by the beach. Not the guilt and the bewildering psychological mind control of diets and processed food. Of bloated appetites and Jenny Craig. It's all tied together, poverty, food, obesity, guilt psychological control, the government.
I'm just annoyed. This is why I'm going to grad school as soon as possible. So I can avoid the inevitable.
I just feel like if people were more aware of the power they wield as a consumer, and were more selective, our society would be forced into a more healthy one. Our most internal fears are being preyed upon in order for people to make money. "Buy Rogaine! You'll be sexy!" And simultaenously we are being force fed food that makes us fat and unhealthy, prone to cancer and sickness. I'm a total hypocrit, because altghough I eat very healthy I am still very addicted to ciggarettes, which is just as bad.
But I'm trying to be more aware. Healthier, less in debt, more connected with the world we live in, more creative in the things we do own. Thrifty. Like our grandparents.
Food for thought. (I just died as I typed that pun)
Dan just recently lent me "The Omnivore's Dilemma" which I have been reading.
I have been a vegetarian for a few years now, most recently, and was for five years before I went to college. I've been raised to chose whole wheat, unproccessed, fresh over white, proccessed, frozen. I've been flirting with veganism now for several months because of a close friend who is vegan and is an interesting influence. I always drink soy or almond milk and buy vegan cheese and when I go out to eat which is super rarely I don't often buy things that have eggs, cheese or milk in them. "Mushroom Matar hold the cream"
Additionally perhaps because of my exposure to learning the intricacies of packaging and branding in all my co-ops over the last few years I've been more and more aware of how controlling and creepy and psychological the marketing business is. I ultimately don't trust an industry that is all about irresponsibly creating desire for inferior products. You can go into all kinds of moral debates about how reckless this industry is. You control people and drive an economy into a recession by convincing the public that they need and are defined by the products that they buy. People no longer think about what they need "I need a new pair of shoes, mine have holes in them" but what they want. Built in obsolescence.
For a good simple explanation of how this happened watch this series by the BBC. It's about how Freud's ideas about the unconscious were utilized by psychologists and sociologists post WWII to consciously shape the consumption driven mindset of our society. Purposefully they sought to make buying the new nationalism in America, to control people and keep them docile, out of fears that the human being untamed was wild and capable of great evil.
http://www.freemoviescinema.com/content/view/2473/89/
Century of The Self: E02 - The Engineering of Consent
"The programme explores how those in power in post-war America used Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses.
"
So I've tried to live my life consciously. I buy less and less, not just because I'm poor. I get really excited when I fix things that are broken or find a new solution. I just made a new bed by buying five industrial paint buckets, a giant piece of plywood and a mattress. I take plants from burnet woods and put them in old jam and condiment glass jars and take care of them until they get big, then I prune them off and give them to friends.
Last summer we had the Really Free Mobile Market at our house for a couple of months, which is an anti consumerist, slightly anticapitalist idea that most major cities in the US have regularly; you basically have a free barter market. Also I spent about five months co-organizing GRASS which was a huge trunk show event at the Niehoff Community Design Center in Cincinnati designed to give artists and designers who are independent a platform to sell their things and be known. I spend my money supporting my friends and independent creators who are like tiny fish in a big sea.
But what I guess I'm saying is, its not enough. Its easy to get a little self satisfied if you are living a lifestyle that is significantly different than most of the population, but truly its a drop in the pond.
And I'm not talking about sustainability or poverty. If I see another graphic design or crafty company dedicated to sustainability I will scream. It's something that should be agiven, an awareness of the world around you, and your place in it. It shouldn't be a selling point. Of course not eating meat is the best thing you can possibly do for world poverty and sustainability. Duh. Of course you should be aware of what effects the things you make and buy have on the world. Duh. I feel like its lazy to make this your selling point. I am all about experimental, innovative, new ideas, conceptual thinking, GOOD design. And most design that relies on sustainability to be its separating factor is lazy and bad. You can never view something without cultural context. And sadly sustainability has become an empty trend. Full of catch phrases and color cues and not full of anything that's truly that different than what else is out there.
It's just despite making these choices, I still feel utterly disconnected with the food I eat, the environment I am surrounded by. Reading an ingredient label is mind boggling. The culture of self-gratification is absurd.
What happened to eating for pleasure, of real food, bread and wine and fruit by the beach. Not the guilt and the bewildering psychological mind control of diets and processed food. Of bloated appetites and Jenny Craig. It's all tied together, poverty, food, obesity, guilt psychological control, the government.
I'm just annoyed. This is why I'm going to grad school as soon as possible. So I can avoid the inevitable.
I just feel like if people were more aware of the power they wield as a consumer, and were more selective, our society would be forced into a more healthy one. Our most internal fears are being preyed upon in order for people to make money. "Buy Rogaine! You'll be sexy!" And simultaenously we are being force fed food that makes us fat and unhealthy, prone to cancer and sickness. I'm a total hypocrit, because altghough I eat very healthy I am still very addicted to ciggarettes, which is just as bad.
But I'm trying to be more aware. Healthier, less in debt, more connected with the world we live in, more creative in the things we do own. Thrifty. Like our grandparents.
Food for thought. (I just died as I typed that pun)