Money alone can’t save our world ; we must put time and effort
into the cause
Best-selling books on how to save the world a day at a time …
A bon voyage card mailed to the crew of an environmental crusade
ship … A subscription to the alternative magazine of your choice
… Regularly attending the latest guru appearances at your local
"enlightened" bookstore … These days, there are countless ways to
practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty. The
best part is, a lot of them retail for $11.95. In book form, they
make a lovely birthday present for that hard-to-buy-for relative,
and they’re a good read on the john, while you’re waiting for your
no-fat, high fiber diet to do its work.
If you’re looking for a way to support oppressed people, you can
pick up their handiwork at the crunchy-granola-handmade-goods shop
in town. And if you can’t find what you want there, it’ll be
readily available in slick mail order pieces sent by every
"alternative goods" seller who rents the subscriber list of your
politically correct monthly reader (ask these white-bread
aboriginal wannabes how much money they pass on to the "natives,"
whose beliefs they’ve stolen, watered down, and sold for the sake
of a buck).
Or you can pick up your latest enlightenment fix in bumper
sticker form, and paste it to the back of your ’73 Volvo with the
two-fold opportunity of impressing the world with your enhanced
consciousness and hopefully spreading a little of it around. Souls
have been saved in stranger ways than reading someone’s bumper
sticker, while waiting to turn left into the supermarket parking
lot. For a price, anyone can have the means to buy their (or their
planet’s) salvation.
It’s the modern-day equivalent of purchasing "pieces of the
original cross," that venerable Middle Ages tradition of selling
bogus pieces of Jesus Christ’s "original cross" to penitent sinners
looking for a quick fix  a practice which produced enough
saleable wood slivers to make up thousands of "original crosses."
Now, hell isn’t in vogue anymore, nor is the lash of the Catholic
church so strongly felt. But guilt is always in fashion, and those
waiting to cash in on our remorse (whether religious or
environmental) are as plentiful today as they were 1,000 years
ago.
We play right into their hands, too. If we buy the right new age
books … If we spend enough money supporting people who "live off
the land," or buy stock in companies which produce goods and
services that purport to protect our environment … If we only
redistribute our lopsided wealth in a conscious and thoughtful
manner, all will be well. We need those brokers of comfort, as much
as they benefit from our incessant need for political
correctness.
Yes, we buy and buy and buy some more, thinking that acquiring
alternative, different, "environmentally friendly" things will
offset our habit of creating and buying a lot of hazardous crap
over the last 40 years  or at least demonstrate that we’ve
changed our ways for the better. We pick up the latest items from
Central America. We buy T-shirts sporting pithy statements for the
world to see. We get hold of the latest save-the-world or
save-your-soul self-help guides. And when we’ve consumed these
items  the Guatemalan bag doesn’t go with our tire-tread
sandals, the T-shirt falls apart in the wash and we devour the
self-help guide in a week’s time  we go out and buy some
more.
But is consumerism the solution or the problem? Far from being
our savior, our lust for novelty and convenience has been our
undoing. Think of all those landfills piled high with disposable
diapers, quick-noodle containers, microwave low-cal dinner-for-one
plastic bowls, and the unsold remainders of all those books that
were meant to give our planet a second chance. Not to mention the
effects of our polluting lifestyles on air, water, earth and ozone
layer. In spite of the obvious threat to our long-term survival, we
still want things new and improved and easy to obtain and consume.
And we want them now.
We want to be able to go wherever and whenever we choose, make
and spend money to our hearts’ content. We want to improve our
standard of living, ostensibly for the sake of our children. But
while we think we’re buying things to benefit the planet, we’re
really indulging in the ultimate convenience  shelling out
bucks to buy off our nagging consciences. It works, because we’re
the proprietors of our codes of ethics. It’s easy to obey the
rules, if you think you make them.
But saving the world won’t be achieved by this acquisition
frenzy  especially when all we’re really purchasing is a
white-washed conscience. We can’t ensure our survival simply by
opening our checkbooks and filling in the blanks. Saving the world
isn’t convenient, it’s not easy, it’s not something you do when
you’re looking for a meaningful way to put your hard-earned dollars
to good use. Survival is not cheap or simple. It doesn’t come in a
pre-shrunk wrapper with an easy-open perforation along the edge,
available in a variety of shapes and sizes. It doesn’t retail for
$59.95 and sell at the discount warehouse for $34.95.
Change of any kind demands thought, consideration, time and
energy  perhaps more than the average person is willing to
expend. Saving the world means doing away at present with what
doesn’t work in the long run, doing without habits and indulgences
that we know for a fact are killing our species and the world
around us  even if that means sacrifice right now.
We can’t just pay a small fee and think things are done with.
That’s how we got ourselves into this mess. In the end, we have to
decide if we’re willing to do more than feel guilty, buy socially
responsible ice cream, and give a tax-deductible contribution to
the crusade of our choice. Are we willing to inconvenience
ourselves for our own survival? Let’s hope so. After all, you get
what you pay for.