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The Permiscuous Consumer (or slave) and 1984

I have most recently given up two of what I though were the more important activities I could participate in. The first was mass buying (consumerism). I was finally pushed over the egde, I can't remember the precise moment that this happened, but I can think of a few triggers that were around me. For one, my sociology class was rather eye opening, which is suprising because you would think that those in control would not want such revolutionary notions growing in young minds. We watched an hour of the documentary "Corporations", which out of all the doc's we watched, it was the most bold. Than in English (I just finished my spring semester), I had to do a presentation on Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. which led to my absorbing the impressiveness of 1984 by George Orwell. One a short story, one a novel, written at least 40 years apart, with the same warning, yet it seems more applicable now than when the authors had predicted this. Now my mind was spinning, and the realization hit me that I am addicted to shopping, just as I have been trained to be.
Actually stopping wasn't as hard as i thought it would be, instead it was a huge relief to take this burden away, to know that buying all those clothes or cd's will only result in more buying, more consumption, there is never lasting satisfaction, if there was, this would not be a problem. Now why is mass consumption so bad you might ask? well it's bad because it does not satisfy, its bad because it makes us as a mass, public slaves to whatever we are told, to spend money, to pay for rising gas prices and NOT protest (???????), basically to bend over and take it in the ass.....
Maybe i'm an extremist, but maybe i'm right, and i know a lot of people who are right and who agree with me, at least to an extent, there must be allowed room for error and growth.
the second thing i gave up was meaningless sex...i wont jump into that one but beleive me its hard AND empowering.....

Posted by sychasdemon on 2008-06-24 14:35:09 | Rating: