Occupy My Kitchen Island

[Cats Against Frist]

I've lived a rollercoaster of an existence. When I was 22, I wanted to unionize the world with the IWW and burn all my shit and run around like the bohemians in "Rent." Now, fifteen years late, I prefer LeCreuset, Tactel separates and a generally spotless white countertop contrasting with green organic apples. I try to make good choices as a consumer. I buy organic food, I try to buy USA-made clothing and I recycle A LOT. I like good, mid-priced value wines and the stability that comes from being gainfully employed, living in a safe neighborhood, and appropriately insured.

I value good medical care -- like we all do -- and technology. I love my computer and yet...

I know that the power we're all using right now to pound away like a million monkeys on a million typewriters is killing the planet
I know that the choice between war and destroying the environment is how I power my life
I buy things outside their use value because I like feeling affluent and not having to buy cheap crap
I know that buying American is nationalistic and though we think it sucks, people in other countries like having jobs
I know that were we all to be equal, that I would not be as comfortable
I know that our way of life is unsustainable
I know that I avoid taking public transportation because of the crazies on the bus
I know that unemployment is much higher than the numbers say
I cringe when I hear about 250 people applying for one job
I know that while I'm not one paycheck away from financial ruin, I might be 5 or 6 away
I know the extremely wealthy are playing with our stability
But I know that our stability still means death and genocide for people in foreign countries
The American middle class, the entire Western world exploits other countries for their labor, their resources, etc.
That everyone from snotty, do-gooding Democratic socialists in Sweden to country clubbers in the Hamptons are just as guilty
That there is no road that logically leads to anything but extreme austerity, deference and the collective
That the collective can and does crush the individual in its totality and authority
That the other countries and cultures that we revere as sacred are humans and would do the same thing we're doing
That the poor are humans and not moral by virtue of being poor and could easily do the terrible things Wall St. bankers do


Meanwhile, back in the kitchen...I'm listening to Jonathan Franzen interviewed on NPR, planning what I'm going to wear to a play tonight, and where I'm going to eat. Anxiously awaiting the end of school day, so I can get my son and we can chat over Ginger-Os and I can find out what he got on his test.

The American middle class, in all its decadence and beauty and unsustainability, is a lovely and secure bubble -- in some ways, the pinnacle of human existence. What if I'm not ready to give it up? Most people really aren't. You cannot say that I don't know what's going on. You cannot say that I'm not aware and sit in front of my TV and drive an SUV and eat McDonald's all the time. I'm a bright and informed member of the populace.

What are we fighting for? Our way of life is unsustainable and fucks other people. It's also intellectually stimulating, full of fantastic technological advance and possibility and somewhere between the Large Hadron Collider, Khan Academy and James Franco, we're not doing all that bad as a civilization.

I guess the big question is how do the Wall St. protests fit in with human potential? How does technological potential fit in with sustainability? I don't want to be part of anyone's austere Cultural Revolution in a world with all of these possibilities? What does it mean to be rich or to be poor? What do we all want? Beyond stopping basic suffering, what else is a right? If you hate the rich, but have 90 percent more wealth than someone living in a hut, is that okay? Maybe the person in the hut is better off. Does the person in the hut deserve an iPod? How much clean water can your iPod buy?

[nineteen50]

1. True wealth is not how much you have

but how little you need. Be free.

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Oooooh....

:applause:

[Cats Against Frist]

3. I'm pretty free

I've been very poor before, and the freedom to be able to pay all of your bills, student loans, taxes, etc. is quite liberating, I assure you. :) Paying for braces and field trips isn't cheap and I like the things that I have. They're not crazy over the top, and I am not jet-set wealthy, but I'd much rather have those things than live in complete austerity. I've been there -- and done that -- and I feel a lot better now. I'm not a banker that needs to be saved from some 80-hour-a-week job. I'm a writer, poet, teacher. I walk by the sea in the mornings. I read to my kids and do yoga. I feel great.

Except for the run-of-the-mill guilt, of course. But most of us don't even have that...

[saras]

4. WTF???

"The American middle class, in all its decadence and beauty and unsustainability, is a lovely and secure bubble -- in some ways, the pinnacle of human existence."

I could never, never, never believe this, no matter how much TV I watched and how many drugs I took.

The conformism, the willful stupidity of many of the things one has to conform to (probably to prove they're conforming to fit in and not because they actually like the stuff), and the related hatred of information that disrupts the bubble - sorry, just can't go there.

[Cats Against Frist]

6. I should have made myself clearer

I'm speaking of the whole spectrum of Western comfort -- not Bravo television and TGI Friday's.

[leftstreet]

5. If the American middle class is the pinnacle of human existence, we are fucked

:-(

[Cats Against Frist]

7. Again, I'm sorry -- that's just one facet of what I meant

I meant, basically, Westernized comfort and intellectualism.

[enough]

11. Hey, don't apologize. Your OP is an interesting expression of some of the fundamental

dilemmas of the way a lot of us live in the US right now. You don't have to say it all at once. A huge subject and I don't think any of us has it all tied up in one neat knot.

[Bandit]

8. We need to uplift the world not seek the downfall of our society..

We can do better.. While I agree with what you wrote I think it is short sighted....We have cool stuff and we like it.. We need to help the rest of the world have cool stuff as well.. We will never do that on our Carbon based economy/lifestyle... We need to concentrate most of our energy on aquiring completely Green Energy..We can develope synthetics for almost everything we take from the rest of the world. synthetic wood, synthetic oil, hell even synthetic food......We can make the entire planet a better place so most if not all enjoy what we do....We can not do anything of the sort with Republican rule though.....

[Cats Against Frist]

9. I know that it's unsustainable the way we do it now

That's the crazy part -- are we fighting so that the world can be comfortable -- or so none of us can be comfortable? Who's we? I like my sweater tights.

[MADem]

10. Life can be made more sustainable by improved methods of energy capture.

Technology. That's the way to improve our situation.

You can be comfortable in a house that is heated and cooled as a consequence of appropriate design, passive solar, a few solar panels, etc.

You could pig up the road less in a hybrid car--and suffer every other week by doing the carpool pick up thing with some other parent instead of going to the school every day. Or, better still, cough up the cash to let your kid ride the (gasp) public school bus -- the one that used to be free back in the day.

No need to wring your hands, just examine your life and see where you can trim the sails. You can find lots of opportunities to be more sensible without being a crazed dork about it.

If everyone does a little, no one has to do a lot.

[frazzled]

12. Food for thought ...

I commend you for your honesty. Some of your "deep thoughts" won't be met well here, but they probably correspond with the secret thoughts of many, which we don't like to admit.

I think it all boils down to the fact that we can't achieve utopia: there are always bargains to be made and some people will in some ways always be better off than others. And that we are all guilty in our own ways, large and small. But we can all make choices, too (and it sounds like you do make them).

I disagree on one thing: I LOVE taking public transportation (bus and el), partly because of the crazies. They make me aware of humanity and make me feel a part of it (and also a little less crazy myself).

As for your final list of questions: I think I'd have to pour a nice glass of mid-priced wine before I could begin to address them. And it's still too early in the afternoon. At my age (which is considerably more advanced than yours), all I seem to want is to be left alone. And then I wonder why nobody pays attention to me. More wine, please.

[tama]

13. Great topic, great opening.

San people ("Bushmans") work for basic need 15 hour per week. Why did we ever leave Africa, eat the forbidden fruit and create Internet? How do cells behave coherently and organise into organs and human organisms? And why would organical organisation stop at the level of humans? We are all parts of Earth. Gaia.

Part of evolution-revolution, process of creation and adaptation. On practical level, there's enormous waste for no good reasons, half the food is wasted, recycling very little, we don't build things to last but to break up - only because money and interest and corporate profits need mindless consumerism.

[il_lilac]

14. Thanks for your honesty

I'm a couple of paychecks away from poverty but still know I am so much better off than most of the world. Doing with less stuff more sustainably must happen.