You Are What You Eat

I can't help it, but it has been the theme of my week. 

Consumption, over consumption.

All week in my environmental politics class we talked about the massive propaganda campaign that corporations and industries are feeding our minds--the PR that the journalists and our 10 year old brothers buy into--the money that they are feeding to scientists and think-tanks in order to sway our opinions of the global environmental crisis and to cloud our minds and the issues to make it all seem like theories. The attacks against deregulation and the backings by government officials who are supposed to be representing us and our interests.

And in American politics the talk was on the wasteful racist suburbs, paving over nature and reinforcing gendered notions and gender divisions of labor with their ideal "American dream homes" trapping women in the confines of the domestic sphere---locking out the colored and the poor, the single mothers and the homosexual only to tolerate single families and eliminating any opportunity for communal living---their two car garages and 2.5 automobiles that brought about the need for interstate roadways increasing the dependence on fuel and taking hours from our lives and the time we spend with our families, all because of long ridiculous commutes worsened by traffic.

On my three minute walk to class I pass by at least 3 people with ipods or 3 people on their cell phones and an occassional 2-3 with a Starbucks in their hands. I walk into the bright lit white room of Webster Hall and the overflowing trash can in the corner automatically catches my eye, spilling with empty cups of Jamba Juice, Starbucks, Subway drinks, Pizza Hut boxes and India Cafe styrofoam plates.  I take my seat and join the rest of my class in whipping out our Macbooks and plugging in our headsets into our ears, tuning ourselves out from the world and into the world of YouTube.  

I recall when I lived a full semester with just half of these luxuries.  London, still a first world nation with its prizes kept me from the daily doses of Indian curry and Starbucks, the all-american automobile, the extra value meals and...(dun dun dun!!!)... the CELLPHONE!!!.  I actually lost weight, had more energy and was less lethargic :)  However, I also recall the culture shock I experienced when I return to Maui. It was at the Safeway in bakery infact and for some reason, the super-sized and mass produced butter croissants FREAKED ME OUT, and the same experience was repeated the days following as we made our weekly trips to the grocery stores, the fast food chains, Walmart and Costco. 

As I sat and waited for class to start, ears plugged by all the information age had to offer, I can't seem to get my mind off the trash can.  On my way from the classroom to home, I scrutinize the contents of each overflowing trash bin and study what each of my fellow university students held in their hand---and to my surprise only a few of them actually held books or bags large enough to hold books.  On my commute home ...cars domestic and foreign choked the freeway while its drivers and passengers enjoyed the luxury of air conditioning and sipped on their latest craze.  I sit at home and read the blogs of my peers, stating concern for their lack of time or their need for Apple's latest toy. Then I reflect on my own concerns and "needs", and remember the me that was happy with the simpler life in London, in Maui, in her vacations to the Philippines. I sit here and brainstorm, spacing out at my surroundings, looking through my dvds, counting the bottles of lotions that line my dresser, and reading the hallmark cards tacked to the wall...and I realize...even my own poems and notions of love are all indeed supposedly capitalist.