An Inconvenient Truth Monday

"People don't want to hear the truth 

because they don't want their illusions destroyed."

 - Friedrich Nietzsche 

If truth knocked most people down in the middle of the street they would pick themselves up, dust their clothes off, then bustle along as if nothing had happened. We prefer the reassuring lie over the inconvenient, uncomfortable truth, because sometimes the truth threatens to overwhelm us.

But how do we prepare for a new world if we fail to confront the truths of our day?

One does not need to belong to a secret society, or dwell in the ivory tower to learn of the few basic truths that confront us like looming brick walls. Pushing the gas pedal of the golden Engine of Progress is not going to break us on through to the other side.


Inconvenient Truths


As I see it, the following are a few brick walls that we will need to dismantle,  climb over, or navigate around soon.

• We live within a closed, finite system that makes infinite growth impossible.
• The more we mess with nature, the worse we make it. We are killing the planet.
• Unnecessary competition and struggle does not create the best conditions for peaceful, joyful, sustainable living. 
• War and violence accomplish nothing positive. 
• Taking care of each other is the only way the human experiment will ever be successful ("socialism" if you feel a label helps, although I call it basic decency, love, or compassion).
• Money and the things that can be bought with it will never make anyone happy past a certain modest and limited level.
• We are not separate from nature, or each other. What we do to harm others also harms us.
• We are not our stuff, or what we do for a living. We are not our thoughts or memories, and we are not just a physical body. What we are is bigger than all of this, and dwelling in comfortable illusions only gets in the way of the realization of our true identity, peace and contentment.

The lies may be reassuring, but at least we are beginning to recognize them as lies. When we know we are being lied to, we also can become aware of the truth that will set us free.

It is time to seek out those inconvenient truths, regardless of how uncomfortable it may be tearing down our familiar illusions brick by brick, lie by lie. It is time to speak out.

Be prepared for a backlash - you will need to be strong. George Orwell noted long ago that "the more a society drifts from the Truth, the more it will hate those that speak it."

Not Wasting Anything

REDUCE is the best method for eliminating waste.

The long version of the name of our blog could be: Not Buying Anything, Not Wasting Anything. The two are inescapably linked in a cycle of buying and disposing, buying and disposing...

Therefore, one of the best ways to reduce the amount of waste produced is to reduce consumption. However, this is not something that you will ever see promoted in the mainstream.

The consumer world is a wasteful world. Why? Because there is profit in waste, from selling disposable crap, to collecting and burying it when it is unwanted or unusable. Indeed, most of what we buy becomes waste within six weeks of purchase.

Breakdown of average household waste.

Even after cutting consumption and addressing the problem of waste at its origin, we can still do more to eliminate waste from our lives.

Living more gently upon this planet means getting as close to zero waste as possible. Any system that expects less, like conspicuous consumerism, violates the general laws of nature and is doomed to fail.

Waste is death. That is why there is no waste in nature, and that is why I am reducing consumption, and trying my best to not waste anything of what I do buy. My Junk Drawer is alive and well and saves me from time to time with valuable, re-usable resources that can be put to re-use in creative ways.

A great deal of food waste occurs in the home.

Ways to Not Waste Anything (or at least waste less)

1. Cut your consumption. Reduce, reduce, reduce.
2. Say no to disposable, single use items, and anything plastic.
3. Use it up, wear it out, or do without.
4. Compost kitchen scraps.
5. Say no to products with excessive packaging (processed foods, fast food, consumer products, etc.). Ask Customer Service if you can leave packaging in the store after purchase. If you can't, leave without buying.
6. Cook with whole foods (that usually have minimal packaging).
7. Use food more efficiently - eat what needs to be eaten first to prevent spoilage.
8. Buy what you need to get the job done, and no more. 
9. Avoid "luxury" anything.
10. Make a game of living harmoniously within the cycles of nature - leave the linear and wasteful ways of "buy and throw away" consumerism behind, because there is no "away".