This article is a segway into The Story of Stuff, what I believe to be the single most important issue in society today. I hope you will see the connections and think about these issues in your own life.
I was having a conversation with someone recently. She was talking about her children and how expensive it supposedly is to get their hair cut. She was explaining to me that she found a solution to that problem. She took one of her three children to get his hair cut. She told the stylist that she was going to stand next to her and watch the haircut, so that she could save money by cutting her children’s hair herself from now on.
She was so smug in her superiority. No thought for the hairdresser that paid good money to go to school to learn how to do this stuff. She’s basically telling the hairdresser “Hey, your job and skills are worth nothing, but you charge me money for it anyway, so I’m going to copy you so you don’t make any more money from me.”
She’s from the midwest. Her favorite store is Kohl’s. She loves to group everyone together and pin labels on them. She goes on rants about trailer trash, ghetto trash, people who have wagon wheels in their yards, whatever she can think of. And of course she’s a conservative who hates Obama. She also proudly discusses how she fought against a decision to provide public bus service to her neighborhood, because “we don’t want THOSE people to be able to come here.”
This arises out of a sort of misdirected insecurity, it’s written all over her and shows in everything she does. But is she really so different from those around her? Her attitude is the attitude of so many people in America today. The thought is constantly in so many people’s minds about how to to get most for themselves at the expense of as many other people as possible.
But doesn’t that sound exactly like everyone we hate? Doesn’t that sound like corporate America? Doesn’t that sound like Wall Street? And, aren’t you just as guilty of it as she is?
It’s difficult for people to take the time to really dive into these issues to see the far-reaching implications. In this particular case, she is subverting someone close to home, a hairdresser that probably doesn’t live more than a few miles from her. But everyone subverts others whether it be locally or globally, and corporate America is the one who profits. Just ask Sam Walton’s family.
Now that I have your attention, I’m going to direct you to the best YouTube video I’ve ever seen. The first 8 minutes are very basic (boring) information, but after that it gets interesting. I ask you to watch the entire video from beginning to end, it will be worth your time:
—– Click Here for The Story of Stuff —–
