Yes... I agree on some level. But I don't think that's entirely fair. The marketing industry has done a very good job of seducing people into willful ignorance.

Yes... I agree on some level. But I don't think that's entirely fair. The marketing industry has done a very good job of seducing people into willful ignorance. Recently my mother went to a protest against potential copper mining in the boundary waters. She was giddy to inform me that she was riding up in with her friend in his brand new shiny name brand car. I felt a kind of irony there in that. The amount of environmental and human sacrifice that goes into people buying brand new cars every 3-4 years is enormous. Its very similar to my own hypocrisy around computers and cell phones. I know full well that this thing I'm holding in my hand was born out of human blood. It's deeply embarrassingly and I struggle to face it. People complain that stuff is expensive. We worship it. We demand it. But there are reasons why some things are expensive. It's because they take time and effort. If we live in a world where we aren't able to extend the patience these things require, why should we depend on them, much less go demanding them as basic rights?