Jack and Gary vs. Consumerism

Go ahead. Talk about it.
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Arcadia
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Location: Rosario

Re: Jack and Gary vs. Consumerism

Post by Arcadia » December 7th, 2015, 10:34 pm

I´ve got at home "On the road" & "Big Sur" but I read Dharma Bums long time ago in an Spanish translation thanks the local public library...! :lol:

I don´t have exactly something like a Borges´s reading memory but I remembered well a passage that at the time make me somehow smile (the one where they were purchasing cheap goods at something like a navy editorial saldos). Searching for that episode I found this essay that maybe can dialogue with this post:

http://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcont ... xt=pursuit

I belong from a family of inmigrants that were not very austere (one side of the family because they were little comerciantes & they did more tan the average money, allowing them to purchase services and goods that most of the people in their town lack of; the other side with little money but with a let´s call it, always spending more that they have way of mind & sharing it with people beyond the nuclear family). My parents when I was a child, in opposition, were very austere & critic & culpose about consuming things they thought they weren´t necessary and they were very nuclear focused. I´m trying to find my own equilibrio (or desequilibrio, depending on the perspective ... :roll: :lol: ): it´s not a big problem because of my austere salary & because I don´t have a family to feed , I try to enjoy what I decide to consume & if I can help with or generate some alternative & sustentable economic circuit with that, that´s simply bingo!.

It´s a fact that the mainstream economic discourse (I guess in USA postwar -and I guess it not changed too much in today´s USA) but also nowadays in a strongly way in Latinamerica is : if the sales are high, the economy is saved (the jobs and et all...). Look to this, in our most conservative newspaper (of course, they are talking about some distintive kind of consumo)

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1851683-adio ... -argentina

In the last decade I found around these lands, each time more, the necessity of talking about what we consume trying to validate the choice done: in a wide range that includes food, doctors, films, drinks, books, restaurants, ideology, fitness, sports, trips, cars, education, drugs, concerts, tecnology ... even time spent with people ... Maybe it´s a sign of the time and nobody is outside this at some moment or situation... maybe it´s a test of how much packaged experience we can bear or what else we can generate...Maybe it´s also a sign of the times to be aware of this with not so much desperation, we still have to live in this world... :lol:

A very well known here dark humor tango (a kind of anti anthem!) & a Gusman quote (from an interview also posted in our most conservative newspaper) for your rejoice! We are all lucky to live in the XXI century ...! :lol: :wink:



Uno trabaja sobre lo que no funciona. Es una idea un poco lacaniana. El mundo nunca va a funcionar. No sé de dónde sacan que el mundo va a funcionar. No sé por qué debería funcionar si nunca funcionó. Lo que pasa es que ahora nos enteramos más rápido
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1852017-luis ... -fantasmas

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mnaz
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Joined: August 15th, 2004, 10:02 pm
Location: north of south

Re: Jack and Gary vs. Consumerism

Post by mnaz » December 13th, 2015, 8:08 pm

Thanks for the replies, Arcadia y saw y Doreen.

I found myself naturally rejecting the spiraling consumer culture starting about 20 years ago-- long before I knew anything about Kerouac or Litkicks. I'm driving an 18-year old fairly-efficient car, and I love it. I've gotten rid of my debt-- except my house, and thanks to fairly steady employment in recent years, I've been chipping away at that also.

It's not that we don't need stuff-- we do. But I just think it's gotten way out of hand. Hundreds of dollars a month for cable/phone/etc? Continual bombardment with ads touting "good deals" on 8 mpg gas guzzlers as $33,900? (I call them "steely mammoths"), and the list goes on and on. I know that some of these rigs are needed to do jobs, but the other 90+% are acquired by guys attempting to show the world how big their dicks are (which can backfire if people suspect you're compensating). Anyway, how much of an accumulation of stuff do we really need in the long run? And yes, as Jack suggests, it is a form of (largely self-imposed) slavery in some ways.

Not only that, but escalating consumerism is doing a number on the planet-- all of its resources (and sometimes I like to include living species-- including us apes-- among these resources). There is a very basic scientific premise for rejecting consumerism's escalation, and not only that phenomenon but other beliefs or "rights" long held sacred like unlimited human reproduction ("go forth and multiply!") as well-- namely that "exponential-type" curves cannot exist indefinitely in nature-- nature will flatten out the curve (which could be an unpleasant turn of events for those concerned).

That was a great vent, saw ! Yes, it's time to fight the dragons !

I'll be mostly away from internet access for the next week, so we'll pick it up after that. Thanks for reading.

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MrGuilty
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Joined: August 20th, 2005, 2:23 pm
Location: stilltrucking's vanity

Re: Jack and Gary vs. Consumerism

Post by MrGuilty » March 28th, 2017, 10:51 am

doren peri wrote:
I'd pay $5 for a delicious poem.
oh sister sister
I would write a poem for you
for a quarter if I could.
I am not sure what it is all about either
something to do
with the fact
that,
when the going gets tough
the tough go shopping
So we must follow our president's advise
And shop till we drop
consumer confidence must always be high
because there is always a war to win

Loved the dharma bums,
always remembering gems
"the good been in heaven since the beginning" dharma bums

not a poet and I know it

thanks for studio eight baby sister :D
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stilltrucking
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Joined: October 24th, 2004, 12:29 pm
Location: Oz or somepLace like Kansas

Re: Jack and Gary vs. Consumerism

Post by stilltrucking » March 28th, 2017, 11:11 am

mnaz wrote:
What do you think of these statements?
What does it matter how I think, what concerns me more is how I feel.
I turned into a shopaholic since the last election
Can't stand to read the news so I go shopping instead
not proud of that, just makes me more afraid

yes I break just like a little girl

what I think is that I need a lawn mower. :D

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stilltrucking
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Joined: October 24th, 2004, 12:29 pm
Location: Oz or somepLace like Kansas

Re: Jack and Gary vs. Consumerism

Post by stilltrucking » March 28th, 2017, 11:28 am

I can't think without writing
so many opinions coming at me
yes I think the frog philosopher was right
hell is other people

I think the beats were,
is that a good pull my daisy

Worse now than then
mind twisting
Japhy was(is) twice the man jack was.
But Jack was a saint
I am glad he got to live long enough to reconcile with his daughter

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