A Proposal to Myself and the World

in #philosophy7 years ago (edited)

boxa5.jpg

Prosperity > Abundance

As I gear myself for the hurricane of a lifetime in central Florida, it’s impossible for me not to
contemplate and act upon the wake up calls of the potential of my own financial, ecological, social, and overall descent. As an individual, regardless of the size of the impact I make, it’s an impact nonetheless with potential to expand exponentially.

I’ve only had one job through the dozens of jobs throughout my life where I didn’t think “well that’s just wasteful.” That was working for FreeGeek in Portland. They disassemble, reassemble, recycle, and give back Linux based computers to the community. The cash fueled sloppiness that I’ve seen can only be a fraction of a modicum of what is really wasted in our society. Dumpsters filled with fresh food that couldn’t be sold only locked to keep the hungry away, mansions visited 2 weekends a year while homeless get sick in the rain, toxic economic power structures thriving on war and greed while visionaries scramble to make a positive impact, etc, etc. Am I the only one seeing this here? I know many Steemians can see the potential of decentralization undermining all of this.

“For every problem science solves, 10 more are created.” Thus leading to my proposal: Do nothing. Both literally and figuratively speaking. By doing nothing is something in and of itself; what I am implying based on that statement is to stop myself from getting in my own way. To simply use what we already have from our never ending production lines. A simple compromise would be innovating with byproducts created when we create. Inhibit wasteful consumerism by making the most out of what is available. Composting food scraps to grow tomatoes, using the almond pulp from almond milk to make bread from the flour it creates as a byproduct, etc. Repurposing, reusing, recycling even on a small scale can make an impact.

Ultimately this is something I am instilling within myself with an intrinsic awareness of oneness. “What you do is insignificant although it is extremely important you do it” The microsm reflects on the macrosm and vice versa. Random acts of kindness to not only ourselves but the world that we operate in day to day can make a profound amelioration of this experience that we are in together.

Image source: Fractal I made in mandelbulb3d

Sort:  

I agree. One of the problems of capitalism is the endless drive for profits. This leads to what we see today in nearly every consumer product that is in existence. That is, "planned obsolescent." Things are built to become obsolete or to break down so that consumers will purchase more of the products in a shorter amount of time. I believe there was even a documentary on this called "Pyramids of waste: AKA the light bulb conspiracy," though I have not actually seen it myself. Its crazy though. We cannot consume endlessly. I believe that we all have a responsibility to the environment and to humanity, to do our part in reducing our consumption in whatever way we can. Sometimes I wonder what it would actually take for society as a whole to make a drastic change?
Nice post. Great message

Thank You! I'll have to look up that documentary. And yes planned obsolescence is a major contributor to waste

Congratulations @liquefy! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of comments
Award for the number of comments received

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

By upvoting this notification, you can help all Steemit users. Learn how here!

This is a pretty good proposal, I would say :) Let's do get out of our own way and start to reduce the waste and utilize all of the resources at our disposal, even the byproducts!! Good job!

Indeed! Thank You!

I'm in! I cringe so badly when the girl in the shop puts my fruit in a plastic bag without asking me first. I gather myself and hand it back to her, tell her to give it to somebody else and she throws it in the trash. I fall in the ground. I feel I have lack of freedom because of things like this. I want to live zero-waste, but people around me can't really grasp the concept... What's your experience with implementation in your personal social structures?

Congratulations @liquefy! You have received a personal award!

1 Year on Steemit
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.

Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
SteemitBoard World Cup Contest - The results, the winners and the prizes

Do you like SteemitBoard's project? Then Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Congratulations @liquefy! You received a personal award!

Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 2 years!

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!