The situation with China and tariffs gets to me. They make so many of our consumer goods over there. I had been thinking, for instance, of trading in one of my electronic devices, including iPhone and iPads, which I normally do before they get too decrepit. So maybe not.
However, the situation most significantly brings me back to my mixed emotions regarding consumerism. How much Americans in general and myself in particular are overly crazy about Things. How many resources go into producing stuff that ends up in a dump so fast. How heavily Asian people rely on revenue streams from making everything from phones, etc. to auto parts, airplane parts, refrigerators, washers & dryers, endless electronic devices filling our homes and offices. It’s staggering.
How much of Stuff do we actually require? Can a Good Life be brought about more simply?
At the lowest level of production the minerals removed from the earth to make these things are not going to replace themselves down there, not in real time. Dumps get too much toxic stuff tossed in already. Having lived nearly half my life in the Southwest and California I am sadly aware of the perils of open mines dotting the landscape. Nobody ever fills these things in!
Would it even be possible to get 1% of us to swear off renewing our gizmos so frequently? What about loss of jobs in China if we did slow our needs down? Human beings are careless too often about the effects our actions have on others. What is the fair, just thing?
One point I am making here is that globalism is not a bad thing, if good planning goes into it. Tariffs as we know them have historically been okay briefly — then brought on massive disruption and suffering internationally.
Another is — how is it that the current administration has been taking steps that hurt Americans as much as anybody? There should be more protesting about it.
Finally, as a Baha’i I love to see people coming together to solve problems, not hurling jingoistic rhetoric as though it doesn’t come back like a boomerang. Hatred is poison. Justice does not come shining from this. And a just society provides the most good for the most people.
First you have to actually want to solve a problem. Right about now it is good to see that some people are standing up against ugly rhetoric and misguided ideas that the US would do just fine if. we kick our neighbors north and south, across the pond and over the mighty Pacific, the Indian Ocean.
We do best when we work with others, each other, to figure things out. In terms of finite resources we would do well to resist replacing things like iPhones so often. To find ways of reusing and re-purposing our belongings. Wearing our clothing longer, turning gently used things in to second hand shops rather than the nearest dumpster.
Life is unlikely to ever be evenly just or fair to all. At least we can start thinking about it. I think that it is our intention that make us or break us individually.
What a life we are living right now. I could not have believed it would become what it is — but I do believe that in order to create something stronger and better you do live through a fair turmoil, and here we be. “Keep calm and carry on!”
Rising Over the Smoke 