To Consume Less

In recent years, more has been written about consumer culture and its impact on the planet. It's hard, but I think one way to show our disdain for the incoming administration might just be to not spend. Everyone goes on about "we don't make things in America anymore" or "this is China's fault" and while both things are a concern, neither is the whole picture. The article I linked there makes a strong point about post-WWII spending as a means of showing national economic strength. But I think we have to change that. Not only does it send the message that we are not buying the status quo anymore, it also reduces (over time) the amount of garbage we put into the world. Not to mention the exploitive practices most large companies use to save money. U.S. manufacturing has dropped because we fought for better pay decades ago in the form of unions. Other countries haven't done that, for one reason or another, but U.S. companies have been exploiting that.

So, there are so many things that will be accomplished if we consume less, but way smarter people than me have talked exhaustively about that. But here's two reasons: First, it removes the incentive for sketchy AF companies to make garbage that will break in a week. Second, since consumer culture is so bad for the environment you'll be sending a message to manufacturers that they need to stop producing as much.

I have friends who shop for fun, and shop often. My mother's closet is almost unusable for all the clothing she's put in it. Our houses are completely packed with STUFF, and it's a burden to clean, move, and pass on to children. I'm sure there's a whole psychological component to it, but I can't help but tense up every time someone says "I bought this cute thing." Like, where did you buy it? Who was exploited in its making? I'm starting a ramble here, but the takeaway from my reading and watching about consumerism is that I do not really want to participate in the holiday buying spree today. Or really at all during the holiday season.

If you must gift, do it thoughtfully. Thrift where you can. Make it yourself if you want. Start a fight with your family about not buying 12 new toys for your kid when one well-made one will do. Heck, disappoint your own children by getting them fewer things. Anyway, I'm staying home this weekend, and not shopping online at all. Might be time you do the same.

Eating Well

Speaking of mutual aid (we were, weren't we?) there is one institution that most cities already have that fills a mutual aid gap, and that is Food Banks. I did a little digging this morning and found that the county I live in has 57 food banks/meal programs. State wide, over 300. First of all, it's criminal that we have to have that many places to serve the undernourished. Nationwide, the USDA data showed that in 2023, 13.5% of all households were food insecure, up from 2022. Yet federal spending on food assistance fell.

So it falls to nonprofits, as with most things, to fill in what the government won't provide.

That's why it's so important to donate to or volunteer with your local food bank now. For one thing, you may need it later. Food insecurity is only going to go up since groceries are fast becoming a monopolistic industry. A lot of local branches do work with food banks, at least, but there are always gaps. I know my neighborhood food bank is always seeking pet food and hygiene products, but every food bank is different.

I used to volunteer there to help sort the deliveries and donations, but I fell out of the practice during the pandemic. Maybe it's time to start that up again, or at the very least add a new donation spot to my list.

Tomorrow is a holiday here, so I will likely not post. But be kind to your neighbors even still.

Assisting Strangers

As I pit the complexities of "normal life" against the swirling doubt of what's coming, I keep returning to the idea that, at the end of the day, people who have privilege need to sacrifice some comforts and privileges in order that those who do not can do better. I think the problem with this, for me, is that it promotes a "saviorism" mentality. It's like when Christian missionaries go into struggling ares to "help" by building a parochial school or something. It's a very small sacrifice to do without home comforts in exchange for the admiration of the church/pastor. When the missionaries are gone, the locals are left with a random building and no long term support. What the missionaries do is not mutual aid, because it is rarely requested. It is saviorism which benefits mainly the missionaries.

Mutual aid taps into the same fundamental need to help our neighbors, but without the trappings of institution. By its nature it defies systems, and that is why it's important right now.  Here's an example. During the height of COVID, a couple of random local folks spun up a website where you could go and request grocery delivery. That's it. You could ask for or offer up delivery of groceries. People who used it were often lower income, but I know a couple of well-enough-off folks who live alone in an area where the stores weren't offering delivery. There was no vetting or application process for this. You simply made the request and it was fulfilled by a stranger. 

And that's what'll get folks through. So, when you have the bandwidth, hook up with a local mutual aid group (there's a website for that) and get started. It's messier than a traditional nonprofit org, but it's also less bureaucracy. 

I dunno. It's what I've been thinking about today. Sorry to miss yesterday's post. I have no excuse other than being tired.

Crafty

The term "craftivism" has been around for 20 years, so it's not exactly new. I follow craftivists on IG and have long enjoyed calmly viewing their work from the sidelines. But I knit, crochet, and can cross stitch, and probably could learn to embroider if I had to. As the world seems intent on going mad right now, it's worth thinking about quiet ways to contribute to a resistance of sorts.

This is not without precedence. Historically, and in WWII specifically, knitters were used quite frequently as spies, passing messages in inconspicuous ways. As much as this sounds like a cool thing to do, it might be well-known enough to no longer be useful. So we'll have to find new ways. Today, my one thing is going to be to let myself go down a rabbithole to see how hard it would be to learn a secret language, or, more broadly explore ways to use my hobbies for good.

Historical Significance

One of the things my spouse and I discussed is slowly, over the next few months, gathering some shelf-stable items and household staples that may generally have been purchased from abroad. Not in an irrational "pandemic lockdown" way, but in a "we'd probably buy these anyway, let's just buy a bit more" kind of way.

Higher prices are coming, and we have precedence to look at. Italy and Germany adopted initiatives to reduce national reliance on external food sources to further their fascist aims. There was a lot to those, and there's not currently a big reason to assume we'll go the same way, but it could turn quickly.

Another thing we can look to history for is red flags about the people taking power. Where to even start with that? The recrudescence keeps putting the most incompetent people on his team, but just because someone is incompetent it doesn't make them less dangerous. During the last cheeto administration, we saw disgruntled government employees at various institutions take to social media to continue their actual work when their institutions were taken over by proto-fascists. Assuming the actual experts are still around, and buy good burner phones, we should be seeing more of that.

But for today's action, I'm going to make my list of supplies, including housewares that I was thinking of replacing later, and find a friend with a Costco card.

Awake in Despair

I woke up already deep in thought today, and that's never a good sign for an optimistic day. I struggle with despair and depression even when there's nothing to worry about, and every time I do, I re-watch two videos. One from 2019:

And this one from last year, which is possibly more relevant right now:

I woke up today with that feeling of "nothing matters, so why am I doing this?" The feeling is compounded by the type of reading I tend to do. Something about my brain just wants to know things, no matter how bleak. A friend, for instance, introduced me to Spooky Lake Month on TikTok/Youtube which is a woman doing short stories about creepy hydrological-related things every day for the month of October. Do I NEED to know that there are lakes that can explode with enough carbon dioxide to kill everyone within a 100 mile radius? I do not, but I do take comfort sometimes in the fact that we CAN know those things.

Another thing that helps me is the understanding that humanity has survived because we can cooperate with each other (and do, every single day in myriad ways). 

The takeaway from those videos, for me, is that despair is valid, but it is not a complete picture. If I stay here and wallow, then I have failed to take into account all of the things we have already done, and continue to do, to try and wrest a better future from a messy present. Even more reason to be kind to your neighbors.

Hear, Feel, Think

I've been going pretty hard for a couple weeks (even the days I don't write), but some days you just cannot. It is sometimes just troublesome to exist, full stop, and you feel drained. Rest is good, and can itself be a form of resistance. Rest can mean a coordinated effort with coworkers to send a message, if you are striking, or it can just mean taking some of that PTO you've been accruing for 2 years and are about to lose. 

For me, rest is doing things to recharge, like going on a slow, long walk to a further-away coffee shop, or going to a pub with my Switch and playing games with a beer on a Tuesday afternoon (or a book, or my sketchpad). It also looks like eating a carb-fueled lunch and forcing a nap sometimes. It's different for everyone. If you still feel like you can't slow down and take a day for yourself, take a look at the book Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey. I will admit to not having read it myself, but I have followed her Nap Ministry for a few years and agree with her assertions, especially for marginalized groups. Everyone deserves rest, and NOT just so you can be productive later.

So, maybe today I'll start by setting myself calendar reminders to take breaks and rest. It's not something I'm good at, but it might be just the thing to help me better focus on what comes next.