[Sosfbay-discuss] "The Gospel of Consumerism"

[Tian Harter]

I remember talking about automation with the head of the EE Department
at Bradley when I was one of his students. He said "back in the '60s
(when he was an engineering student), we knew automation was going to
change things. We just never dreamed it was going to dump all the
leisure time on people that didn't want it." I think about that 
sometimes when I see a homeless who could obviously do some dumb job.
Surely s/he could at least sell tickets for CalTrain. How hard is that?

I spent most of the day up in San Mateo at the Maker Fair. That was a 
great event! So much creativity going into so many grass roots projects.
Everybody there at least got entertainment value from many grassroots 
projects that no sane employer would invest a single dollar in. There
were even a few that are trying to reshape the marketplace to
make it more human than dollar centered. An example: tradeafavor.com .
But that's a digression.

Anyhow, on the way up I talked briefly with a guy that was singing the
blues because all the station attendants between San Jose and San 
Francisco had been laid off. I pointed out that ticket machines are 
cheaper. I called them "slave labor". He said that was "exactly right."
Mountain View never had a station attendant. I always had to buy my 
ticket from the conductor. It was kind of fun. Now I just show the guy
my ticket. If I don't, he writes me a $200ish ticket or just kicks me 
off the train if he is feeling generous and has already made his quota.
I always get my ticket. It's cheaper that way, and I don't have to feel 
terrorized by the sight of a conductor.

The Conspiracy Theorist in me is thinking "GWB has probably never
bought a CalTrain ticket from a vending machine." It would be nice if he 
was the only one, but I doubt that is the case. There is a lot of
entertainment value to be had in watching all the little stories that
happen as the train pulls into, unloads people getting off, loads people
getting on, and leaves the station. Sometimes I wonder if there is some
way to give our world a special little magic that starts with buying a
ticket to ride the trains around here... Certainly the riders are as
nice a crowd as could be found among random strangers out there. The 
ride is often enjoyable.

Tian

Wes Rolley wrote:
> Gerry Gras wrote:
> <snip>
>> It's about the implications for democracy of shorter vs.
>> longer work week.
>>
>> It's long ...
>>
>>
>>      http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/03/8686/
> Well, among those things we could do with a shorter work week is to read 
> things like this instead of waiting until we retire like I did.
> 
> Then, we might start actually writing stuff.... like I did.  Consumerism 
> has been a subject of my last two Morgan Hill Times columns. 
> http://www.morganhilltimes.com/opinion/241276-more-than-shopping-to-make-a-successful-downtown
> and
> http://www.morganhilltimes.com/opinion/240153-consumerism-will-permanently-damage-our-planet
> 
> When we moved back from Japan in 1993, I had to make some major changes 
> in the property.  "Digger" pines were too big and too fire-dangerously 
> close to the house and had to go.  Eventually, they were replaced by 
> apple, apricot, cherry, loquat,  persimmon, plum, pluot and citrus 
> (oranges, Meyer lemons, kumquats, grapefruit, pomelo). 
> 
> Every tree that went into the ground meant that a rock had to come out, 
> or so it seemed.  At the time, I piled a wall just outside my office 
> window, running the width of the house.  It is more like a two level 
> terrace, each about two feet high allowing a planting on the lower level 
> and with rosemary growing along the top level. 
> 
> Well, as Frost wrote "Something there is that does not love a wall."  
> Eventually, it is starting to go and I am rebuilding it with mortar, as 
> I don't think that my body can take rebuilding it again in another 10 
> years.
> 
> By the time I had built the wall in the fist place I had developed an 
> eye for finding just the rock that I need to fill a particular place.  
> Now, laying it up with mortar, everything changes slightly and the 
> practiced eye that I used years ago is out of practice. I takes me 
> longer and if I mix too much mortar, it dries out before I can use it.
> 
> It is along way of saying that there are a number of skills that one 
> needs to live these days and they are being forgotten, lost by the 
> passage of time.  While laying up a portion of the wall yesterday, I 
> remembers a mystery that I had enjoyed reading several years ago.  It is 
> "No Colder Place" by S. J. Rozan and the main PI character has to recall 
> and re-use bricklaying skills from an earlier lifetime just as I am 
> doing now..  A mystery might not be everyone's choice for reading, but 
> the sections that describe brick laying and the learned skills involved 
> ring true in my mind.  (Author Rozan was an architect so this is 
> familiar territory.).
> 
> Tian wrote of his search for good shoes and a cobbler who could make 
> them. If we are not to be the consummate consumer then there are other 
> skills that we will of necessity learn.  Even mixing mortar is a skill.
> 
> 

-- 
Tian
http://tian.greens.org
"In California, we say don't wait for Washington, because Washington is
asleep at the wheel" Governor Schwarzenegger on climate change progress.