Time and time again we find products being marketed by manufacturers who claim they’ve created bigger and better than what they’ve priorly produced. So, is this why China is now number one in GDP. Seems everything we purchase new is now made in the People’s Republic of China and their factories continues to expand. I understand the theory of globalization but I’m beginning to wonder if it’s now reaching critical mass where very few countries control the bulk of products. To me it doesn’t seem fair that one or two monster economies control the lion’s share of mass production.
It all goes back to the “more is better” mentality that abounds in our modern societies. A business person I spoke with today happened on the subject of how much we’ve developed into a “throw away” society. If it’s old, throw it away. If there is something newer and better, throw the old one away and purchase the newer version. If the new burger being touted as newer and better, stop buying the usual and buy the bigger and better. The examples could create chapters. A medical professional mentioned a scholarly work regarding the next health problem we will be facing in the future, and that’s the big rise in dementia and Alzheimer cases.
From what I gathered, it’s the by-product of the excess amount of carbs and glutinous and overly-processed foods that we are consuming on a daily basis. Everyone thinks they get fat from eating fatty foods–wrong. The real culprits are simple sugars and starches. I shake my head every time I see the same man walking down the street on a major roadway carrying what looks like a gallon plastic tankard of likely a super-sweetened soft drink. It baffles me whenever I think of the amount of soft drinks people consume daily. Whatever happened to water, tea, or coffee and all of them being consumed without milk products or sugar filled additives? When I was young, I would sometimes have strong black coffee with real cream. It was more a dessert than a cup of java simply because I’d become used to drinking coffee black and preferred it that way.
I was dumbfounded when speaking to a young person today about some of the more recent news that’s been making headlines. I went from one hot topic to the next and he didn’t seem to know anything about them. I walked away wondering if people are becoming so tuned into their jobs and their likely closed social networks that they don’t peek outside their sub-cultural boxes they’ve created for themselves. Not too many years ago I read something about how sub-groups or mini-cultures will be created due to the ability of people to seek out their “like kind” via the internet. I was reminded of that when reading about those young girls in Colorado who attempted to travel to the Middle East to join up with that radical militant group that is waging war across borders.
There are monstrously evil minds that are preying on the naivete of the youth who seem to want to be a part of something they likely believe will be purposeful in their lives. I hope our society will continue to work at being homogenous rather than allowing super specialized sub-cultures to grow. When you consider the concept, is being of total like-mindedness within a group worth that much sacrifice of self? It sounds to me like an evil monastic idea.
