TAG: consumerism

How Palm Oil Ravages Rainforests, Endangers Wildlife and Destroys Communities

Travis McKnight, EcoWatch Waking Times Agriculture plays a massive role in today’s global economy. It’s easy to not realize that your salad’s fresh tomatoes are likely flown in from the Netherlands, its asparagus is picked by a Peruvian farmer and the dressing has palm oil harvested in Indonesia. Our complicity in an agricultural system that ships food

Consume, Consume, Consume With The False Promise Of Happiness!

Andrew Martin, Collective-Evolution Waking Times Victor Lebow an economist, retail analyst and author, wrote a very pertinent account of modern consumerism in his 1955 paper, “Price Competition in 1955,” which was published in the Spring issue of the “Journal of Retailing.” “Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that

The Meaning of Peace in the Bhagavad Gita

V. Susan Ferguson, Contributor Waking Times The superb Sanskrit text, The Bhagavad Gita, is an amazing guide and in my view the ultimate ‘user’s manual’ for the human adventure. This ancient text is a dialogue between two mighty warrior heroes: Krishna and Arjuna. Krishna represents the God within us all, who is always waiting patiently

The World Is Our Garden – Defend It or Lose It

Julian Rose, Contributor Waking Times When we walk into a carefully nurtured and diverse garden, we are struck by its beauty and its sense of completeness. We are enraptured by its scents and its mysteries. We are enlivened by its colours, both vivid and subtle, and we are nourished by the freshness that fills our

8 Reasons Young Americans Don’t Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance

Bruce E. Levine, AlterNet Waking Times Traditionally, young people have energized democratic movements. So it is a major coup for the ruling elite to have created societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance to domination. Young Americans—even more so than older Americans—appear to have acquiesced to the idea that the

consumer in china

Is Black Friday a Crime Against Humanity?

Andrew V Pontbriand, Guest Waking Times There are approximately 190,000 people in China that are currently working in Slave Labor Camps. Among these are petty offenders such as drug addicts, pretty thieves and prostitutes. Currently, 75% of toy products are made in China, and these toys are being assembled under conditions that would make the average

Identified: Viral SOS Letter Writer From Chinese Forced Labor Camp Speaks Out

Joe Wright, Guest Waking Times The story of a letter embedded in a package of Kmart Halloween decorations received by Oregonian Julie Keith immediately went ultra-viral as it detailed an excruciating cry for help from a prisoner of a Chinese forced labor camp. The letter brought to the forefront a part of the American economy

consumer in china

The Holidays Are Coming… Time to Stock Up On Slave Made Goods From China?

Anna Hunt, Staff Writer Waking Times Last June, a story in the New York Times revealed just what type of working conditions are creating piles of inexpensive toys, decorations, electronics and other random household products made by the Chinese and sold throughout the world. There is seemingly an unending worldwide demand for cheap plastic trinkets, and

What is Your Life Worth?

Christina Sarich, Staff Writer Waking Times I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three things are your greatest treasures. ~ Lao Tzu Is your life worth more than a fancy car, the latest smart phone, a big house, and a fat paycheck every month? Consider that people in 80% of the

Ecocide or We Decide?

Julian Rose, Contributor Waking Times When you take a closer look at it, you see that the choices we make each day of our lives add up to the grand price that nature must pay in her role as the sustainer of life on this planet. What do I mean by that? Well, it’s simple

The Global Ego – Resolve to Escape

Stuart Wilde, Guest Writer Waking Times  My ol’ teacher said that before you are born you choose your parents and that you have an overview of the circumstances and beliefs that you are to be born into, he even said you have a comprehension of the defects or inabilities of the future body you will

Embracing Spiritual Abundance

Trinity Bourne, Openhand Contributor Waking Times In the many years of awakened life, I have witnessed abundance spoken about in a myriad of different ways. I’ve noticed that in all its different guises, there are two main ways in which it is interpreted: 1. Having lots of what we desire or 2. Seeing the divine in

War and the Passage of Light

Chris Bourne, Openhand Contributor Waking Times I’ve just been working with an evolving group in New York, a fascinating place indeed. Clearly a key anvil in the shift of consciousness, it is a dense energy grid of consumerism and control, equating metaphorically to “Machine City” in the film The Matrix. There’s so much ‘old-boy-power’ here,

The Final Battle of the Iron Age: The Caretakers vs the Takers

Cosmic Convergence, Contributing Writer Waking Times Is there any doubt that there is a war being waged all over Planet Earth 24/7? A truly epochal war has been raging on every square inch of land, in every body of water and in every continental airspace for centuries. James Michener is credited for bringing awareness to

The “Inherently Evil’ Question

Contributing Writer Waking Times I think one of the greatest things holding back regular people from standing up to their government and the corporations who own them is they believe that people are inherently evil and that is why we will never be able to change anything on a mass scale. I have heard it

How to Have Power Over Power – Part II: The Psychology of Power and Prestige

Z, Waking Times
We live in a consumerist society, and our culture reflects that. Unfortunately the reflection is ugly. It shows us an image of greed and excessive wastefulness camouflaged by an outlandish hyper-reality. If we were to peel back this hyper-reality we would reveal the throbbing hunger of our animal nature: the need to be recognized.


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