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I would like to take a moment and write about consumers. You know.. the purchasing entity that is you and I. Have you ever actually looked at the word though.

con·sume
1 - To take in as food; eat or drink up
2 - To expend; use up:
3 - To waste; squander.
4 - To destroy totally; ravage: flames that consumed the house; a body consumed by cancer.

Yes that sounds about right. When we hear it we automatically think of buyers istead of the actual meaning. But in truth we are locusts. We are a plague that will exhaust the resources of, not just a field or a years crop, but an entire planet.

Why do we consume? It is important to note that as consumers we can't just count things we eat, but rather all things that we buy and then discard. We are governed by a set of fears that force us to get what we feel we must have. Fear of the outside world as the news would show you, makes sure that we stay at home eating pizzas buying movies and watching TV so that we can learn about more things that we need to be afraid of, and more things we must have. We are also subjected to a fear of exclusion. We become frightened that we will not be accepted by our peers if we don't have the latest music, jeans, toys, stereos, etc. These are not the only reasons we buy, but they are powerful reasons. We are told to fear so many different things that we do not even realize that we do these things out of fear. Perhaps that is something to be frightened about right there.

Entertainment is a huge reason we purchase things. I will grant that entertainment is necessary, but it has now come to a point where we are not content unless we are being entertained. We do not seek to grow our minds, or right wrongs. We do not consider the words of others or ponder weather or not the world is plunging into the depths. It is understandable to need to tune these things out from time to time. You must let yourself hide from the world every now and then, if just to catch your breath. But many people never emerge from these tiny hideaways. The fear of reality is amazingly scary.

The problem with all this consuming is that it wastes non-renewable resources. This is another word that we often see and never think about. There is no way to bring these resources back. They are gone forever and cannot be remade. Everything that we buy in some way has needed oil to make it. Anything plastic is made from oil. Yes even the crappy toys you get in the happy meals. Movies, it takes oil to make the plastic in the DVD case and the DVD plus all the resources used in making the movie. Junk food is often made from oil and the packaging definitely is, and even real food as it was grown, used oil based fertilizers and pesticides.

With all this consumption, is it any wonder why we fabricated reasons to go to war with Iraq, an oil rich country. Of course, there was never any danger of us not getting the oil, we just didn't want to pay what they wanted to ask. I don't know about you, but if I want a sandwich, and the only guy selling the one I want is charging 30 dollars for it... I am more inclined to do without the sandwich, not kill him and everyone in the restaurant.

Maybe if I had less movies or wanted less toys as a child... maybe if I didn't need a Tony Hawk Skating set with my happy meal. I know this sounds crazy. I cannot stop the war, nor can I stop the wave of fear that has washed over western society, the wave that forces us to spend and consume. What about this though... what if none of us "needed" these things. The people that give their lives in Iraq are not doing it to protect our lives or those of the people in Iraq. They are doing it so that billionaire companies can scare us, and make cheap toys that distract us from seeing how evil and tyrannical we as a society have become.