how do you deal with...

[LizMoonstar]

the knowledge that everything oppresses someone (and not lose your mind)?

here's what I'm getting at. You buy clothes. They're made in a sweatshop. So you either switch to a non-sweatshop company or you make your own. But the fabric comes from exploited workers' labor. OK, so you'll make your own fabric. But slave-level migrant workers picked the cotton or linen. OK, so you'll grow your own cotton. But the tools you'd use were made by factory workers, not to mention the people who mined the raw materials and the power it took to do all this. OK, so you'll cultivate by hand the cotton you're growing to make your own fabric for your own clothes. But your ancestors took that land from the Native Americans!

And you can do this for anything, and I do mean ANYTHING.

If I didn't have people who loved me, I'd kill myself now and save the time and trouble of worrying about this stuff.

So, what do you do? For those of you who are going to tell me, well, i just try to do what I can to make things better, well, where do you draw the line? How can you decide which people are worthy of protection?

[BlueEyedSon]

1. You drive a car (6cyl station wagon, say). You like your central

air when its 95F outside. You like your american lifestyle.

As 4% of the world pop, we use 25% of the oil/energy.

Peak oil is around the corner. There will be massive oil wars.

Prosperity as we know it is ending, the engine of growth (cheap energy) is gone.

The world it desperately overpopulated and resource-scarce these days.

Having a kid or 2 would be nice.


AAAAHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRGGGGGGG

[canadianbeaver]

2. i agree....completely....

These thoughts have been running thru my head for years....

Your words: If I didn't have people who loved me....

rang so true to me...Where could we possibly go and not deal with this?....

Your questions only bring on more questions...I am still searching for the answers...What have we done to this planet and the innocent people on it?

[pitohui]

3. balance

even a tree growing in a patch of soil has displaced some other tree or shrub that would otherwise grow there

treat others w. kindness, do the best you can to do no harm, but don't make such a fetish of it that you are harming yourself, since you too are a sentient being deserving of life & well-being

w. clothes because i can easily find attractive used clothes in my size, i can thrift shop, garage sale, consignment shop, & reduce the use of harmful pesticides used in raising cotton, reduce demand for sweatshops etc.

however some sizes or styles are never found used, men for example often wear their clothes out & my husband can't find good used clothes appropriate for business

so he does the best he can without harming himself, he treats the clothes he does have w. respect knowing their cost in human & environmental, he doesn't buy & discard & buy again w. every little change in fads

walk in balance

[RandomKoolzip]

4. Voluntary Human Extinction is the only answer.

No, I kid.

The best that you can do is to do enough so that your conscience can be sated, but don't let that stand in the way of living your life.

[BlueEyedSon]

5. Here's their website

http://www.vhemt.org/

[RandomKoolzip]

7. I used to get newsletters from this group....

Back when I was a militant Green.


I'm 30 now and realize how stupid it is.

[BlueEyedSon]

8. When youre 70, it may seem reasonable!

After all, you will have had YOUR life...

:)

[aasleka]

9. Do what you can

Live life well in the manner that you wish. Ease your conscience by doing what you can for who you can.
Raise some children and teach them to dream of a better tommorrow.

The American lifestyle is coming to an end and our children will indeed see more horrible days than ourselves.
Teach them that life is more important than a job, that love is more important than money, that knowledge is more important than war.

While the regressives consider wars to fight to keep what they have been used to we must think to create what we want.

[meganmonkey]

6. You do your best, and that is a personal standard.

It is difficult. When I can't afford fair trade organic cotton clothes I usually buy used clothes, because then the manufacturers with bad practices aren't making money off me. But sometimes I will be in Target for something else and I see something cute and it's only $10 and it probably was made in a crappy way but I don't lose sleep over it.

I do really good about buying local organic food, that is my priority. I almost never buy fast food, soda, or mass-produced meat. I don't do as well with socially-responsible clothes. I am also really good about cleaning products, but I wish my house was built out of more ecologically friendly materials.

It's not your fault (or mine), as an individual, that the system we deal with is so messed up. And while that shouldn't give people license to do whatever the fuck they want, it also means we aren't all guilty just for existing on this planet, in this country.

There are some things you can change, and some things you can't. The serenity prayer comes to mind, and it is helpful.

If you try too hard to be a total purist, you can end up losing the ability to be flexible, and you can end up a more stressed out person. So then you don't do as much good in the world as you could in other ways, like being kind to people in traffic jams or just smiling most of the time.

As someone above said, it is about balance.

I know that is sort of a babbly answer, but that's what came to mind.

Good luck working it out :)

on edit: The very fact that you are concerned about this puts you about ten steps ahead of most people in this country!

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[newyawker99]

11. Hi jondozo!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LizMoonstar]

15. question: why was this deleted? I'm confused.n/t

[roguevalley]

12. check the internet and find something that is made to benefit

others and do your best. No one is expected to be perfect in this life, honey. that you try to do better is part of your unique glory. Do your best. Its all you can do. Go to this place for some things that are done to benefit others. The web has other sites too:

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites.woa

http://www.care2.com/click2donate/

[PDJane]

14. Live as simply as you can.........

and try very, very hard to make sure that the lawmakers know that you know that the whole deal is driven by corporations......and that you want laws to lessen their influence.