Because You're A Victim, Too.
Wait, what?
It’s true. In fact, our consumption habits are a direct though different result of the same exploitation. Under the assumption neither you nor I are type to personally wreak havoc on impoverished communities and impede their progress (a surprising feat to be managed to one individual regardless of any dark intention), we become caught in a system difficult, and expensive, to escape. However, American culture as it has been is one of brushing only the tip of every iceberg until a turbulent final hour. This has allowed apathy and inaction to maintain their comfortable place in the social norm.
In other countries, resources are abused by companies who invade for the sake of lowered production costs. The drastically lower standards of living,protection of natural resources, and worker rights make this a profitable practice that allows companies to pass the savings on to their consumers. Paying unrealistically low prices certainly keeps our minds of what we're not paying for. It also better allows corporations vie for brain space and manufacture demand for products that aren't a necessity without qualifying as a luxury in our lives. Marketing becomes a living creature, slipping into minds through any surface that can bear a message or carry a signature tune.
The illusions that have maintained their places as largely harmless to the American way of life and crippling to places faces we will never see create a dangerously unattended situation. Who can blame us for the difficulty there is in processing how much sway we hold in a problem as expansive as this? Every product we buy, from any skewed corporation, is a vote telling them that we shall not oppose anything at all. These corporate powers have more direct control over things than our local politicians, and while we wouldn’t, in theory that doesn't entirely translate to fact, vote a politician in office who had allowed for these same devastating exploitations to occur, the majority of the consumer world still purchases products from Coca-Cola. The only difference is that we pay to submit the vote. In the case of Coca-Cola, it's only beverages we gain. If you wouldn’t stand to watch someone suffer for your drinks, it seems equally unreasonable to do so if you’re allowed the option of plugging your ears and turning your back.
"People rarely do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent." - Bob Dylan
We look back on sickening genocides, meaningless wars and ruthless persecutions that color our history with a vicious mire and often struggle to comprehend how it all could have occurred. It is a rare crime in history that there were too few bystanders to prevent. The longer we wait, the more we become the faceless whose voice was never raised. It 's never too late for change, because change always comes. We decide when, and I, a fifteen year old from Portland, Oregon, invite you to join in choosing today.
It’s true. In fact, our consumption habits are a direct though different result of the same exploitation. Under the assumption neither you nor I are type to personally wreak havoc on impoverished communities and impede their progress (a surprising feat to be managed to one individual regardless of any dark intention), we become caught in a system difficult, and expensive, to escape. However, American culture as it has been is one of brushing only the tip of every iceberg until a turbulent final hour. This has allowed apathy and inaction to maintain their comfortable place in the social norm.
In other countries, resources are abused by companies who invade for the sake of lowered production costs. The drastically lower standards of living,protection of natural resources, and worker rights make this a profitable practice that allows companies to pass the savings on to their consumers. Paying unrealistically low prices certainly keeps our minds of what we're not paying for. It also better allows corporations vie for brain space and manufacture demand for products that aren't a necessity without qualifying as a luxury in our lives. Marketing becomes a living creature, slipping into minds through any surface that can bear a message or carry a signature tune.
The illusions that have maintained their places as largely harmless to the American way of life and crippling to places faces we will never see create a dangerously unattended situation. Who can blame us for the difficulty there is in processing how much sway we hold in a problem as expansive as this? Every product we buy, from any skewed corporation, is a vote telling them that we shall not oppose anything at all. These corporate powers have more direct control over things than our local politicians, and while we wouldn’t, in theory that doesn't entirely translate to fact, vote a politician in office who had allowed for these same devastating exploitations to occur, the majority of the consumer world still purchases products from Coca-Cola. The only difference is that we pay to submit the vote. In the case of Coca-Cola, it's only beverages we gain. If you wouldn’t stand to watch someone suffer for your drinks, it seems equally unreasonable to do so if you’re allowed the option of plugging your ears and turning your back.
"People rarely do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent." - Bob Dylan
We look back on sickening genocides, meaningless wars and ruthless persecutions that color our history with a vicious mire and often struggle to comprehend how it all could have occurred. It is a rare crime in history that there were too few bystanders to prevent. The longer we wait, the more we become the faceless whose voice was never raised. It 's never too late for change, because change always comes. We decide when, and I, a fifteen year old from Portland, Oregon, invite you to join in choosing today.