Much of what I have written on this site deals with personal restoration. I am restoring my foreskin. Restoring my health. Restoring my prostate (or at least keeping it from getting worse). I am restoring my life.

But, more needs to be restored than just me, personally. I want to restore the world. I want to restore a way of life where the quality of life is higher than it is now. We need to restore the world. We have become complacent and allowed big business to control our lives. We need to take back what is ours.

The following video illustrates what I am talking about. The Story of Bottled Water illustrates one facet of our life that is ripe for improvement.

The video is thought provoking. In my heart I knew this before watching the video. I am unusual. I do not drink bottled water. Every morning I fill up a container with filtered tap water. I have done this for more than 20 years.
 

Manufactured Demand

The US economy is driven by consumerism. To foster consumerism, corporations have become skilled at manufacturing demand -- demand for stuff we don't need, like bottled water.

We are sheeple, buying stuff we do not need. We end up working extra hard to pay for that stuff that we do not need. Other than buying too much, you may ask, "What is the harm?"

The people at The Story of Stuff have another video that illustrates the harm of our consumer culture.
The Story of Stuff, Full Version; How Things Work, About Stuff illustrates the harm caused from our consumer culture. We are raping our planet. We buy stuff and then throw it away. We are trashing our planet.

One cause of the problem illustrated in the video is eloquently shown at about the 2 minute mark. Corporations are larger than most governments. Making matters worse, governments bow down to these corporations. We see this all the time in the news, particularly with the current economic difficulties we have. The banking industry sells loans to people who should not have gotten them. The debtors default. The banking industry falters. The government bails out the banking industry. Banking industry executive get record bonuses and the industry quickly returns to making lots of money. Meanwhile, many people have their homes foreclosed and others are unemployed. Hmmm.
 

Restoration

But what can we do? What can I do. I have not bought into the consumer culture. OK. That hasn't done much for preventing the problem from occurring. I am reminded of the Arlo Guthrie song: Alice's Restaurant. He ends the song describing what people can do:

And the only reason I'm singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if your in a situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's walk into the shrink wherever you are ,just walk in say "Shrink, You can get anything you want, at Alice's restaurant.". And walk out.
 

You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him.
 

And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them.
 

And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization.
 

And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement.

If enough people get off the consumer train, perhaps we can begin to restore the world. Perhaps if enough people get upset at how corporations are taking advantage of us, we can begin to change things.

One thing is for certain. If we continue buying and throwing stuff away, if we continue to let corporations and special interests manipulate us, if we remain sheeple, nothing will change.

That is a scary thought.
 

Related links:

• Book from Amazon: The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-and a Vision for Change
   
• The Story of Stuff, sponsored by Allegheny College
   
• Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption