We’ve all watched documentaries about global inequalities and climate change disasters. We’ve heard word that the government has muzzled scientists and that Geo-Engineers have solutions that sound like science-fiction novels. We understand that people are suffering because we can buy coffee everyday and a new dress for under $30.00. We have become comfortable beyond comfort. There are Band-Aids for the metaphorical and literal bullet wounds that exist in the world. Band-Aids include: being a vegetarian, voting “NO” to Stephen Harper, and carrying cloth bags to the store. Still, we can’t ignore the messages that transform our expectations of community and ourselves and that have led us towards all things “growth”. Growth is happiness we have been told, but what has resulted is a cognitive dissonance and it does not bring the happiness it promised. This cannot be the good life early leaders had dreamt of.
“It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.” – Fredric Jameson