A Commercial Society

“Now you can wash your car tires with ease! Watch as it cleans this dirty patio chair in seconds!”

“We loved our back patio, but the sun was just so hot that it was unbearable to be out there.”

“Stinky, stinky, stinky, stinky, stinky, stinky! Now you can keep unwanted odor in!”

“Just wear this device and you can get a workout even at your desk. Have great abs in days!”

I’m sure you’ve heard at least one or more of these commercials recently. They all have something in common. Most of them provide some type of service to counter the inconvenience of doing something else in a much faster way.

Our society has become full of lazy people who have disconnected themselves from the real world. The first commercial is for a power washer. It shows images of this power washer spraying water at full force at a tire rim, blowing the dirt off, and a patio chair, also at full force, blowing the dirt off. Both objects could have been cleaned with a bucket of water and a sponge and used much, much less water. It’s almost sad to see this commercial advertising perfectly good drinking water (in most cases) being sprayed at full force to clean something off, when people in Haiti, after the earthquake, are desperate for clean drinking water. What a gross waste of water. We also have the luxury of wasting millions of gallons of water a day to flush only a few ounces of waste per person down the toilet. Automatic toilets are great for people suffering from some sort of mysophobia, but in the long run, something that could put us into serious trouble.

The second commercial is for the Sun Setter patio covers. This commercial acts as if the sun is an inconvenience to us, and that it’s the sun’s fault that they built their patio in the direction of the open sun. So instead of doing the environmentally friendly option of maybe planting a tree to garner shade in that spot, or go out during certain parts of the day, or even use a better planning strategy, it can all be fixed with harmful plastics and an unnecessary coal-using electric option to open the shade for you! How convenient. Then he goes on to mention that the Sun Setter can protect you from the sun’s harmful rays (thanks, Liam, for reminding me of this part)… if you were worried about the sun’s harmful rays, why did you even plan on building a patio to enjoy yourself outside? You might as well just stay in the house and save yourself thousands of dollars, especially if you’re going to bitch that it’s too hot outside. Poor you.

The third commercial is for a new type of Hefty bag. It blocks odors without being scented. Again, our waste has become a huge inconvenience to us, even though we’re the ones making the waste. The commercial shows various stinky-makers, including chicken legs, fish, vegetables, diapers, and other such items that can either be A.) recycled after getting rinsed out B.) eaten completely and not wasted (and if you don’t eat it completely, deal with your own consequences of being wasteful) C.) composted, or D.) usable by an alternate method (cloth diapers still exist, people). We throw away so much garbage it’s ridiculous. How much do we waste? Here is a video of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnUjTHB1lvM and some images of hundreds of albatross chicks that die every year due to such garbage: http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=11 Ironically enough, as I went to search for the YouTube movie of the garbage patch, a popup ad came up for Hefty trash bags.

Commercial number four is for that ab workout belt you can wear that sends electrical pulses through the belt to work your muscles, as you do absolutely nothing but sit there. This is on top of the diet pills and the “fast results” diet plans, lap bands, and pills that have exploded on today’s market. Our laziness has become the epitome of waste. Instead of going outside and jogging, or even taking a walk in the park, the woods, or some sort of natural piece nature, we’re destroying nature in mountaintop removal processes that provide the coal to power your lazy-belt.

These services and items are made for our American, lazy convenience. While I realize it’s not possible for every American to stop what they’re doing and become super-environmental, products like these are completely unnecessary. I’m reminded of the scenario played out in the Pixar movie Wall-E, where everyone has evolved to have everything done for them. While I realize it’s a little far-fetched, it’s also not beyond the realm of possibilities. Every day a new product or piece of technology comes out in order to make our lives simpler or to do things for us. With the mass production of meat and vegetables, we’ve become dissociated from what really occurs in the real world. Most women nowadays would scream if they had to be self-sustainable and get their hands dirty by creating a garden, and if we had to kill our own animals for food, there would be far less omnivores in this society. However, our enthusiasm (or lack thereof) to actually participate in change will be covered in my next blog. For now, I ask that you please do the responsible thing and not give in to these products, because you’ll be jogging (or using your Segway?) the downhill path along with the planet.