Where's the Gap?

On it's way from the mighty US of A is that high priestess of mediocrity, purveyor of the worlds finest bland essentials - coming to fill the space in our wardrobes
(and our lives) with...more emptiness.

I wonder whether we've got room for it? We can shop 24/7; buy what we want from rip off jeans to exclusive designer trainers. It's all here in this island shaped shrine to consumerism. You gotta have the next thing - another pair of shoes, the new season's jacket, this funky new labels retro chic bag of the moment. Quick, quick - get it. It'll make you feel so good.

And yet not seeing too much joy around me. Not many peaceful, contented, sorted people. Not too much love and compassion. Not much "I'm so fulfilled and happy with myself and my life" coming at me.

Simplisticaly our society tell us consuming is what's going to make us, what we're here for. We can have what we desire by buying things, we can get the lifestyle we aspire to - cause we're worth it. With just the acquisition of a watch we can somehow achieve a new state of greatness and dizzy new heights of uber-coolness. Buy stuff to make your house look chic, buy stuff to make other people like you or love you, buy stuff to make you younger looking so that even more people will like you and love you. Then go out a buy stuff to make yourself feel better about the fact that you're not all that is required; you're not tall enough, busty enough, thin enough, clever enough, popular enough, you're not good enough...not good...enough - unless you buy stuff then you might be.

Consuming, having to have more and more and more is not going to get us anywhere. It's not working. We need another option.

We could consume what we need. We could maintain spending levels so economies don't collapse by buying less and spending more. Spending more on products so that the people that make them can earn a decent wage. Spending more on items so that we can actual pay for the environmental impact of what we create and chuck out. We could spend more so that animals don't need to suffer for the sake of filling our already full bellies. We could spend more on the parts of our culture that enhance us and make us human - our artists, crafts people, musicians, writers, inventors, scientists, performers. We could all work less hours for more money, spending more time bringing up our children and being with our families.

There's a gap that needs filling but it's not a shop shaped gap.