Anti-consumerism

After I wrote about waste, I realize I'm an anti-consumerist.  I practice what I preach.  I only buy what is necessary.  I admit I'm frugal, because I come from a thrifty family.  It's not a wealthy, successful family, so you learn to scrimp and save.  I recently got into a tweet war with a couple of women, because I tweeted it was interesting that vegans are likely to enjoy better health than meat eaters, and perhaps this is karma.  A woman disagreed with that, because she is some sort of self-appointed diet and fitness guru.  Another woman weighed in; she said veggies are too expensive in the country where she lives.  I mentioned that I can afford to eat healthily, because I live a frugal life; they both made fun of that response.  But so many people's priorities are out of whack.  They put unnecessary, extravagant material purchases before necessities like nutritious food. 
My birthday is approaching, and I love music.  I have a ton of it, though.  I don't really need more.  It has been a while since I bought myself an album I wanted, though.  And something that's been bothering me is that I'm not getting an extra day off this week for Thanksgiving.  My supervisor was surprised that they didn't ask me if I wanted to work the usual amount of days this week or have an extra one off.  So that makes me want to treat myself even more.  If I do, and it's a big "if," because I know I don't need it, I'll try to purchase an album in MP3 format; this way, it would go digitally right to my computer, and then I'd put it on a flash drive, which I already have.  So there would be no waste associated with such a transaction: no materials, no packaging, no paper, no plastic.  It's, no surprise, also cheaper to buy it that way.  If the album I wanted was only available as a CD, then I might buy it, but I really don't see myself buying more than one. 
If I ever get around to it, I will try to sell much of my large CD collection.  All I need to do is put a CD onto my computer, and then I have it.  I no longer need the CD.  My CD player also plays music from flash drives.  Flash drives can be plugged right into the CD player.  The player never has trouble reading music on the flash drive.  I have had problems with CDs, though.  Sometimes they don't sit in the tray right, and they need to be adjusted.  Sometimes the player takes a while to read a CD.  The CD player fails to play CDs in other ways.  These problems can be remedied (so far), but, for me, CDs are more problematic than flash drive music.
As usual, I will buy no Christmas presents for anyone this year.  As a result, I won't receive any either, which is fine with me.  Think of the waste that will be a result of all the consumerism that will occur this holiday season.  People will give, and receive, piles of needless crap.  Children will get toys that they will lose interest in shortly: assuming they were ever interested in them at all.  Adults will also receive tons of gifts they don't want, which will also result in a mountain of waste.  Then there's all the wasted packaging, wrapping paper, and the shopping bags this crap went into.  And, of course, this stuff didn't magically appear in stores.  It was manufactured, and I've already mentioned how much waste there is at the corporate level, where money is more important than anything, which certainly includes reducing waste.  Then they were transported to the stores: probably by fossil-fuel burning trucks at some point in the journey.
If you care about the environment, it makes sense to be anti-consumerism.  Reduce waste.  Reduce litter.  Save money.  Reduce the amount of possessions you have.  The more stuff you have, the less free you are.  The more stuff you have, the harder it is to bring it with you.           

Thoughtless Cruelty

I think about animals lots of times every day.  As I've mentioned before, I'm constantly being reminded of animal cruelty and how many people are contributing to it with the choices they make.  It's a big problem for the animals (and those of us that care about them) that people are being thoughtlessly cruel to them all the time.
I wouldn't buy leather: period.  I see people wearing all sorts of leather garments.  I imagine them in the shoe stores.  I suppose leather is a thing to them: a material.  In the shoe store, they probably aren't thinking of it as the dead skin of a tortured, enslaved animal who had been innocent and peaceful.  I suppose they aren't thinking that, if they purchase those leather shoes, they will be supporting violence against cows.
It's the same with meat.  It's a thing: a food.  I suppose those that purchase it aren't thinking it's the dead, tortured flesh of an innocent animal that suffered for the sake of the consumer's palate.  I recently called animal cruelty, especially that which is highly-organized and institutionalized, "the worst conspiracy" in a post here.  It really is.  It's billions of people (currently-I shudder to think how many people over the course of human history have contributed to animal cruelty) getting together and essentially saying, "Sure, what we're doing to animals is horrible, and unnecessary, but, if you do it, and act like you're not doing anything wrong, then I will too."
I'm sickened by animal cruelty.  It contributes to my depression, which is nothing compared to the suffering that thoughtlessly cruel people are supporting whenever they buy meat, leather, fur, etc.  

Reaching Out

I posted this on Facebook today-
"Everyday, I see a lot of people who are quite content with themselves. They really seem to like themselves and think they are good people. But they eat meat. Eating meat is unnecessary. I've survived quite well without it since 2002. I'm slim and probably healthier than a lot of meat eaters. When one buys meat, one supports animal cruelty. There's no way around that. It doesn't matter that most people are meat eaters. Two wrongs don't make a right. Billions of wrongs don't make a right. No amount of wrongs make a right. Yesterday, I heard a coworker talk at length about how he prepares lamb and how delicious it is. It's a real shame that it's socially acceptable to be so thoughtlessly cruel. He spoke in such a pleasant, carefree tone, as though he couldn't possibly be offending someone, but I was definitely offended. Not only are lambs living, breathing, gentle animals, capable of feeling fear and pain, they are also juveniles. So, if you think you are a wonderful person, but you eat meat, ask yourself, are you really?"