Thursday, December 16, 2010

Selling America to the World

We seek to export the American way of life to the world - consumerism, independence, nonviolent change of power.
Yet, if the whole world lived like Americans, would the planet be able to provide the required resources?

If everyone lived like average Americans I wonder if our civilization would collapse? How would the earth provide all the resources necessary to sustain that kind of life?
As it is, the Earth is running out of many of the resources we use, and that's with most of the world not yet living to our standards of comfort.

Our global economic plan, though, is to use the craft of advertising and emotional manipulation to create an interest in our way of life in the rest of the world and then provide it to them.
We think that's good for us because it means we've opened up global markets and are making money.

It doesn't make sense to me. We may have made money initially, but eventually we can't sustain that life and we'll have to figure out a new way to live.

In America we've used nuclear power and fuel engines in our cars for years. But, when the Chinese and Indians buy into the dream and use those same technologies, we tell them to stop because we can't ALL live with those luxuries or the planet will suffer.

It just doesn't make sense to me.

We need to create a new American Dream. We can define a way of living that doesn't use up natural resources unnecessarily and yet makes sure everyone has enough.
My American Dream: Parks and wilderness areas, better food distribution, reasonable sized houses, conversation, valuing everyone's contribution to society, art, tolerance, creativity, patience, compassion, and love.
We could export those ideas around the world and live on Planet Earth for a very long time.

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