LET'S TAKE BACK CHRISTMAS

The holiday shopping season has gotten off to a bad start, they say.  They
don't say it, actually, they moan it, as if no worse tragedy can be 
imagined. 
The problem is, they say, that too many of us have maxed out our credit 
cards. 
The solution is to send out more credit cards.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a description of mass insanity?

We take a holiday that celebrates the birth of one of the gentlest 
spirits ever
known, one who told us to store up treasure not on earth but in heaven, 
and we
turn the occasion into an orgy of eating, drinking, and buying gifts people
don't need with money we don't have.  

Each item we buy -- the plastic Santa made of oil, the satellite dish 
made of
metal, the wrapping paper made of trees, the eggnog made of milk, sugar, and
rum -- has been taken from the earth and will be returned to the earth as 
waste
sooner or later, mostly sooner.

We complain for months about the traffic jams, the crowded stores, the
hecticness of mobilizing all this material and energy.  
But we think our national welfare, as well as our personal welfare, depends
upon doing it more each year than the year before.  So we take on more debt.

Just crazy.

The average adult American holds nine credit cards with an average unpaid
balance of $3900.  (At say 15 percent, which is low for credit cards, that
means we pay $585 a year in interest.)  The average shopper takes six 
months to
pay off his or her Christmas charges.  Consumer debt is rising faster than
income; personal bankruptcies are increasing; yet banks and other card 
issuers
mail out 2 billion new card offers a year -- eight for every man, woman, and
child of us.

We can blame the card-purveyors and advertisers and store-keepers for 
whipping
us up into a Christmas frenzy, but why do we allow ourselves to be 
whipped? 
Why do we take the cards?  Why do we use them to turn Christmas into a 
spending
and borrowing fit?

Let's start with the good reasons.  We love to please the people we 
love.  We
like the rush of excitement in the stores, the pretty decorations, the
beautiful music.  We can picture our kids' eyes shining with the magic of
Christmas.  

Then there are the not-so-good reasons.  If I buy my boyfriend's mother
something, maybe she'll like me.  If I find something nice for Aunt Ellie,
maybe she'll think I like her.  I have to send cards to those people, because
they send cards to me.  If I out-party and out-spend everyone around me,
they'll think I'm a success.

You can add to the list of reasons, good and bad, for your own holiday 
madness. 
Having done so, look at them hard.  Look again.  Maybe you'd like to toss all
those excuses away and join a rising number of Americans in a quiet,
unorganized movement to return Christmas to its original purpose.

Swear off the insincere presents.  Everyone sees through them anyway.  
Save the
money.

Imagine how to make your kids' eyes shine without buying them stuff.

Think of ten ways to show people you love them that do not require 
spending any
money.

Declare the day after Thanksgiving an annual Buy-Nothing Day.

If you're not the type who pays off your credit-card balance each month 
without
fail, get rid of the cards.  Take the $585 in saved interest and give it to
someone who really needs it.

For pretty decorations and beautiful music, try church.  Fill your house with
decorations and music you make yourself.  If you don't have time, work 
less. 
You don't need so much money, if you don't buy so many things.

When it makes sense to buy something, go ahead and buy it.  We are so
unfamiliar with sensible frugality in our culture that we assume it's about
tight-lipped stinginess, living miserably, being cheap.  But there is a 
great,
enjoyable middle ground between miserliness and gluttony.  On that middle
ground buying becomes a well-considered means to true ends -- ends 
defined by
you and not by an advertiser.  When you buy, go for honest value, long 
service,
high quality. If the cheapest product was made in a way that demeans workers,
destroys the environment, and puts your neighbors out of business, don't buy
it.  Buy the best.

Above all, forget the nonsensical idea that the economy needs us to buy in
excess.  Neither the planet nor our souls can afford that kind of 
economy.  Why
work ourselves to death to buy things we don't need in order to provide 
jobs to
keep ourselves working?  If we backed off from mindless buying and searched
instead for true meaning, we would be able to spend less, borrow less, earn
less, and reclaim our time, attention, and serenity -- our lives.

The spirit whose birth we are celebrating would say there is nothing 
better to
give to our loved ones than our time, attention, serenity, and lives.

(Donella H. Meadows is an adjunct professor of environmental studies at
Dartmouth College.)

sziasztok!

csak nehany megjegyzes meg a kornyezeti tudathoz:

> Felado :  [Switzerland]
> 
> a kornyezeti artalmakkal
> kapcsolatos, idonkent mar hiszteriaba hajlo sajtokampanyok.

nem tudom te hol elsz ill. milyen regen jartal mar m.o. -on, de mi itt 
boven beszelhetunk az emberek alulinformaltsagarol, s az esetleges 
"sajtokampanyok" (hogy volt e egyaltalan ilyen m.o.-on -a csernobilin kivul- 
azt nem tudom) talan csak segitenenek. az emberek tajekoztatasanak, es 
altalanos kornyezeti intelligenciajuk novelesere az egyik legjobb es 
legeredmenyesebb mod a sajto. nagy baj, hogy m.o.-on meg keves tarsadalmi 
es egyebb szervezet tud veluk jo kapcsolatot kialakitani.

tapasztalataim szerint inkabb szeretik az 
emberek a dolgokat elbagatelizalni, mint felfujni, s ez az oka annak is, 
hogy nem lehet a kornyezetvedelem teren atuto sikert aratni.

> nezzuk pl. az ozonlyuk problemajat. Csokken az ozonreteg -
> no az UV sugarzas es ez valoszinuleg nem jo. De arrol pl. sokszor
> elfelejtenek irni, hogy egy adott foldrajzi helyen akar egy honapon belul
> is sokkal nagyobb ingadozasok lehetnek az ozonreteg vastagsagaban, mint az
> eddig kimutatott atlagos fogyas, illetve hogy az UV szint novekedesenek
> biologiai hatasai sem teljesen tisztazottak.

szinte minden kornyezeti problemaval egyutt jar ez a latszolagos problema.
de ilyenkor eszembe jut egy kep: all par oltonyos uriember egy hatalmas 
terulet kozepen. miden azon a teruleten kivagott fa helyen mar csak a 
tuskoja diszlik. a rajzhoz mellekelt szoveg (amit az egyik oltonyos 
mond): " nos uraim, kezdhetjuk a kornyezeti hatasvizsgalatot!". AMIT 
ELOTTE KELLET VOLNA CSINALNI!

hajlamosak vagyunk arra, hogy elobb pusztitsunk 
(cselekedjunk) s uttana merjuk meg az esetleges hatasokat. ha van egy 
problema, akkor NEM meg kellene varni, amig bebizonyosodik, hogy az 
valoban rossz, es addig nyugodtan tovabb folytatni tevekenysegunket, 
hanem le kellene allni azzal a tevekenyseggel, amig be nem 
bizonyosodik, hogy az nem valos problema. ezert nem ertek veled egyet, hogy 
minek olyan sokat beszelni az ozonrol. TUDOD, LEHET HOGY NEM BAJ, HOGY AZ 
OZON FELUL FOGY, ITT PEDIG NOVEKSZIK AZ UV SUGARZAS, DE AMI NAGYON 
FONTOS, AZ A KOCKAZAT. MI LESZ, HA ARTALAMAS? KI VALLALJA A FELESSEGET 
AZERT, HOGY NEM ALTUNK LE AZ OZON FOGYASZTO ANYAGOKKAL. NEM TUDUNK SEMMI 
BIZTOSAT PERSZE, DE AZ EMBERISEGNEK EZ A KALANDJA (sok massal egyutt) 
NEKEM LEGALABBIS TUL KOCKAZATOSNAK TUNIK. 

persze nem tudunk biztosat. de ez nem arra kellene hogy batoritson 
minket, hogy folytassuk amit csinalunk, hanem arra, hogy ne csinaljuk a 
bizonytalant es a kockazatost!

> 	Az emberek feltik az eletuket es a tobbseguk
> kulonosebb fejtores nelkul mindenrol elhiszi, hogy az art neki. 

epp itt a baj: a legtobb kornyezetvedelmi problema csak kozvetve hat az 
emberre es eleg nehez vele megertetni, hogy torodjon kornyezetevel 
legalabb annyit amennyit sajat magaval.

de felteszem masodik kerdesem: ha olyan konnyen elhinnek az emberek, hogy 
mi a rossz nekik, akkor miert dohanyoznak oly sokan, miert van olyan sok 
aids-es, miert narkoznak, miert elnek zajos, fustos budos varosokban  es 
miert ....  azt hiszem rengeteg peldat lehetne hozni.
szoval konnyen elfogadjak, hogy mi a rossz??


> akik meg megmondjak hogy mi art nekik - felneznek es orakulumkent
> tisztelik. 

speciel ezt velem meg senki sem tette, akit igy felvilagositottam, sot ...

> 	Mindent osszevetve: lehet, hogy mocskos ez a Fold, de azert
> csak szep hely es az biztos, hogy tenni kell valamit, hogy ilyen is maradjon.

ez szerintem is igaz. de szetnezve pl. ebben az orszagban, ahol mar alig 
alig talalhato termeszetes (ember altal nem bolygatott, nem zavart, 
nem hasznalt) terulet, en mar csak azt szoktam mondani, hogy ez a Fold 
szep VOLT. speciel en nem sok gyonyoruseget talalok a sinekben, utakban, 
epuletekben, foleg nem  a gyarakban. (es kerlek, most nehogy rogton azzal 
kezd, hogy ezek nelkul en se tudnek elni. ez igaz, de sokkal 
kevesebben sokkal kevesebbel, talan tudnank elni.)


udv:

---- luki


**************************    attila lukacs    *************************
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