The Movement that Mass Media, in Alliance with the Corporate World, Spoon Fed Consumers

Some of you readers may become extremely irritated with my new post today.  And while I feel this green, organic subject is important, I also feel as though a sliver, a tiny sliver, needs to be cracked.  I did intend to research this topic throughly, but alas, a Google search did not yield many results (much like my vegetables at this point).
The green, organic movement has picked up speed in Chicago.  The movement is becoming a whirlwind, exciting the most skeptical individuals, seducing them to minimize their carbon foot print by offering them completely green, organic fruits, vegetables, cars, paper, clothing, yarn, and, well, nearly everything else that you could think.  Probably even rubber!  Or styrofoam! Before I knew it, a surplus of Chicagoans were totting around their little reusable tote bags with a smug look on their face when they saw me walk out of the supermarket with four plastic bags, and sometimes, it's hard to believe, double plastic for the safe sturdiness that my gallon of milk won't fall on the ground because, simply, milk is cold to carry for eight blocks!


I mean, at least I walk everywhere and use transportation, right?


Try telling the above comment to some of those green bikers in Chicago.  They'll just stare at you with a slacked jaw, shaking their heads, ranting about how the transit system in Chicago is still using up too much oil. But, hey there biker, where do you think that crude asphalt comes from which allows you to bike smoothly in the city?  I mean, at least you're not paying $2.25 per ride to use up some oil.


At least, then, buying some organic yarns or clothes shouldn't be too expensive, right?  I mean, I do want to help out the Earth and Nature, hell, also hard working individuals in my own country and not some innocent child half way across the world who'll lose a finger or two in those sewing machines.  Go ahead, try walking into an organic clothing store in Chicago and show me a decent price.  Chances are, the lowest will be around $245.


So, why would I want to pay over two hundred dollars for a pair of organic cotton jeans?  Because of the green guilt that has slowly seeped into my brain like some sort of mutant ooze.  It just doesn't die.  If one were to go looking for the host, one would have to travel on a far and complex journey, which, for the record, would probably be full of grosser, meaner monsters than those ever found in Tolkin's Middle Earth, or Where the Wild Things Are.  Finally stumbling upon the host, one would look up in horror just to find that it's been the Media all along.


Stephen T. Asma writes: "Pointing out these parallels is not meant to diminish the environmental cause. We should indeed do the things in our power, and within reason, to sustain the planet. But we have a tendency to become neurotic and overly anxious, especially when we are regularly told, via green marketing ploys, that each one of us is responsible for the survival of the planet. That's a heavy guilt trip."


Right on, Mr. Asma!  You write the way it should be written: with green marketing ploys written all over this green guilt that's been shoved down my throat all day.  This guilt doesn't just happen with commercials, but with people, too!  I've known one too many Chicagoans who have smugly boasted about this "great little shop that's all organic," or "my new hat is awesome because it's all organic cotton and it was only $70, I mean, what a steal!"  What a steal, indeed, my fellow friend.  What a steal.


The main problem I have with green guilt is this: when I walk into "organic" shops, whether they be huge like Whole Foods, or tiny and intimate like Green Grocer, the over priced items leap out at me first.  Then, when the shock subsides, the recognition that fruit is being shipped from across the world in the middle of winter slowly illuminates me and suddenly, a revelation: how are they being so green and organic by shipping food half way across the world in winter?


Then again, perhaps I am a part of the problem as well for intermingling the words organic and green.  Surely a organic certified food product, which must be 95% organic, does not necessarily mean that it is green, which would be defined as "earth friendly" and using less "carbon foot prints."  Because, well, organic fruit that is flown in to a wintry Whole Foods from Brazil must have used quite a lot of fuel.


Readers, all of you are consumers, will be consumers, and have been consumers.  I just urge us all to be smart shoppers with a critical eye everywhere.  Let's do our research first (like I should have for this post) before leaping in to some guilt that the mass media in alliance with the corporate world has spoon fed us.  Surely we can save the Earth and Nature, but in ways that we feel comfortable with and that are within our means as consumers.  Let's preach about saving the environment and going green within first, because, after all, we have to watch out for ourselves first before we can change anything.