hi all. i've been thinking about this topic all morning, because it's one that i've come to be more and more invested in. i think after i went to graduate school, and learned to train myself to be a critical thinker about culture (as well as about literature, my field of study), i started examining my own choices as a consumer. (of television, for example--i stopped mindlessly letting waves of advertising wash over me and began thinking about the rhetoric involved in various ad campaigns--what's implied or assumed, for example, when a wal-mart ad shows a beamingly happy staff, hugging their boss, and telling us very earnestly about the happy environment of working at wal-mart.)
when it comes to buying food or clothing, or other products, our thinking is even more necessary, i believe--because choosing which vegetable to eat or which shirt to wear are both reflections of what we literally support, with our money--whether we know it or not. i was really disgusted by the fact that i could be (and had been) so unthinking when it came to choosing which product to buy--i had let the sheer overwhelming choices available in our society kid me into thinking it doesn't matter which soda i drink or what kind of beef i cook. that the differences are those of style or aesthetics alone. i think that all this choice we have as consumers here (i'm talking about the US, because that's what i know about) comes with a price--i guess i've learned that i have to be responsible for the consequences of the things i buy with my money or my time. if i buy something, i am making a decision (whether it is an informed one or not) about the people behind that product. under what conditions was it manufactured? what are the worker/employer relations like? what kinds of politics or religion do the company's top execs support or underwrite? a lot of times, of course--i slip up, or i'm too tired or annoyed to think about it. it's so much easier not to! but then i think, those migrant workers picking the grapes for 1.80 an hour, with no benefits--they are separated from me (the consumer) by so much--by distance, by culture, by language (possibly), by factories and companies and people in suits who organize, transfer, and market these same grapes to get to my supermarket. when i pretend that they don't exist, the migrant workers of my hypothetical and off-the-top-of-my-head example--only because they can't speak directly to me--then i perpetuate exactly what a large corporation interested only in profit, wants. and i hate that feeling. i'm rambling here--because i find this such a powerful topic and one that's become more important to me, over the past five years or so. sorry for the soapbox-ish tone...i enjoyed the chance to put into words some thinking that i've had in more vague form, for some time. best, emily
