Despite not knowing their greenhouse gases from their carbon credits, or that DDT was a bad thing, did they live "greener" lives than we?
By and large, they used less water, imported less food, bought fewer cars, built much smaller homes and threw out way less garbage.
Nearly everything my mom's family (11 including parents) ate was grown, fished or hunted right on their land.
Sinking one's teeth into a juicy drumstick meant first raising the chickens, and throwing away any part of that chicken would have been nothing short of criminal.
Clothes were handed down whenever possible. Frugality became an imperative, burned into their blood. Waste was more than a pile of useless rubbish; it was lost opportunity, something to be eyed with suspicion and disdain.
Doesn't consumerism's magic act depends upon a certain sleight of hand to convince us that it is always better to outsource to others those things that we once did for ourselves?
2007-10-14
03:10:41
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9 answers
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asked by
John Doe 1st
4
in
Politics