7
Yeah, commercialization is slowly killing the country. Having been in Japan for a year and a half, I'm not sure if things in England are the same, but around the time that I left a new fad was a mobile phone that looked like an electronic organiser, and allowed you to write text messages whilst you were speaking on the phone. Surely this symbolizes the very worst aspect of the modern society - we are not talking to eachother meaningfully, face to face, anymore. I can't think of many things more annoying than when you are talking to someone, and they break off to look at a text message. And now, even the superficial, faux communication over the phone is being affected. (As a quick aside, I can't fathom the fascination with mobile phone ringtones. If they were free, fair enough but when you have to pay upwards of £1.50 for an annoyingsynthesizedd tune that makes you appear like a prize teat it makes me shake my head in sheer disbelief.)
You hit the nail on the head, Diamond. We are becoming lazy and subservient, just so the stock of a few corporations will go up a tenth of a percent. Money is what rules the world, and I for one want to beat my fists with despair.
I live in Japan, where conservatism in the workplace is king, even in this age of green haired teenagers andAmericanization. But the same things happen all over the modernized world, including England. Money is the drum beat to which we are all blindly, unwittingly, moving.
I'm glad that you brought up banking, because it's got to be one of the worst aspects of 21st century England. If you are overdrawn by a few pennies, you are unable to take out any money at a cash machine. However, the bank will gladly send you a letter, informing you that you are overdrawn, and charge you a nominal fee, thus overdrawing you further. Should you try to contact your bank to sort this out, you find that your bank doesn't have a phone number. You speak to a recorded message, and are encouraged to visit your branch. So you do, and find that it is ludicrously busy, with only one window out of five being open, despite this being lunchtime and the busiest time of the day.
I used internet banking for a few years, if only because it meant that I didn't have to face the hassle of going to the bank and beingpatronizedd and treated like an idiot. My wages were paid into my account, I checked the balances on the net, and took money from the cash point and often used my debit card in shops. This is all very convenient, but it's just another example of people being manipulated into spending more money and becoming docile and easy to bend and shape. I was always very careful with my money in England, but it would have been so easy to rack up debts on my credit card, and succumb to all those in store special offers that seem like good deals but really just end up costing you money. We are encouraged to "take advantage of" special deals, but of course we are the ones who are being played.
Living simply and contentedly is very difficult to achieve, as you touched on. To live in a quiet place surrounded by nature, to eat healthy food, to spend time with friends and family. These are all very difficult to do. The fact that eating junk food is cheaper and easier than eating organic fruit and vegetables should be keeping everyone awake at night, but I fear that it isn't.
You hit the nail on the head, Diamond. We are becoming lazy and subservient, just so the stock of a few corporations will go up a tenth of a percent. Money is what rules the world, and I for one want to beat my fists with despair.
I live in Japan, where conservatism in the workplace is king, even in this age of green haired teenagers andAmericanization. But the same things happen all over the modernized world, including England. Money is the drum beat to which we are all blindly, unwittingly, moving.
I'm glad that you brought up banking, because it's got to be one of the worst aspects of 21st century England. If you are overdrawn by a few pennies, you are unable to take out any money at a cash machine. However, the bank will gladly send you a letter, informing you that you are overdrawn, and charge you a nominal fee, thus overdrawing you further. Should you try to contact your bank to sort this out, you find that your bank doesn't have a phone number. You speak to a recorded message, and are encouraged to visit your branch. So you do, and find that it is ludicrously busy, with only one window out of five being open, despite this being lunchtime and the busiest time of the day.
I used internet banking for a few years, if only because it meant that I didn't have to face the hassle of going to the bank and beingpatronizedd and treated like an idiot. My wages were paid into my account, I checked the balances on the net, and took money from the cash point and often used my debit card in shops. This is all very convenient, but it's just another example of people being manipulated into spending more money and becoming docile and easy to bend and shape. I was always very careful with my money in England, but it would have been so easy to rack up debts on my credit card, and succumb to all those in store special offers that seem like good deals but really just end up costing you money. We are encouraged to "take advantage of" special deals, but of course we are the ones who are being played.
Living simply and contentedly is very difficult to achieve, as you touched on. To live in a quiet place surrounded by nature, to eat healthy food, to spend time with friends and family. These are all very difficult to do. The fact that eating junk food is cheaper and easier than eating organic fruit and vegetables should be keeping everyone awake at night, but I fear that it isn't.
posted by Kenyon at 2:22 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home