Peace and Consumption

Peace in these holidays.

I wish peace to all...

In peace: I would like to point out a contradiction.

In this holiday being a consumer event... the very act of consumerism is driving 80% of the wars on the planet. So in buying something, also consider this brief spreadsheet of actions represented in some common purchases:

• When buying a new pair of shoes for your child... consider the child staving in Indonesian, who can't afford to enjoy Christmas day as she sews the new Nike shoe...
  
  
• When buying new electronics... know thousands are dying in war zones, created to ensure that the rare earths used in electronic items remain cheap to the companies that produce them.
  
  
• When driving the car to the holiday event... 100,000's of Iraqi's that have died in a war started to maintain Corporate control of the oil supply.
  
  
• Food eaten in the holiday... where pesticides, destruction of forest habitat for new farm lands and poor mass management of the farm system pollute and destroy off entire ecosystems of life...
  

The truth about consumption is...

In consuming,

there is always a price to pay on the flip side of life...

I am not talking politics, morals nor about how you should live. Also this isn't preaching. this is simply pointing out some basic facts of the Western economic reality.


So a question for you now:

Did you get angry at me for writing this post, or in reading this post?

Did you begin to make excuses in the form of belittling what I have written here?

If so, keep in mind... I am not trying to say how a person should live. I have no problems with anyone buying a pair of shoes or computer. I am actually staying neutral in this. As a Taoist, it's not my place to tell anyone how to live. I live in my own balance and accept where I am in my own life.

In Taoism: It's up to each person to find their own balance.

I am pointing out the contradiction in how people think about Christmas, "wishing for peace", while in action creating a holiday that fuels more strife than any other holiday. Seems to me according to Christ's own teachings, he wouldn't be very happy at the current state of his own holiday.

All forms of consumption are a fire... You may not feel or see the fire in the item itself... however, somewhere along the line... another life does get burned/destroyed to fuel the consumption. This is the hidden truth of how our current economic system works...

More respectful cultures will give thanks to that which gives towards serving us. To do so is to respect oneself and the circle of life. The current culture merely tosses pennies and then kicks to side anything used in the process. If we are what we eat, what we use... then this attitude reflects back in our very nature of what we are.

Facts are facts, But facts will not save the world.

What adds up, is how we each live life.

This sounds like preaching since at this point it appears I am telling you how to live. Not the case, Instead this is a post about a Taoist Perspective of the modern Christmas and how it reflects upon us from the actions.

To a Taoist power is in the now,

not afterwards when the facts get sorted out.

From a Taoist perspective

Peace and fulfillment can never be found in consumption,

... Peace is found in the balance of the actions of how you live life

and the following acceptance of our actions as a reflection of who we are.

The actions of Christmas speak very loudly.

If the citizens of the United States truly want peace, then it will not start out by speaking out, it will not start in "wishing peace for all", It most simply starts in the home and how people spend their day to day life.

Peace