Wednesday (Addams Family), Amitav Ghosh, Fast Fashion and Zepto- how this odd combination made me think of resolutions that are worth taking for a better planet
Why we need do experience more inconvenience and boredom in life
This may not be the best of blogs that you want to read if you’re here for a light happy weekend reading or if you:
Are someone who loves shopping for the latest fashion every month
Love the convenience of ordering food and groceries (10-20 minutes?)
Love buying new gadgets and phones and cars every other year
Have you watched the raging hit show called “Wednesday” on Netflix? Its an entertaining coming of age show which is a bit of a spin off from The Adams Family (which was a childhood staple for me). Beyond the entertainment, it has a LOT of themes playing in the background - one of these themes was how the “outcasts” like Wednesday Addams used to live in harmony with nature pre 1600s and how a white caucasian Joseph Crackstone (who is ironically fondly remembered by the localites in that show as the equivalent of how Bangalore looks at Kempegowda) actually mocked and destroyed this harmony and set up a modern resource exploitative economy there. He is now seen a a pioneer ure igand father fand the old outcasts are looks at savages.
On similart lives, A book called “The Nutmegs Curse” by Amitav Ghosh layed out how western capitalistm in the 1600s and 1700s destroyed the native Americans’ harmony with “Gaia” or mother earth (remember Captain Planet?). The caucasians thought of themselves as saviours who were ridding the earth and humanity as a whole by getting rid or “savage practices” and “savages” and literally transformed or “terraformed” the whole North American continent to destroy this harmony with nature and kill millions direcly or indirectly.
Both, the book and Addams family were a damning reminder of the very foundation of the modern world that we live in.
This topic is something I have been pondering on for many years now (okay not literally daily) - are we addicted to constant economic growth? By “we” I mean, humanity in this capitalist era in general. Are we so absorbed by the convenience of the 15 minute delivery or buying new clothes every month or by buying new cars/phones, that we forget that each of these is very slowly destroying the planet? And in this convenience and grind, do we forget that collectively, each piece of action we take actually matters?
The scary part is that the economy needs consumption to happen relentlessly - else how will the economy grow? And each piece of economic growth exploits the planet - the extra fertilizer or clearing forest land to grow more crops or raise more livestock, the petroleum/metals/plants that makes most materials.
This topic is fresh again in my mind off late triggered by many pieces of things I have read about or watched.
Zepto and Quick Commerce
I came across a tweet (which is unfortunately now deleted) about how a guy was walking in HSR Layout and a Zepto delivery rider almost ran over him on the footpath. On confronting the rider, the victim actually got beaten up. This is hardly surprising. Amazon, Zepto, Swiggy, Dunzo etc business model is to “delight” customers with an ridiculously short delivery time. It incentivizes the delivery boys to race against time all the time. I try to place myself in the shoes of the delivery boys - they are probably not even from Bangalore and are living alone, they are in traffic all day long on back breaking roads and are racing against time to delivery those 20-30 orders each day. The same applies to most Uber/Ola drivers - they are incentivized to race against time to make more money. I am of course not condoning their violations - just putting their perspective.
Is 15 minute delivery the innovation that we need to should even celebrate? It converts us to sloths, it is something that we can live comfortably without, it is super carbon negative and will do away with the dehumanizing of blue collar workers who are in a rat race of their own. I was never the most ardent fan of any quick delivery services including restaurant deliveries (regular readers of this blog will know that I love grocery shopping) but I will absolutely avoid any kind of fast delivery including that for food.
On a small side note, I have made an image of myself as some kind of dosa/breakfast connoisseur. Once when I was taking a count in a group for a breakfast walk, one guy said “who would want to go for a breakfast when I can order dosa?”. What. The. F***. Dude.
Fashion and Plastics
I read a couple of articles and videos on how fast fashion (or fashion in general) are destroying the planet faster than ever. Each new trends, each new cotton/nylon dress/shirt - all consume thousands of litres of water per PIECE to produce the relevant cotton or use petroleum related material - most fibres used today are made from petroleum-based polymers, more commonly known as plastic. These fibres are turned into synthetic materials such as spandex, polyester, nylon and acrylic.
Also, if you see the videos, you’ll also see that not only is apparel polluting while its made, but its also super polluting after you dispose of them.
Back in a small reception party we had kept for my marriage back in 2019, we were discussing the menu with the owner of the party hall. When I saw 200 ml plastic bottles in it, I said, hey can we do away with these and have normal paper cups instead? His argument against it was that open paper cups would create a spillage and a mess in the indoor hall - something which I though was such a small nuisance but I didnt argue with him further. I do regret not pushing him back in hindsight.
I also see SO much garbage being thrown besides railway tracks (most of which is plastic) - we see plastic garbage literally everywhere - that I think that where will this stop - who will clean this up? Plastic chokes everything and is the biggest eyesore to our eyes. In fact, when I see how are department stores are increasingly becomes like those in the US - plastic packaging for EVERYTHING, including fresh gren vegetables - it makes me depressed on how much plastic is used to increase our convenience just by a wee bit.
I will absolutely avoid using single use plastics and always prefer natural re-usable packaging and resources.
I was never really a much of a shopper, in fact, I find it baffling to see people washing clothes after wearing it just once. I just want to continue being a fashion minimalist (relatively speaking). I may marvel at the efficiency of the business model of a Shein (Read up please!) but I’ll never subscribe to it or promote it.
Attention Economy:
This topic is not directly relevent to the planet but I came across this article whose screenshot I’ve pasted below and I hardly found any surprise in it - we literally are a part of this and we see people everywhere glued on phones - at home, at transit points or even in the outdoors. One of my favourite activities when I wait for my order at restaurants is to look around and see how many people, especially couples, are glued on to their phones - and the proportion is easily more than half.
The attention economy has destroyed our neural wiring (I really dont need to elaborate on this, do I) - we cant stay 10 minutes without staying bored and getting fidgety. The worst part of these are “reels” and short videos IMO (even if they are meant for information) - they are like potato chips - dopamine munchers which have zero nutritional value.
I make it a point not to fidget with my phone in traffic signals or at small waiting times (my wife will scoff at this of course but we shall see!)
There are a lot of things I can add here but it will develop into a long sermon which I want to avoid. In fact, if there is something else you’re thinking about, I’d love to hear about it in the comments here.
I’d urge you to think and self reflect on how you can take steps to be more minimalist and sustainable and do what it takes to be morally more accountable to the state of your immediate environment and the planet as a whole.
This should not be a short lived fad but a complete change in your livestyle - make your life (and push those around you) a little more inconvenient and boring whenever possible - all for a far larger goal.
PS - I’m putting the link to a really nice article I came across while writing this blog - shows how much more we can do be just a little bit of a nudge