Infinity Found!

Hello Fatties (today is Election Day and many of you may have for a moment put down those moon pies and Dr. Pepper just long enough to cast your votes for good, old-fashioned white rightness)! But, I too, must admit that I had some "fatness" on my bones in years past. It all began with my "search."

It wasn't a long search. It wasn't a long count. In the literal fog of those nearly-post Vietnam War days (they used to spray the town with mosquito repellent and you could get lost in the fog), somewhere around 1972 or so, we would always be in the midst of some mid-summer's evening "hide-n-seek game."

Some wise-assed kid would always lure some sucker into counting to infinity. An older relative or neighbor would happen by and they would break the news to the kid: "infinity, little Tommie, is endless."

So too, was our American way-of-life (A-WOL). The one in which we all wanted whatever we wanted, whenever, where ever and at the lowest possible price and in unbounding sizes, shapes, colors, etc. Our A-WOL had led, and continues to do so, so many Americans that never leave the continental US to ask returning travelers: "what are they like in Switzerland (Italy, France, etc.)? Don't they want to be Americans?"

I will admit that despite my own time living in a Swiss household as an exchange student in 1984, I too held this belief up until about 1994; most of the world's people, deep-down inside wanted to truly be Americans, I felt.

This is an amazing success story, really. American business in collaboration with American government (note the lack of a determiner before "American goverment") created a lovely little scenario where true patriotism was linked with consumption. Granted this was not always the case, mind you, but once the evils where let out of the box and corporate America became so intertwined with governing America, brought about by the WWII, the two became inseperable. America's interests became big business's interests and the interests of the average, working Joe became less and less the interests of our elected officials and it ultimately ran amok under W's regime.

So, when sales began to bottom out and stagnate in America, we needed to find those endless markets overseas. We needed to create "want" and "neighborly envy" with massive, multi-billion dollar advertising budgets with wonderful little "all-American" consumption messages buried in movies, songs, etc.

Whereas America became Columbus, Ohio (85% of fast-food joints prior to going national will open a store in Columbus, Ohio. If the store succeeds then it is a near certainty that it will succeed in most other states.) and we quickly began to lose regional identities, so much of what used to be so "German, so Italian, so Russia, so English, etc." has now become the same or very, very similar to something you saw somewhere else--they all became in ways AMERICAN!

And the mantra that has lulled the world to sleep in favor of sameness, big portions, bright lights and perfectly-packaged everything in "infinity" colors, sizes, shapes and flavors, has been that everybody has a right to live like an American: two cars, a home, 4 tvs, in-door plumbing, disposable everything, etc.

And, if an American, or anyone in another country is against this "mission statement of Big Business," then they get the ultimate label: "un-American" which is the same as being UNFASHIONABLE.

But, guess what? There can only be so much wealth divied up amongst the world's peoples. There can only be so many cars permitted on the roads. There can only be so many toasters thrown away. There can only be so many people living in homes with electricity, running and clean water. Not everyone can live the life of excess of most Americans and now most of Western Europeans, 200 million Chinese, 150 million Indians, 15 million Russians, etc.

This American business model has collapsed and THANK GOD! Now, it is time to accept world poverty, do what we can to alleviate the suffering of the poor and the starving but MORE CONSUMPTION is not the answer! Buying the god-forsaken Frappuccino (with its 800 calories), of which a single penny is then invested into "helping poor people throughout the world" only makes matters worse.

The waste of the cup, the excess calories that "selfish consumer" is imbibing, the fact that most likely he/she/it drove there, the fact that this selfish consumer will likely then have also a big, hyper-caloric lunch; and, statistically I am sure it can be proven that anyone who drinks Frappuccinos on a regular basis probably has a larger carbon footprint than others all leads to more indirect (and already, direct) harm to poor nations and people by depleting the resources which we are not capable of reproducing because American Government (and World Goverments) is more concerned with next year's profit (and election cycle) and less so with a dying world.

America is capable of everything. We make mistakes and our wonderful system has an amazing ability to correct itself. We can do truly amazing things but in order for this to happen, 90% of Americans must start tomorrow by cutting back on 50% of everything they consume or waste in a single day and immediately, we will see positive effects. Yet, is this possible? No. Why? Because, the Frappuccino is so tasty, that WaWa is just too far from the house (half a mile and besides, "you know how much time I will lose by walking there?") and because infinity is boring, anyway.

Maybe with Barak Obama, the counting will start again and infinity will truly be endless.