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Reduce Consumerism Naturally: Parent For Peace & Justice
By Emma Lewis
Most babies in our society are born consumers.
Emerging from a drugged, medicalized, violent birth, even their intrinsic, basic needs are not met: their natural food source is largely denied, in favour of artificial, genetically engineered, fakes milks, produced by multinationals, and delivered in a plastic bottle. Or, at best, breast milk limited to feeding schedules (based on the recommendations of one man who studied cows feeding their calves!!!!!), usually withdrawn completely overnight, and almost always cut to just a few short months.
This is all in violation of human history, biology, physiology and psychology, as well as basic common sense!
Babies in our society are generally isolated in cots, car seats, prams and bouncy chairs with people substitutes - mirrors, musical mobiles and synthetic toys ~ to cuddle. They are wrapped or swaddled instead of hugged.
In short, we create consumers ~ babies who grow into people who we have taught to attach to things instead of people. Babies who grow into adults who abuse food, drugs and alcohol and who manically over-shop and over-consume ~ to fill the void left by the lack of appropriate nurturing when young.
Collectively, we have shown them how to value things more than people, themselves and the environment.
The argument often bandied around is that babies need to be taught to be independent from birth.
Babies have parents, hence do not require the kind of independence animals abandoned at birth and left to survive need to develop: independence in humans is naturally developed over their formative years and does not require 'teaching' or training.
True independence comes from a place of love, trust and secure attachment to people. This is what we are born to expect ~ and this is what we deserve.
True independence, however, does not suit the systems that stand to make millions out of our loss of human connection. These systems need us to depend on them.
However, every move, every step, every choice we make ~ each moment of our existence ~ we have the power to truly live, and to parent for peace and justice.
It is our action, and indeed inaction, that maps out the future, whether we want it to or not.
Despite ignorance being bliss, everything we do is a political, spiritual, environmental and personal statement.
Understanding this, it is clear that it is our responsibility to conceive our children as consciously as we are able, so that it is love that enverlopes their very being.
It is our responsibility to deal with our losses, our 'baggage', our 'issues', so that we can welcome our children as fully as we are able.
Equally, it is our responsibility to birth our babies as consciously and gently as we are able so that we, and they, are as strong, connected and powerful as we can be.
Very, very occasionally medical assistance for birth has its place. However, this option has been seriously abused and has fast become a tool of power, oppression, control and consumerism.
The quickest and easiest way to control and disempower a culture is to disempower the women. The quickest and easiest way to disempower the women is to interfere with their birth practices and undermine their birthing freedom and knowledge.
Medicalized birth profoundly affects the breastfeeding relationship, undermines essential healthy mother/baby attachment ('bonding'), and consequently the ability and confidence of new parents to parent intuitively optimally.
Vulnerable parents under pressure are big consumers, buying into many things they are led to believe their baby somehow needs, because their compromised birth experience has shown them on the subtlest levels that they alone are not enough.
It is our responsibility to search honestly, deep within us, and to hear our hearts and our babies; to listen to their real needs, and to meet them as consciously and as fully as we are able.
What do our babies need - all 50cm, 4kg of them? Us. Our arms. Our milk. Our warmth. Our love. A few changes of clothes, nappies (or openness to natural hygiene ~ being nappy-free), a sling, possibly a car seat....
They need us to parent as fully as we are able. Babies do not need to consume. Children do not need to consume. We, as adults, do not need to consume unnecessarily.
It is our duty to buy clothes, household accessories, and even toys (if we choose to use them) second hand where ever possible. We may still be consuming, sometimes unnecessarily (in the case of some household items and toys), but we are at least not directly handing money over to the companies which rape the earth and keep children ~ every bit as precious as ours ~ as child slaves and labourers.
I note that the very happiest times our children have had have been where the beach, bush, fallen wood, autumn leaves, berries and water have been their freely available play things.
Boxes and basic art equipment make for creative, content children. Blankets for dens and scarves for dress-ups nurture the most beautiful imaginative play.
We collectively owe our children this. And, of course, no number of toys can substitute the availibility of an attentive parent who includes the child in their life.
In our society, the main form of leisure and information for our children is the television. Not only does this rob them of their imagination, creativity and time and (in many cases) their physical health, it also loads them up with consumerist values.
It is our responsibility to free our children to be the best they can for themselves and, ultimately, for society and the world. The television can not raise our children as well as an open, loving parent. A television also robs us, as parents, of the creativity, imagination, openness and love we need in order to fully 'be' with our children.
If we stop handing the responsibility for entertaining and educating our children to the media (the very media most of us claim not to trust), we may find we are liberated and truly amazed at what we discover within ourselves and our children!
It is our responsibility to look closely at education and what it means to us: what values and standards are important, and how best to share these with our children.
The standard education system is based on consumerism ~ working to gain gold stars or approval. It aims to churn out compliant masses who will continue to prop up an over-consuming system, and who will passively work for that same system, creating even more unnecessary consumables!
Bearing in mind the number of hours our child/ren will spend each week working at, and absorbing the values of, school, it is our responsibility to choose education as consciously and positively as we are able.
Where we choose, or need, to consume new items, it is our responsibility to keep our ecological and moral footprint as minimal as we are able; by buying locally, buying fairly, buying the best quality we can (ie, not throw-away), keeping in our awareness where the product is from, how far it has already travelled, who made it, who suffered making it, who paid for it with their blood and sweat and shortened lives, and what materials were used in its creation.
"We must continually question the cultural imperative of our actions: are they driven by particular cultural background and consumerist lifestyle practices, or rooted in an appropriate, ethical, economic rationale?"
When, as a family, we marched in the Walk Against Warming, we carried a banner our children made which sums up the issues briefly and simply: 'Walk Lightly. Consume Less. Care More".
This banner now hangs in our home to constantly remind us because, after all, us adults were brought up as consumers!
Consider this:
Consumerism Versus Humanitarianism
Consider the priorities in global spending in 1998
Global Priority
Basic Education For Everyone In The World Would Cost $6 BILLION US
Cosmetics In The US Only Cost $8 BILLION US
Water & Sanitation For Everyone In The World Would Cost $9 BILLION US
The Amount Spent On Ice Cream In Europe Alone Was $11 BILLION US
Reproductive Health For All Women In The World Would Cost $12 BILLION US
The Amount Spent On Perfumes In Europe & US Was $17 BILLION US
Basic Health & Nutrition For Everyone In The World Would Cost $13 BILLION US
Pet Food Alone In Europe & US Cost $17 BILLION US
Business Entertainment In Japan Cost $35 BILLION US
Cigarettes In Europe Cost $50 BILLION US
Alcoholic Drinks In Europe Cost $105 BILLION US
Narcotic Drugs Worldwide Cost $400 BILLION US
Military Spending World Wide Was $780 BILLION US
For the first time in history, we actually have more people over-eating (over-consuming) themselves to an early grave than people dying prematurely from starvation!!!!!
I am not sharing this to induce guilt in already-stretched parents. I have two strong thoughts on guilt. One is that, in its healthy form, it reminds us when we are straying too far from our path/the optimum we know in our hearts. The second is summed up in the following:-
"Try to remember that our society encourages mothers to cultivate guilt like a little flower garden because nothing blocks the awareness and expression of legitimate anger as effectively as this all-consuming emotion" (Harriet Lerner).
If reading this stimulates guilt, don't get guilty ~ get angry. And use your anger to get pro-active.
Every time we birth freely and gently, listen to our babies, hold them close, hug our children and raise them consciously and freely, we reduce consumerism, and parent for peace and justice. Every time we choose to consume less, we can work less. Working less equates to more time spent nurturing our children, hence we reduce consumerism and parent for peace and justice.
Bearing in mind that "There is enough for everyone's need, not everyone's greed", I'll leave you with this:
May those who hunger find food.
May those with food hunger for peace and justice.
First written for The Mother Magazine (www.themothermagazine.co.uk <http://www.themothermagazine.co.uk>)
Updated 1/10 for Macedon Ranges BABS group.
By Emma Lewis
Most babies in our society are born consumers.
Emerging from a drugged, medicalized, violent birth, even their intrinsic, basic needs are not met: their natural food source is largely denied, in favour of artificial, genetically engineered, fakes milks, produced by multinationals, and delivered in a plastic bottle. Or, at best, breast milk limited to feeding schedules (based on the recommendations of one man who studied cows feeding their calves!!!!!), usually withdrawn completely overnight, and almost always cut to just a few short months.
This is all in violation of human history, biology, physiology and psychology, as well as basic common sense!
Babies in our society are generally isolated in cots, car seats, prams and bouncy chairs with people substitutes - mirrors, musical mobiles and synthetic toys ~ to cuddle. They are wrapped or swaddled instead of hugged.
In short, we create consumers ~ babies who grow into people who we have taught to attach to things instead of people. Babies who grow into adults who abuse food, drugs and alcohol and who manically over-shop and over-consume ~ to fill the void left by the lack of appropriate nurturing when young.
Collectively, we have shown them how to value things more than people, themselves and the environment.
The argument often bandied around is that babies need to be taught to be independent from birth.
Babies have parents, hence do not require the kind of independence animals abandoned at birth and left to survive need to develop: independence in humans is naturally developed over their formative years and does not require 'teaching' or training.
True independence comes from a place of love, trust and secure attachment to people. This is what we are born to expect ~ and this is what we deserve.
True independence, however, does not suit the systems that stand to make millions out of our loss of human connection. These systems need us to depend on them.
However, every move, every step, every choice we make ~ each moment of our existence ~ we have the power to truly live, and to parent for peace and justice.
It is our action, and indeed inaction, that maps out the future, whether we want it to or not.
Despite ignorance being bliss, everything we do is a political, spiritual, environmental and personal statement.
Understanding this, it is clear that it is our responsibility to conceive our children as consciously as we are able, so that it is love that enverlopes their very being.
It is our responsibility to deal with our losses, our 'baggage', our 'issues', so that we can welcome our children as fully as we are able.
Equally, it is our responsibility to birth our babies as consciously and gently as we are able so that we, and they, are as strong, connected and powerful as we can be.
Very, very occasionally medical assistance for birth has its place. However, this option has been seriously abused and has fast become a tool of power, oppression, control and consumerism.
The quickest and easiest way to control and disempower a culture is to disempower the women. The quickest and easiest way to disempower the women is to interfere with their birth practices and undermine their birthing freedom and knowledge.
Medicalized birth profoundly affects the breastfeeding relationship, undermines essential healthy mother/baby attachment ('bonding'), and consequently the ability and confidence of new parents to parent intuitively optimally.
Vulnerable parents under pressure are big consumers, buying into many things they are led to believe their baby somehow needs, because their compromised birth experience has shown them on the subtlest levels that they alone are not enough.
It is our responsibility to search honestly, deep within us, and to hear our hearts and our babies; to listen to their real needs, and to meet them as consciously and as fully as we are able.
What do our babies need - all 50cm, 4kg of them? Us. Our arms. Our milk. Our warmth. Our love. A few changes of clothes, nappies (or openness to natural hygiene ~ being nappy-free), a sling, possibly a car seat....
They need us to parent as fully as we are able. Babies do not need to consume. Children do not need to consume. We, as adults, do not need to consume unnecessarily.
It is our duty to buy clothes, household accessories, and even toys (if we choose to use them) second hand where ever possible. We may still be consuming, sometimes unnecessarily (in the case of some household items and toys), but we are at least not directly handing money over to the companies which rape the earth and keep children ~ every bit as precious as ours ~ as child slaves and labourers.
I note that the very happiest times our children have had have been where the beach, bush, fallen wood, autumn leaves, berries and water have been their freely available play things.
Boxes and basic art equipment make for creative, content children. Blankets for dens and scarves for dress-ups nurture the most beautiful imaginative play.
We collectively owe our children this. And, of course, no number of toys can substitute the availibility of an attentive parent who includes the child in their life.
In our society, the main form of leisure and information for our children is the television. Not only does this rob them of their imagination, creativity and time and (in many cases) their physical health, it also loads them up with consumerist values.
It is our responsibility to free our children to be the best they can for themselves and, ultimately, for society and the world. The television can not raise our children as well as an open, loving parent. A television also robs us, as parents, of the creativity, imagination, openness and love we need in order to fully 'be' with our children.
If we stop handing the responsibility for entertaining and educating our children to the media (the very media most of us claim not to trust), we may find we are liberated and truly amazed at what we discover within ourselves and our children!
It is our responsibility to look closely at education and what it means to us: what values and standards are important, and how best to share these with our children.
The standard education system is based on consumerism ~ working to gain gold stars or approval. It aims to churn out compliant masses who will continue to prop up an over-consuming system, and who will passively work for that same system, creating even more unnecessary consumables!
Bearing in mind the number of hours our child/ren will spend each week working at, and absorbing the values of, school, it is our responsibility to choose education as consciously and positively as we are able.
Where we choose, or need, to consume new items, it is our responsibility to keep our ecological and moral footprint as minimal as we are able; by buying locally, buying fairly, buying the best quality we can (ie, not throw-away), keeping in our awareness where the product is from, how far it has already travelled, who made it, who suffered making it, who paid for it with their blood and sweat and shortened lives, and what materials were used in its creation.
"We must continually question the cultural imperative of our actions: are they driven by particular cultural background and consumerist lifestyle practices, or rooted in an appropriate, ethical, economic rationale?"
When, as a family, we marched in the Walk Against Warming, we carried a banner our children made which sums up the issues briefly and simply: 'Walk Lightly. Consume Less. Care More".
This banner now hangs in our home to constantly remind us because, after all, us adults were brought up as consumers!
Consider this:
Consumerism Versus Humanitarianism
Consider the priorities in global spending in 1998
Global Priority
Basic Education For Everyone In The World Would Cost $6 BILLION US
Cosmetics In The US Only Cost $8 BILLION US
Water & Sanitation For Everyone In The World Would Cost $9 BILLION US
The Amount Spent On Ice Cream In Europe Alone Was $11 BILLION US
Reproductive Health For All Women In The World Would Cost $12 BILLION US
The Amount Spent On Perfumes In Europe & US Was $17 BILLION US
Basic Health & Nutrition For Everyone In The World Would Cost $13 BILLION US
Pet Food Alone In Europe & US Cost $17 BILLION US
Business Entertainment In Japan Cost $35 BILLION US
Cigarettes In Europe Cost $50 BILLION US
Alcoholic Drinks In Europe Cost $105 BILLION US
Narcotic Drugs Worldwide Cost $400 BILLION US
Military Spending World Wide Was $780 BILLION US
For the first time in history, we actually have more people over-eating (over-consuming) themselves to an early grave than people dying prematurely from starvation!!!!!
I am not sharing this to induce guilt in already-stretched parents. I have two strong thoughts on guilt. One is that, in its healthy form, it reminds us when we are straying too far from our path/the optimum we know in our hearts. The second is summed up in the following:-
"Try to remember that our society encourages mothers to cultivate guilt like a little flower garden because nothing blocks the awareness and expression of legitimate anger as effectively as this all-consuming emotion" (Harriet Lerner).
If reading this stimulates guilt, don't get guilty ~ get angry. And use your anger to get pro-active.
Every time we birth freely and gently, listen to our babies, hold them close, hug our children and raise them consciously and freely, we reduce consumerism, and parent for peace and justice. Every time we choose to consume less, we can work less. Working less equates to more time spent nurturing our children, hence we reduce consumerism and parent for peace and justice.
Bearing in mind that "There is enough for everyone's need, not everyone's greed", I'll leave you with this:
May those who hunger find food.
May those with food hunger for peace and justice.
First written for The Mother Magazine (www.themothermagazine.co.uk <http://www.themothermagazine.co.uk>)
Updated 1/10 for Macedon Ranges BABS group.