Fear, loathing, and forgetting
December 5th, 2009 § 1 Comment
It’s funny how you forget. Forgetting can be deliberate, inadvertent, or mandatory. Mandatory forgetting is a necessary thing: the human body helps women forget the pain of childbirth so there will be plenty of people around. But the other types of forgetting are trickier, more slippery to pinpoint.
Last night we watched Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Illegal drugs and mood swings aside, the man was a testament to what someone can accomplish when they have no fear and a profoundly unshifting, principled core. Those traits combined are an alchemical mix. He was an American patriot and a truth-speaker, the rarest breed of writer and a rarer breed of activist. I had forgotten what a force he was and how his analysis is so applicable to the post-9/11 American debacle.
But why did I forget? Was it that after Election Day 2004 it was a mandatory forgetting – just to get through the last 4 Bush years? It’s strange, what you forget.
When friends we hadn’t seen in awhile started talking about their interest in homesteading, organics, the sinister side of farming conglomerates, and continued wool-pulling over consumers’ eyes, I realized I had forgotten again. I knew the harm of factory farms, of pesticide runoff, of synthetic foods, of unnecessary vivisection, of multi-national corporations who own elected officials. I knew it, but chose to forget. But I’ve remembered now.
Whether forgotten deliberately or not, I’ve remembered that people like Thompson and people who risk much to expose truth for the good of many exist. I’ve remembered that while bank balances, suburbia, and full-time jobs prohibit most of us from stocking the frig with local organic food every week, there are small things to be done – every single day – that make a difference. It falls in line with the main point behind this blog’s name: know more, know less. Except in this case, the more I remember, the more I realize I have probably forgotten.
Of course, I agree:)
I often think the question is: can we afford not to eat organic? A penny saved now is a lot of money later in health costs, either literally or figuratively.
We manage by eliminating non-essentials–eat to live. What do you really Need as opposed to Want?
It is a mindset. We got rid of our TV. That is $50.00 a month we spent on cable that we can now spend on food. We don’t eat out.
I am now to the point where the health benefits from not eating corporate food are evident. I just will not eat gmo or processed food. I’d just as soon eat poison. In fact, it is poison.