Went to buy the big new book on capitalism and climate justice, This Changes Everything, and the god-damned thing cost $40. This is a problem, and this changes nothing. If you want to spread awareness and equip people with the knowledge to fight against the injustices and effects of capitalism, make the knowledge accessible to the people that are most affected by this system. Meanwhile, I’m left with the decision to go hungry for a week and learn about climate justice, or nourish myself and re-read all of my old Vonnegut books. So it goes. —Cognitive Dissonance
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2015.
Library. Where knowledge is accessible to the people that are most affected by this system.
So much fail in one single bitch.
Short answer: If you need N@*m! Kl#!n to tell you what to think about the economic system that has given you the health, life expectancy and leisure time to ponder how rotten it all is, then do Gaia, The Earth Mother, a favour and remove yourself from the CO2 circuit, post haste. You can’t make big bucks off of greenwashing without more than a few dead trees, now can you?
If you’re that big a fan of Vonnegut then you should probably be cheering on our headlong rush to extinction, since he had a rather mordant view of humanity, that typically, did not extend to himself.
Or, peruse your local second hand stores because inevitably, someone who did shell out a pair of queens for Ms. Lewis’ latest screed got bored halfway through and decided to recoup some of his loss.
Finally, consider the words of Desiderius Erasmus:
“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.”
The local film industry trying to tap the taxpayers wallets is an excellent example of the injustices and effects of capitalism. May I suggest you study that instead?
^^^ Jesus, glad to hear someone else voice that opinion. It seems that after this many years the local film industry should be self-sustaining and not forever relient on public largesse. Film distribution is a multi-billion dollar industry in North America. Maybe they should be funding themselves.
Don’t pay the fear mongers your money for scaring you, OB.
And speaking of Vonnegut, one of the all-time great satirists, her are 15 great quotes:
http://www.avclub.com/article/15-things-ku…
…. Dead Eye Dick and Slaughterhouse Five are two of my favourites of his books.
EXCELLENT PEDAGOGY
“Went to buy the new book on capitalism on climate justice, This Changes Everything, and the god-damned thing cost $40.” Cognitive Dissonance
What is “climate justice?” Do you mean climate change? But the high cost of “This Changes Everything” might have been a hidden object lesson, an exercise in demonstrative pedagogy. The high cost of the book might have been intended as a metaphor for what to expect if no action is taken to rein in the forces of global, exploitative capitalism which is draining carbon from the earth in the form of fossil fuels and putting it up into the air as carbon dioxide resulting in anthropogenic global warming (AGW).
For the past few millions years the plants and animals regulated the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide at a steady 270 parts per million (ppm) but now that amount has gone up to 400 ppm, about 50 ppm more, some say, than the planet can tolerate, with predictable catastrophic results.
So the price of the book, you might say, is a taste of things to come. In any case, its pricing was an excellent example of demonstrative pedagogy!
A pleasure as always,
Cheerio!
You are learning about the Climate Change scam. Those rearing their heads about it (Gore, Suzuki, etc) are raking in the bucks. Further, governments are also raking in the bucks in carbon taxes which go into general coffers and nothing on the environment.
Prove it.
Hey, have a heart, Michael Moore has to pay for two airplane seats. Or was that the guy from clerks? Anyway, same dif.
There is no way to reign in capitalism, the earth is doomed.
People who had to be paid to make your book available for the bargain price of $40.00:
1. The workers who cut down the trees
2. The truck drivers who drove the trees to the pulp and paper mill
3. The people at the pulp and paper mill
4. The paper distribution company
5. More truck drivers
6. The writer
7. The editor
8. The publication designer
9. The illustrators and cartographers
10. The printing company
11. The book bindery
12. More truck drivers
13. The distribution company
14. The seller and staff, whether large “Amazonian” seller or local independent
15. And if you ordered online, more truck drivers, couriers, and/or postal delivery people
16. Numerous accountants, copyright lawyers, receptionists, typists, proofreaders, agents, salespeople . . . .
and that is just a superficial summary.
You know, of course, that in the most olden of days, books were such rare and expensive treasures that the wealthiest kings flaunted “libraries” of MAYBE 10 or 20 books IF THEY WERE LUCKY.
Today, we can get any book imaginable from around the world within a matter of hours, often for pennies, OR we can borrow them FREE from the Library, OR we can download them as e-books. There is literally NO knowledge that is unavailable.
All that for 2 or 3 hours of easy work? An bargain beyond price if you ask me.