I have felt this way for sometime about every technological marvel that exists in our society, including the use of electricity and natural gas.
Many of the products invented and pushed on the people were done in an effort to keep sociey dependant on services like natural gas and electricity. In 1998 my country had an ice storm that killed all services to many towns for just 6 days. People died. Farm animals died. There were billions of dollars in damages and insurance claims. Most of that was because of the dependance upon electricity and the inability to cope without it.
Just look at the number of people building half-million dollar homes that would be royally screwed if they had no power for a week or two. How many people do you know that have one room in their home that has a woodburning stove or fireplace where the family could hunker down and survive for an unknown period if need be? I'm always amazed at the amount of money spent on McMansions that won't be worth **** if you have no services. Yes, lovely fireplace you have in your *Great Room* with the soaring cathedral ceilings and open floor plan. Do you have a small room that could essentially become a self-contained *one room cabin* in case of emergency?
I feel very strongly that all these wonderful inventions are in essence a distraction. A distraction from our true reality and they all have this sort of underlying fear and desperation to them, as does the non-stop purchasing of them. Yeah, some of these things are great and convenient or just plain fun. But when we're at the point that we will literally die if we don't have them for 6 lousy days, that's a problem.
Can you survive without technolgy, without natural gas, without elctricity? If so, how long could you last? When you start thinking about it and getting anxious about it, do you attempt to drown that anxiety under yet more crap or to shut it out with yet more distractions?
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