Convenient Consumerism

   Organic oranges, freshly squeezed with refreshing ice cubes on a cup “to go”. Thirst can be quenched healthfully from the pleasant-tropical temperatures whilst contemplating the glorious-red glow of a life changing sunset in Indonesia, an ultimate holiday destination.

   At the end of the spectacle: an empty cup, a cup of nuisance, must get rid of the nuisance. Except we avoid responsibility for our existence, just as much as the locals, expelling the waste unconsciously. Nuisance gone, life moves on. The old adage plays: “Once in Rome…”

   Lack of recycling is not the root cause, nor is the lack of rubbish bins, nor is the education, nor is consumerism. The culprit is art. Not a typo, it is art!

   An artistic society, where the value is the artist’s exceptional performance, with aesthetics of mass-produced items the priority for optimal marketing.Product adornment is the essence.

   The end of aesthetics is the end of sighting desire. Consumerism would crumble to pragmatism. What other animal in nature generates self-adornment materials, in order to seduce a potential partner into copulation? Is not seduction, the only plausible reason, to conquer the desire of another being?

   Perhaps a melancholic road to be taken, living in an artless world, but how else will we question the purpose and meaning of surrounding objects with pragmatic logic instead of misleading-hormonal sentiment? Only then the value of aesthetics will be qualitatively quantified, the beauty of aesthetics legitimizing the expenditure of energy and resources, akin to what the natural world does in its splendour.

Photo credits: Ricky Isnanto, volunteers aided, indomitably attempting to clean this remote and once pristine paradise island in Indonesia.