Buy From China! (As the World Burns)

This blog is pretty old in blog terms now, I guess, and every once in a while I trot out my same jaded argument about buying things Made In China.  Why do we do it?  Are we pro-freedom?  We claim.  Is China?  No.  Are we for religious freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, protection from cruel and usual punishment, and democracy?  So we claim.  Is China?  No. 

And yet we trot off daily, in our carbon-chugging cars or through the wonderful internet, to buy things Made in China, thereby making the country stronger and stronger.

Every once in a while, the US media notes something horrible China is doing.  Not long ago, a bunch of monks burned themselves to death to protest China’s oppression of Tibet and takeover of Tibetan Buddhism.  The Dali Lama, who we claim to admire so much, lives in exile.  What more powerful statement can you make than to burn yourself to death as your religion and country is locked down by a colonizing Police State?  And yet off we American consumers go--to buy Made In China.

The most recent reminder of Chinese anti-Bill-of-Rights behavior comes from the protests in Hong Kong.  Hong Kong, though under the sway of China, has enjoyed western freedoms.  That is about to change, so the citizens are protesting en masse, filling the streets, crying out.  What do we Americans do in response?  Trot off to buy more stuff Made In China.

I won’t even go into the environment problems of buying Made In China, or the amazing psychological phenomenon of about half of Americans refusing to admit global warming is human-caused.  This while Miami is starting flood on a regular basis, and record droughts hit the western States.  All that carbon gas we continue to spew into the atmosphere--for decades and decades--does it trap heat?  Sure.  Have the concentrations of such gases drastically increased?  Sure.  Is this the cause of global warming?  Apparently not.  What is the alternative theory?  Apparently the deniers don’t have one, only faux science.  What do they do next?  What do all of us do next?

Trot off to buy more stuff Made In China, 

China is one of the most ethically bankrupt and heavily polluted countries in the world.  And it will soon be the globe’s #1 superpower. Why?

You know the drill by now.

But hey, don’t worry, be happy (our own hedonized version of a Buddhist doctrine).  And be sure to buy more stuff Made in China!

Owl