We need a New Organization

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In a song of the eighties, Huey Lewis sang that he wanted a new drug.  I'm getting very impatient with the institutions and organizations we have today.  Mind you, some of them are awesome: I like Jon Stewart and his Comedy Central, and some of the people in it.  I like Democracy Now, and Amy Goodman.  I admire --I forget her name, but it will come to me-- the anchor on MSNBC.  I liked what the Ubuntu folks were trying to do, and other free software advocates, like Richard Stallman.  I like Toyota (and Honda), the folks who bring us things like the Prius, and the Civic Hybrid, and my wife's hybrid.  But I am getting frustrated by many of the other liberal organizations, because they're getting too comfortable with fighting money with money.  I'm getting impatient with Barack Obama, because he has become very much the compromiser, just a little too easily.

We need to create some new organizations that will apply pressure where it counts.  I do indeed deplore the Democrat organizations that keep wanting to do all the right things, but keep asking for money to do it.  Can you chip in $5 to get Mitch McConnell out of the Senate?  While I do deplore the circumstances that make these folks believe that they need to raise cash to use the same --expensive-- tools that the GOP and its plutocrat sugardaddies use in order to defeat the GOP (and I know that these methods have worked for the Dems for the last several years), but it still frustrates me.  But they're focusing on the politicians, without focusing on the issues.

Let me explain what I mean.

While the well-meaning Democrats keep struggling to elect some poor democrat candidate into some office, tons of used batteries are being tossed daily into the landfills.  But look at this: only disposable pens are available for purchase today.  No matter what you write with, it ends up in the landfill.  Even the extreme Frugalistas on the Internet, who advocate a lifestyle of extreme minimality focus on decluttering their homes by getting rid of everything that they do not need.  But the important thing is to get rid of it responsibly.  "Get rid of all those horrible plastic cutlery," she says, and get metal (or whatever) flatware.  Well, if you've got plastic flatware, you'd better jolly well use it until it can't be used anymore!

I want to see an organization that (1) encourages the manufacture of equipment that uses the maximal amount of recyclable or permanent-material equipment: fountain pens, or ballpoints that use refills, rather than ones that you throw away.  Printers, where the ink comes in a glass bottle.  (Many printers use toner cartridges that are completely recycled.)  Encourage companies that manufacture lightbulbs, who take back their own burnt-out bulbs to recycle.

At present, we have to encourage responsible use of materials at the individual level.  We have to buy wisely, but many of us have limited information about which companies generate more waste, and which companies generate less.  Consumers Union was an organization that advocated all the above, but their liberal staffers often get edged out by some sort of pressure from outside (or, who knows? --inside).  Plastic is the material of choice for manufacturing complicated parts of many products.  But it is possible to be responsible to different degrees about the use of plastic in manufacture, or even downright irresponsible.

I would like to join an organization that (2) encourages the manufacture of garments and shoes and equipment like umbrellas and combs that last longer.  We all know that not all clothing and personal equipment is sufficiently well made to survive one user, and the ones that do are to be found in Goodwill and other used merchandise stores.  So, rather than being a source of cheap products for the indigent, used clothing stores are often repositories of truly well-made clothes for a bargain price.

Planned Obsolescence has been deplored for half a century.  But there is no organization that (3) opposes the principle of planned obsolescence as its principal goal.  This planet CANNOT AFFORD PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE..

It is the habit of most people to laugh at anyone who opposes planned obsolescence and the like.  They say that "people don't like to use old things!  Businesses have to deal with reality!"  Well, here's the reality: either we stop taking planned obsolescence as reality, or businesses will have to face the reality of using garbage as their principal resource material.  The world of Wall-E, it seems to me, is not very far from the future that we could easily get.

(4) We need to organize ourselves into a group that will only buy energy-efficient automobiles.  It is senseless to battle irresponsible automobile manufacturers each of us on his or her own.  We must band together and be a million-strong power block that refuses to buy environmentally bad cars.  A hybrid (A) uses less gas, which is good for everybody, those of us who drive high mpg cars and those of us who drive trucks, and (B) generates less CO and CO2 pollution.  Instead of smiling approvingly at me in my hybrid, guys in big SUV's tend to scowl menacingly.  It could mean that he thinks "Ha.  Another bleeding tree hugger," or he may just be jealous of my shiny new hybrid, which really doesn't cost very much.

A lot of utilities and banks are eager to get their customers to switch over to a paperless agreement, where they send our statements by e-mail exclusively.  But these same companies make their websites impossible to navigate!  I'd like to join an organization that encourages all businesses that conduct their affairs on consumer websites to (5) follow standards of sane website layout, so that customers will have more faith in their ability to find their information on the company website, without having to fall back on paper records.  Recently my electric company claimed that I had called in to cancel my account.  It was with difficulty that we managed to have our re-activation fee waived.  If we conducted our business exclusively on paper, this situation could have never arisen.  How can we have faith in a paperless relationship with this utility if they continue to be flaky about their records?  Nobody wants to go onto a paperless system than I, but in this case, I'd prefer not to do it.  Some US businesses are the least professional in the universe, and still this country deigns to set itself up as the standard of professionalism.  Grow up, people!

[To be continued.]