Life As Performance Art 20

I am up incredibly early. Following three and a half hours of deep sleep, I woke at around one am, got up shortly past two, had a shower and now I am waiting for my eggs to boil while sipping on decaf, and I expect to be going back to sleep within the half hour or so. I am also listening to the wee hour documentary programs on CBC radio and they, as always, are so interesting that I wonder that they are never broadcast during normal waking hours, but there is an explanation here. These are broadcasts from the BBC, from Germany, Australia and elsewhere, and simply not very Canadian, and the CBC, being the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, is obligated to broadcast only Canadian content during waking hours, no matter how mediocre or inferior to this rich and super informative material they have on between one and four in the morning. My sleep difficulties do not worry me so much. This is partly from my natural rhythm, and part work stress, and I will be taking a long nap soon, so it's not going to be a total loss. Anyway, here is one of the many rich items I have heard on the radio this morning. It is about reusing plastic containers, refilling them, instead of melting the plastic down to make into something else. And this makes sense because this way it is much less an environmental impact. One of the co-narrators did say something rather stupid, and very indicative of what's really wrong with us. He insisted that he can't refill his shampoo bottle and for the simple reason that he has a special boutique brand of shampoo that he must always be using, citing consumers' rights to choose whatever they want. They made a good-natured, if embarrassed joke about it, but here is where the problem lies. We are spiritually bankrupt. Now my eggs are boiling so I have to attend to them, and likely will not resume writing for a few hours...I'm back from my nap. But, yes, about being spiritually bankrupt. Most people live lives that are quite divorced from the presence and reality of God, and this makes them shallow, incomplete, empty, and sadly lacking. So, they crave, they become prone and vulnerable to addictions, because there is in each person a God shaped hole that only God can fill. Without God we are left empty and wanting and needing. I think this is the real reason for the epidemic of alcoholism and drug addiction. And consumerism is a kind of drug addiction, hence that poor wanker's insistence on his special boutique shampoo and his lame excuse of consumer rights........I will conclude with my reply to a right wing individual who replied to one of my comments on Quora. I have no desire to publish what he said on this blog as it is quite bad but here's my response: "I will reply with the last sentence of my comment: If you don’t like poor seniors and families and single people on low incomes having equal access to free medical care, affordable housing, and higher education, then why not just say so and spare us the quaint little monikers? I do not advocate any political or economic ideology, not even socialism, and certainly not capitalism. I think I’m more of a social democrat which integrates free market with socially progressive policies, similar to the Scandinavian countries, which are social democrat and not socialist. Nothing wrong with opportunity and doing well, but not everyone is equally equipped or able to succeed and if we want to live in a country that isn’t plagued with homelessness and poor people dying on the streets then we all have to be willing to compromise, including on our ideologies. I like the idea of a society that is generous and compassionate, and you are not going to find that in the model that you have proposed. If that is something you prefer, then you are entitled to your opinion. I personally do not want to live in a place that is characterised by greed and selfishness, for which reason taxes have nothing to do with anyone being robbed but of everyone sharing. It is only selfish mentalities that will frame this as stealing. If you wish to respond, you are free to, but please be respectful, but please do not take my writing out of context, and please consider how people who are less fortunate and able are going to benefit."