Recently I got my mountain bike serviced in Phoenix. When picking it up I walked into the wrenching end of the shop and spoke to the young mechanic. He seemed proud of improvising on the bracket, thus relieving me of staying in the Phoenix area for a long time while waiting for a special order to come in. I was happy to stand there and be his appreciative audience.
He also installed a new chain. They don't last as long as they used to, in part because they are narrower and thinner and cocked at weird angles to accommodate the 10 (!) gears in the back; with the 3 in the front, it makes for a 30 speed bike. We commiserated about faster wear and tear, and more finicky adjustments.
No sooner did 30-speed bicycles become obligatory for any serious cyclist than a hot new trend arose: single speed bikes with no derailleurs whatsoever. Only really tough, cool guys bought these, and it was for practical reasons, if you were to listen to them. How and why did consumers allow themselves to get sucked into extraneous expenses and hassles, all for the sake of some phony progress?!
Later I was at a Walmart. Both their stores and their website are starting to lower the number of regular DVD movies available. They are trying to railroad the saps (aka, the customers) into buying more expensive blu-ray players and disks. I hope they fail; maybe we'll know by the end of 2012.
These are only two examples of the same process that eats up a human life. We are just members of an anonymous tribe/horde of mindless consumers who are swept along by whatever trend is supposed to be hot. Why don't we get angry about it and resist? Whose money is it, anyway?!As we look forward to 2012, peering into the future a little bit, let's be hopeful that the consumers (and voters) will start to rebel.
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