Vincent J Miller talks about our commodified lives
Vincent J Miller: Faith in the age of the ipod [12MB MP3]
Sondra Wheeler: The Bible on wealth: a complex witness [14MB MP3]
Kim Hill interviews James H Kunstler [streaming WMA]
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Frank Miller writes awxome comics. The Mill sells alcohol. Tommy Ill is a band. There was a little too much alliteration in this blog post of links for my liking.
I enjoyed the Vincent Miller lecture and bought the book he reccommended (not his own, “The Ambivalence of the Sacred”).
I’m not sure whether he hits the nail on the head although he is thought provoking and interesting.
It’s not obvious to me that abstract, contextless goods are problematic. Abstraction and lack of context seem to me part of a global world-picture where we simply cannot have detailed knowledge about every aspect which makes up our concrete existence. That is not something I try to avoid.
However lack of knowledge (due to the processes of global trade, or the selfish consumer mentality encouraged by advertising) can surely allow us to be unaware of injustice we are complicit with. In this way it ‘heightens the stakes’ (if you’re not watching the pot will boil) but the remedy is justice rather than context or detailed knowledge about where our shirts (for instance) are made (not that I object to knowing). The “not knowing” only becomes sinister and problematic as far as I can tell when it is “I don’t want to know, I don’t care”.
So I have no problem not knowing where my shirt is made if I can feel confident they didn’t come from a gross injustice (eg. slave labour). In fact, I’d like to know just because I’m incorrigibly curious. But I don’t think I should *need* to know.
I think we need to ensure that the people we buy our produce/commodities off are required to meet certain standards. The question is how to do this? Increasingly it seems that globalization, commodification and lack of awareness of the context we live in (in terms of food, clothing, environment etc.) all point to the need for a transnational regulatory body like the UN (which for all its failings is a movement in the right direction).
my two cents (not even legal tender )