Consuming Culture

When i first started reading the book I felt it was a little extreme, however, as I kept reading I realized that the reason I thought it was so extreme is that, perhaps, I was afraid of the truth. I have grown up in this culture and have had not other to choice to unknowingly conform to this way of life. As I have grown up I have realized what the media has affected me and who I am, and while I may be conscious of this I am no different from anyone else. I have the same desires of wanting more than I really need. I want to wear nice clothes, I want to eat good food (probably too much of it) and I want to drive a nice car(which i don't but wish i did).
I agree with what Lasn concepts of how recognizing the environment may aid in helping alleviate some aspects of this. He writes, " Abandon nature and you abandon your sense of the divine. More than that, you lose track of who you are." I think that the main reason why I enjoy nature so much is that I can escape from the crazyness of real life and slow down. I don't feel rushed and I feel like I can actually breathe. I think understanding nature aids in understanding life and by that I mean what life is supposed to be like. Enjoyable.
I also really connected with what he said about our loss of language and culture. As mentioned in my memoir, I grew up in a very strong Inuit culture. Native cultures are being lost entirely as massive corporations are taking over their land and livelihood. Many of these people are forced to work for these corporations in order to make money. In one of my favorite quotes he writes, "The loss of a language, tradition or heritage- or the forgetting of one good idea-is a big loss to future generations as a biological species going extinct." Our culture has already been lost, but we are killing ourselves as a species. We are killing who we are. I feel like we have become strangers in our own bodies. It saddens me to think about where we will be in fifty years and how much more things can change. It makes me scared to have children because who knows what their childhood will be like. It has already changed so much since I was a child which was only twenty years ago.