In a culture that accepts speed as a value, the attitude of ‘faster is better’ leaves us with warped expectations, shorter attention spans, and higher demands for instant gratification. Time to grow and mature, time to reflect, time to cultivate patience are no longer tolerated because ‘time is money.’ The innocence of youth is now lost as early as the primary grades. Cooking shows have become timed competitions for entertainment. Emails and texts are responded to immediately.
The idea of availability is foisted upon us with the help of massive media campaigns. We are sold the twisted idea of 24/7 entitlement. When this construct is bought into en masse, seasons no longer matter, we become spoiled and lose track of time and space. We begin to quickly look for the next best thing and local culture (the specialness of here and now) becomes less important. Entertainment is now available on demand day and night with streaming services there is no longer a wait time to download. If we are bored with that choice, there is no shortage of other options. Strawberries can be purchased in the dead of winter. Personal debt for personal consumption and living beyond one’s means has become commonplace.
Fast Food Culture thrives in urban settings. Urbanization is very resource intensive, requiring multiple inputs from which people are not personally involved, such as building and maintaining water infrastructures, energy systems, communication systems, materials for roads. It also produces outputs that can’t be fully captured and recycled, such as water contamination, heat pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, and light pollution. When hundreds of thousands of people move into cities, the food must also be brought in, and this food has been grown on monoculture farms.
Forests are cleared for wood products needed in construction and furniture production. The waste of urbanization must be trucked out, treated, buried, burned or dumped at sea. The result is that urban dwellers consume more nonrenewable resources than land-based dwellers, not to mention the huge social problems that come with urban living: homelessness, working poor and abandoned seniors.
Naomi Klein was quoted by Salon in 2016 as saying “it’s about changing the paradigm of a culture that is based on separateness from nature, that is based on the idea that we can dominate nature, that we are the boss, that we are in charge.
Climate change challenges all of that. It says, “You know, all this time that you’ve been living in this bubble apart from nature, fueled by a substance that has been accumulating in the atmosphere, you told yourself you were the boss, that you could have a oneway relationship with the natural world. You thought you were in charge, but think again.’ Corporations deny climate change because its a threat to a worldview on which they rely, and it threatens their pride.
Klein when on to explain: “We live in an interconnected world, in an interconnected time, and we need holistic solutions. We have a crisis of inequality and we need climate solutions that solve that crisis. So climate change is an accelerant. It has loaded the dice. So what I would say is climate change does that but not just with the weather. If you’ve got a racist society, if you’ve got a problem of racism in your society and then you add climate change to it, then it goes crazy. If you’ve got a problem with inequality and then you add climate change to it, then it becomes scifi. This is not just about things getting hotter and wetter, it’s about things getting meaner. And that’s why we have to talk about values and who we want to be in the face of this crisis.”
Helena Norberg Hope has learned from experience that when people turn away from Fast Food Culture and start reconnecting with each other, in their own local communities/neighbourhoods, they are providing very different role models for their children and for each other. When children identify with flesh and blood people who all have strengths and weaknesses, they get a much more realistic sense of who they are and who they can be. The sense of belonging builds confidence and a deep set of self-respect, which in turn generates respect for others. Young people are looking for something else besides what they are learning in school. They want contact with nature. Local knowledge is knowledge that tells you about life and about living.