Running Away from Consumerism

When we happen to go to a famous and beautiful nature site, what's the first thing that comes to mind for the younger generation? Of course, the gift shop. We consumeristic human beings flock to get our hands on something concrete rather than take in the phenomenon that exits right outside. We fail to take in and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us, yet we succeed in buying a shirt or a hat or a nail clipper with a mediocre picture of that site on it. Our ignorance to such nature dwells from the craze for consumer goods.

The only memory I have from the first time I went to the CN Tower in Toronto was sitting in the gift shop whining because my parents wouldn't buy me some dumb toy. And obviously I would only use this toy for less than a week before it just ends up behind the couch and lost forever. I can't at all recollect the view of the skyline or the long elevator ride up to the top. The fact that even at such a young age the thought of purchasing useless consumer goods had already poisoned my mind goes to show how society slowly devalued the beautiful scenery around us.

In "Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp", Williams makes a very similar point. She illustrates how we obsess over the "pizza and video shops" and maybe even a "bulimia treatment center". Her use of cataloging demonstrates the excessive nature of people to the point where they literally just throw up food contributing to the already growing food waste in the world. Williams makes the ignorance of people evident as she directly attacks these people with her use of rhetorical questions.

People need to start embracing the nature around them before it's "too late". As we grow our attention towards material goods, we are slowly leaving behind the beautiful world around. Soon all we might have are the shirts and hats and nail clippers with pictures of natural phenomenon that may cease to exist.