



The future's hard to swallow

Daily car crash ... "Shoenice".

Daily car crash ... "Shoenice". Photo: YouTube

A US Gulf War veteran who calls himself ''Shoenice'' has clocked up more than 50 million views on YouTube with videos of himself eating stuff like sticks of deodorant, pencils, a jar of Vegemite and a poster of Justin Bieber. In 30 seconds, he'll drink bottles of vodka, glue and shampoo, wolf down pine cones, VapoRub, crayons, and cat litter - it's an almost daily car crash.

Cluster Mag's Brad Troemel describes Shoenice as ''a tragic and self-sacrificial figure, a court jester performing to appease his own conception of fame: a person who is willing to commit not only his time in the present moment but his future body and health to the pursuit of attention''.

Troemel's words got me thinking about how so many people do the same thing as Shoenice, but in a somewhat less ostentatious manner.

The guy who injects himself with steroids to get ''ripped'' or fortifies himself with lines of coke at a pick-up bar is also mortgaging his future health with what he puts into his body. So, too, the cigarette-smoking woman with breast implants, and the junk-food-scoffing fat kid who's half deaf from his iPod.

Troemel suggests that ''Shoenice's violent consumption stands as a hyperbolic vision of what we each do to our own bodies as we spend our lives munching corn chips and sipping mixed drinks''.

''We empathise with Shoenice because we understand the grotesque nature of his consumption as an extension of our own gluttony and complicity.''

This is where Troemel and I part company because I don't see much understanding among most people as they ask for a plastic bag to carry home their bread, which is already in a plastic bag.

As one widely circulated internet meme puts it: ''It's pretty amazing that our society has reached a point where the effort necessary to extract oil from the ground, ship it to a refinery, turn it into plastic, shape it appropriately, truck it to a store, buy it and bring it home is considered less effort than what it takes to just wash a spoon when you're done with it.''

Yet that's where we're at and, like every other civilisation that's come before us, we blithely assume the party will go on forever.

But the real obscenity is that our consumption is not only mortgaging our future, but that of every human to follow; we're racking up debts that our grandchildren will have to pay.

I have a map called the ''World History Timeline'' stuck to the wall in front of my desk at home which illustrates the hundreds of empires and peoples who have populated our planet since about 3000BC.

What's stunning is how many there are and how many of them stretched over thousands of years, then disappeared. Obviously many were wiped out by enemies or disease, but plenty simply imploded under their own weight.

The globe is peppered with ancient, abandoned cities that killed themselves through processes such as deforestation and siltation - the immediate desire for firewood and pastureland obviating fears of erosion, crop failure and starvation.

Still, I imagine even the most uneducated AD200 goat-herder would shake their head if you told them we chop down trees so we can wipe our bottoms with two-ply.

Shoenice? You can send him emails suggesting what he eats next. I think he's done toilet paper, so I'm going to propose plastic spoons.

40 comments so far

  • Good article Sam. Reminds me of a favourite book - Collapse by Jared Diamond. He chronicles the collapse of major societies throughout the ages (most were self imploding due to bad decisions) and argues the western world is coming to a point of collapse. Think you'd enjoy the read.

    Date and time
    January 21, 2013, 2:37PM
    • Sam, your point regarding the goat herder suggests as if it is some enlightened environmental self interest that would surprise the goat herder that we use trees for toilet paper - 'how unsustainable' he'd mutter.

      Actually no, he'd probably be surprised by everything he saw because he's a goat herder from nearly 2000 years ago. A flushing toilet, electricity, nuclear power, computers, mobile phones, guns - pick anything that has been invented since then. Religions, the concept of sustainability, the fact people have different coloured skin than him. Let's guess the goat herder's response to all of these. It's not unrealistic to hazard a guess that 'wow, how wasteful for the environment' would explain 0% of his surprise for the fact technology now means we can grow, harvest and process timber into paper that replaces having to use his hand.

      Date and time
      January 21, 2013, 3:57PM
    • I agree Frightning

      This post echo’s some of Diamonds themes. Although I’m not sure that Diamond thinks we are on the point of collapse, though it’s been a while since I’ve read that book to be fair. I think it’s far more likely that as one civilization, or perhaps culture, falls then another will rise to take its place. Barring some cataclysmic black swan event the human race will go on.

      Date and time
      January 22, 2013, 2:40PM
  • It's true, the waste caused by humans is staggering. The waste in food alone by those with clearly too much would more than provide enough for those with not enough. A small contribution from everyone with more than enough would be enough to end extreme poverty.

    A small adjustment to our ways of living might be all it would take to stave off climate change, species loss and a number of environmental issues which, if not dealt with, will change the world irreversibly for the worse.

    But we have enough or too much - most of us, including me -don't want to make those small adjustments and sacrifices, do we?

    Date and time
    January 21, 2013, 3:23PM
    • "A small contribution from everyone with more than enough would be enough to end extreme poverty."

      Unfortunately, it wouldn't. Not even tens of billions of dollars would be enough to end the enormously complex social, political and economic issues responsible for poverty.

      If we all gave a few bucks to the Third World, they would likely use that money up, then come back asking for more.

      Countries that have staggered out of poverty (ie. South Korea, Singapore, Eastern Europe) have done so not simply from getting free money, but because they made vital changes to their political and economic systems.

      Date and time
      January 22, 2013, 8:45AM
  • I'm always interested in what alternatives are proposed to mankinds 'destructive' tendencies....

    At their core, the alternatives to individuals freely cooperating, always requires some do gooder, who apparently knows better telling the rest of us what we can and can't do.

    Instead of using plastics, we should wash up more. We should force people to use certain light bulbs, or limit the amount of water that can be consumed per toilet flush. All buildings must now have a green star rating. Cars must meet certain fuel standards... all take a certain arrogance - a person to presume that they know better than the millions of individuals making decisions to coordinate their affairs.

    Tyrants are at their core, always tyrants. If it wasn't the environment or waste, it would be some social problem and re-distributive agenda. They aren't happy unless they're telling someone else what they can and can't do.

    Date and time
    January 21, 2013, 3:50PM
    • So was William Wilberforce a tyrant when he stood against the majority of parliament and argued for the abolition of slavery. An act which worked directly against the financial interests of his fellow MPs?

      I would rather say that he was ahead of the game and saw the bigger picture which was not visible to people who were focused on self interest.

      Date and time
      January 22, 2013, 10:28AM
    • unfortunately most good decisions for the future of humans are not well understood or accepted by the majority of people on the planet and also compete directly with financial interests. This leads to drastic change becoming more and more unlikely. look at nearly every revolutionary/visionary in history. they have almost all been ridiculed at the beginning and praised after their death or many years after their visionary ideas have changed the world. people are too scared, selfish or stupid to act with respect for each other and their unborn grandchildren.

      Date and time
      January 23, 2013, 5:39PM
    • First step - turn of the television. Is amazing how much less you want when it is not blasted in your face 24/7 that you "MUST HAVE THIS", but then what do you talk about at work if you didn't watch the latest series/footy/cricket? It is tough being the freak who actually went outside over the weekend or who furnished their entire flat for nothing (I LOVE freecycle) and until you find those like minded people it can be lonely. Most people don't seem to want to do the work to make the changes, or push outside what is comfortable (ex flat mate was all yes yes to green energy, but then would leave all the lights on, or be big on recycling, not seeing the irony in the amount of "recycling" she would produce in a week). Unfortunately being socially or environmentally aware is still seen as the realm of hippies, ferals and weirdos (or tyrannical do gooders as someone posted above), rather than beneficial to society as a whole. And if you can't make money from it.....

      K Wren
      Date and time
      January 23, 2013, 6:41PM
    • I think you're right to a point, Ironbark, such as your point about compact fluorescent lamps being much worse for our health and environment if broken, not to mention the high cost of buying them. Too many busybodies telling us how to live and think, all the while doing the opposite. The Left is full of these types. But sometimes people come along with ideas way ahead of their time that us regular folk don't understand, such as Nikola Tesla. Such boat rockers are often tossed overboard.

      Date and time
      January 24, 2013, 1:51PM

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