The problem with Capitalism is the problem with Elmer’s Glue. I was in Staples with a friend who needed some glue, and I saw a huge shelf of Elmer’s Glue. I remember when Elmer’s Glue was just one bottle of white glue, now it has proliferated into a multitude of choices, and the only end in sight is the limit Staples will put on it. But what if there was no limit. The whole world would fill up with new choices, new kinds of Elmer’s
Glue…Elmer’s Glue is an expanding universe. While it used to be one glue, one became boring. Only New glue is interesting now, so one has to make new kinds of glue, or else no one will buy Elmer. They will buy some other glue, not because it is better but because it is new.
In a system when only the New is better, there is no end to the New, and like your room full of your frog collection, you will have to get a bigger house to keep up with the new frogs, since your old frog is no longer interesting. Only a new frog has value.
And so with Capitalism that is grafted to modern consumerism. Only the new has value, but at some point the earth will suffocate under the landfill of the New.
Elmer’s Glue was once the One Glue, and now look what the scalpel of choice has done. We can never put Elmer back together again. Each new flavor of Elmer is sold as the One.Smaller and smaller Elmer grows, down to the bottom he divides like Zeno’s Arrow. Our land fills with dead Elmers.
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