The ARC Blog | to help raise awareness of those who make a positive impact on society

New ARC initiative: Responsible Choices

By billie | August 13, 2008

Artists Raising Consciousness (ARC) is filming a unique and ground breaking social media initiative (a 12 part series for the internet) revolving around the issue our society faces in making responsible choices when alcohol is involved and the responsibility our communities and corporations hold in helping convey this message.

This initiative is going to pose the questions:

How is the responsible drinking “message” being released to University Students?
Who is involved in the responsible drinking message?
What is being done to make it more effective so it can reach more people?

To effectively explore these questions, we will be working with several interested groups and parties to obtain an all-around view at this issue from every aspect: For the social and societal aspects we have coupled with community and social responsible groups, the police who must enforce these laws, local government, experts and authorities on the subject matter (including doctors, professors, and lawyers). For the view from the student we will be filming colleges and universities, student awareness groups, campus social coordinators, bars and pubs that cater specifically to the younger crowd, and, of course, the students themselves. From the corporate standpoint we will be involved with Brewers, and their PR and marketing firms.

Our purpose is not to lay blame or look for fault, but rather to observe this many-faceted issue from all angles and allow the viewer to become educated enough to make up their own minds, and in turn, receive insight about the responsibility involved (or lack thereof) in making choices in regard to this matter.

We would like to invite you to provide YOUR perspective, personal philosophy and insight so that we are ensuring that the initiative has not ONE view point, but all view points are being represented to these issues.

http://blog.molson.com/community/2007/06

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How big is your Civic Footprint?

By billie | August 10, 2008

What are you doing to increase your civic footprint? This is what Anil Patel was asking me when we were sitting in the empty cellar of the Distillery days before the Timeraiser event. I admit at the time, I had no idea what he was talking about. That was a moment, right there on those steps. A time stamp that I will go back to over and over again. That was BA. Before Anil. I can still see the transformation that took place inside me as Anil explained and broke down to most simplicity of what being a contributor to society means. He identified a problem in society (charities and non profits were having a hard time finding volunteers) and came up with a solution to that problem. In that moment I was fully able to comprehend what Social Innovation meant. Anil Patel was one of those social innovators that Susanna Kislenko (now formerly) of McConnell foundation was telling me all about. It took me a while at the time to get my head around the concept and now sitting here with Anil as he was explaining one of his solutions to helping people increase their civic footprint Anil was the first of the social innovators that I was going to meet this year. He opened a world of hope to me. Showed me that not only people cared but he was working with corporations that cared about his work and helping people as well. On our drive during the filming of the Timeraiser story he took me to a couple corporations including RBC and Molson that was helping out with his initiative.

Timeraiser is an event that helps charities and Non Profits meet volunteers, where the potential volunteers bid on art using their time instead of money that they donate to the charities. Anil says it much better than me:

This is the film we made in partner ship with the McConnell Foundation to highlight a grant that Framework recieved to help Timeraiser go national.

Watch here:

The second film is the story we told with Molson on their involvement in the Timeraiser event. Anil, a former employee of Molson credits them with the skills he learned in the corporate world to bring that to helping others.

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Confessions of an “Enviro-Neurotic”

By billie | August 4, 2008

I have “systems” that most people think I am obsessive about. Until now, it used to drive people away from me and recently in our slowly becoming conscious society, these practices are beginning to be mildly tolerated by others. Through my attempts to try and reduce my ecological footprint, I have found systems that help this mission that involve trying to reduce my water use, energy use, amount of waste I create, etc. I can seem a little manic about it (especially when met with resistance) and am often pressuring those around me to adopt my practices and with some of those really close to me; I even inflict this on them regardless of their opposition. Let’s say this upfront: I do not consider myself an environmentalist…yet. I don’t possess the knowledge or the science nor am I set up to be so. I try the best I can. There are WAY more committed and militant people out there than me. I do consider myself to be an “enviro-neurotic”. That is to say, I am overly neurotic about the impact I have on the environment. This is natural for me as I come from a long line before me of neurotic people that were neurotic about other matters and now in this day and age I direct my centuries of skilled neuroses on saving the planet every way I can in my limited reach. To others, I’m annoying and a pain in the ass. In this day and age, sacrifice is essential. There will not always be people on opposing sides of this view but until we find alternate ways to cool the air the debate will be there. Those who have seen the need to reduce our carbon footprint need to find each other to increase their influence on those who haven’t. Its too hard for just one to try and convince others and we could use the support in our organization. Those reading this that think I am overly neurotic, yes you are right I am overly neurotic but please all I can ask is that you keep an open mind and follow my posts and don’t feel isolated and turn off from this message. For most of you, you are unwilling at this time to sacrifice your comfort in return for reducing your carbon footprint but eventually we will be sacrificing more than air conditioner use and I choose to prepare and play my part in prevention of immanent environmental crisis then completely ignore it. I know: I sound drastic and will lose most people at this point as an overly neurotic doomsayer. For me though, it’s not that drastic, I see it as a sport or great art form and challenge and I do what I can to play my part in being a “contributor” to the collective change of our behavior towards the environment as opposed to a “user” of energy with no regard of the impact one has on the environment. I even have a challenge with some (a very aware 16 year old Daniel Silverman in Boulder Colorado, where we measure our water use in attempt to beat each other at the amount we use per week – he’s still beating me but I’m more set in my ways) I will continue to explore some of these practices that I have taught myself in further posts to come. There is a lot I will share in the weeks and months to come: confessions of an enviro-neurotic. I looked it up: there are no anonymous groups out there for me…yet.

I think it all started when I was in high school. I remember the very first “earth day” that went public. I think it was 1990 and there was a big gathering at Queens Park. There I was, 16 years old with my friends eating a street hot dog at a gathering that we really had no idea of the implications of being there. This was long before we knew about water shortages or global warming. For us it was a chance to go downtown and gather with mass amounts of people and celebrate the earth. While we were walking and finishing off our street meat, my friend tossed his napkins on the ground! I couldn’t believe it! Here we were at earth day and my ignorant friend and eventual nemesis does not have a clue! “Danny!” I yell. He turns around and looks at me with a stupid look on his face. “What?” He really had no clue at what I am angry at. We just stand there over the napkin in a standoff. “What?!?” I say pointing at the napkin “The environment!” I yell back at him, way ahead of my time. “And its Earth Day!”, I add in, implying that at least on this day of all days and the reason we are here that he respect some basic environmental law of not discarding your used napkins on the street. He turns and starts to walk away completely dismissing me and I have never, till this day forgotten what he nonchalantly said back to me. “So what? Its my environment too.”

Unfortunately not much has changed. I continually find myself in some small standoff with others over these issues. The ARC office is usually quite warm. There is an air conditioner but I prefer it to be off, (we have since moved and I didn’t take the air conditioner with me) the result of it being off is that we sweat and be a bit uncomfortable. It takes practice but eventually the heat doesn’t bother you. What’s the big deal? It’s hot outside! Of course it is! We live on a part of the planet that during the summer months heat up. Completely natural that’s its hot. And we sweat. Is there ever a time in our existence as humans that we didn’t sweat? Its been going on for millions of years. How come all of the sudden it’s a problem? We were built for the job. Sweating is what we do! That’s why we have sweat glands. Otherwise we’d heat up like ovens and combust. So why are we so afraid to be a bit uncomfortable? Why are we becoming less capable of coping then the other way around? Shouldn’t we be getting better at it? Why are we so complacent? When did we start losing our focus and ability to live in our environment? Are we completely incapable? Try sweating uncomfortably for a month and I promise being uncomfortable will be over. I don’t even notice it anymore. I am just used to a thin layer of sweat on me now. It’s like being in a sauna full time and it’s amazing how much weight I have lost and I always have a healthy glow about me. Gone are the days of ignorance where we used air conditioners without knowing the price it costs to use them. We now know that if everyone uses them that we consume large amounts of energy and collectively increase the carbon in the air. So how do we keep doing this? Why do I still walk in people’s houses and feel like I am walking into a meat freezer? Did these people not get the bulletin? What’s their argument in defense of this? It’s time we started to openly discuss this. Everyone is so quick to dismiss it and tell me to leave them alone saying – “its my house, I like it this way” assuming that that is the end of all arguments. We haven’t come very far. In fact, in the quest for socio-political and economic autonomy, we are getting farther and farther away from any collective intention to save our environment not just for us but for generations to come. Yet at the same time we point our fingers at the big bad corporations for ruining the earth yet we don’t look at ourselves. Collectively, home owners pollute way beyond any corporations. We are the problem here. It’s like an identity crisis. It’s hot in the world but we refuse to admit it. Instead we pretend it’s comfortable and continue to destroy the earth so we can be “comfortable”. If you were looking for a metaphor it would be like we are unhappy with the way we look or the way we are and instead of accepting ourselves we try to change ourselves so we can feel more “normal” Is it not normal to be hot and sweat? The argument is “I’d rather be comfortable” but because everyone would rather be comfortable (including refrigerated malls and movie theatres) we are continually increasing our carbon footprint.

There are positives to this post. I am reading everyday about the corporations out there that are changing their way of doing business and looking at the impact they have on the environment. Not all is lost. Soon they will start producing products that will change our behavior. Let’s start meeting them half way. Consumers (that’s us) are the largest group capable of changing the way we do things. We as a collective are the biggest polluters on the planets. It’s the corporations that try to meet our needs. We need to show them that we want to change and we recognize the need for our use of more sustainable products because our behavior dictates that.

There is a metaphor that reflects this behaviour in the growing use of plastic surgeons to change the way we look and decrease any signs of aging. Nose jobs and face lifts show us that we are uncomfortable being ourselves and no wonder our environment is going to shit. No one wants to be who they are and the planet is suffering for it, eventually making it uninhabitable for us. How can we save the planet if we can’t accept who we are? So far all those of you out there considering a nose job, keep this in mind: unless you can get a new nose that emits a way to reduce the carbon dioxide in the air every time you breath then think twice of the impact of not being comfortable with who you really are, what purpose you are here on this planet for and how that eventually effects our relationship with the planet we live on.

What is your purpose?

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Still Unsustainable…

By billie | July 28, 2008

(Continued from UnSustainability in 3d!!! )

I did some research. The Journey To the Center of the Earth film is being shown 3d in over 900 theatres a day. Their goal is for 1400 theatres per release.

1400 theatres showing 4 screenings a day at 350 seats per house. Handing out glasses to everyone and not having a plan for recycling them.

That’s 2,450,000 glasses per day! Plastic glasses thrown in the garbage!. Can some physicist please tell me how much waste that is a day? 2.5 million glasses???

That can’t make sense.

Howe is that even business sense?

Lets say each pair of glasses is a couple pennies, that’s minimum $49,000 dollars a day.

I have extensively research the internet looking for other articles or demands to recycle these glasses but have found nothing but a guy complaining that there is a scratch on his and was worried that they were recycled thus comprising the viewing experience

Why in this day and age isn’t anyone of any authority raising this issue? Such a short sighted bunch we are. I see all the people involved in this – Spielberg, Lucas… oh man

I should be sitting outside the theatre right now and talking a picture of the amount of garbage that these glasses are making which they are sending to the landfill.. Someone should take a picture before this film dwindles off and the bags aren’t showing any more like a unwanted rash that hibernates and can no longer be detected.

I cant get the image of everyone throwing out their glasses out of my head. Some of them putting their glasses just beside the garbage to relieve their guilt of them not being the one actually throwing it away.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=46407

That’s an interview with director of the movie bigging up real d technology. No one asked him what they plan to do with all the glasses.

I think The Elders should say something about this. In fact we need The Elders to step up and say a lot right now.

I wonder how long it will take for the media to pick this up?

Who’s working on our behalf?

Do we have a known collective “behalf” or am I just being overly optimistic?

4 Comments

Unsustainability in 3D!!!!

By billie | July 18, 2008

I went to take my nephew to the 3d film “journey to the centre of the earth”. We were given our glasses made by real d technology. My nephew lost his by the time we screened so we had to get another pair. The movie was garbage. It could have been cool. they seemed to be on to something about the untouched earth. the effects that are supposed to dazzle you took precedent to story but to no real effect. When we left the theatre I went to return our sunglasses. I asked the usher where we should put our glasses (after noticing a bunch was being put next to the garbage) and he said “throw them out.” I was shocked and thought I heard wrong (after immediately doing the math and imagining a huge pile of these glasses in a landfill somewhere) and I said “what?, in the garbage?!?” to which he replied, “or you can take them home, it doesn’t matter to us”

I turned around and watched the people of the theatre all coming out with glasses in their hands waiting to be discarded. Most of them were putting their glasses NEXT to the garbage as if that didn’t make them responsible for actually throwing them out. I couldn’t believe that in this day and age we were still making new technology as if we were still living in the dark ages. I needed to do something about it but my nephew was complaining about a sore stomach (from all the coke he drank against my better judgment) so I approached the manager with just one question: “how many people are in this theatre?” to which he replied “385”. “How many shows a day?” “5” he said. “And you throw all these out afterwards?” I ask showing him the sunglasses to which he replied “oh don’t worry, the distributor pays for it.”

He didn’t care. He wasn’t able to see. All these people in this theatre, all the theatres in this country and the US all the people making the films with this technology, those people involved, no one cares about the waste? Who is taking responsibility? I find even myself not having the time to look into this and if I drop it, then who will do this? Are we blindly relying on corporations to do the right thing? How come I don’t have anyone to complain to? Where do I start?

Some initial research shows that Real D started with the need to make National Geographic films. That’s kind of ironic. A company whose mission states: “Join us as we continue our non-profit mission to explore the planet and sustain its extraordinary places, creatures, and cultures.” That’s funny. I guess the human race isn’t included in this and the future of the planet is somewhat disregarded here. I am sure that its important to bring kids in the movie seats and show them what the planet looked like in the past before we started doing ignorant things like making these films without having a solution of what to do with the glasses and these places in the film are now being used as a landfill site – but its cool because its in 3D! Press Release shows that Peter Gabriel is doing the music an ongoing activist in environmental issues. People are moving on this technology and film format and exhibition. I can’t figure out why this red flag has not been raised. How many theatres? How many people? What’s going on? I thought the movie industry was trying to be sustainable? I now have three pairs of sunglasses that I refuse to throw out. What am I going to do with them????

I’m still waiting on phone calls from Cineplex, National Geographic and Real D.

8 Comments

Responsibility vs. Complacency

By billie | July 14, 2008

The reason why people don’t recycle is not because they don’t want to it’s because the system has not been set up in their world to make it “convenient” for them. They don’t have a recycle box or their building does not recycle yet (they would have to take it down to the curb or find somewhere else to take it) or maybe they just don’t believe in it and they think it won’t make a difference or it’s all a sham. All there terms need to be dealt with before most can contribute to creating sustainability in their lives for the planet. So that at the time of the crucial moment when the bottle is empty that there is a system in place (both physically and mentally) that makes it possible for someone to recycle with “convenience”. Face it, if it’s not convenient, people won’t do it. For some reason our masses have become complacent. Our sewers and water pipes were all built for us. We take for granted our “convenient” lifestyle and have mistaken the convenience. There was nothing convenient about how it was built yet because we were born into it we have assimilated this convenient lifestyle that was provided for us and we assume that this is our right to be this way and when change is being called for we do not know how to motivate ourselves into change at risk of losing our convenient lifestyle. So if it’s not convenient to recycle than our plastic non biodegradable garbage is going in the landfill. And if you ask someone to recycle, or stop idling their car, or make a conscious choice you should see the response you get. I urge you to try and ask a guy who has been sitting in his car with the ac blasting for over 5 minutes idling to shut his car off. Watch the response you get. I do it all the time. It used to be because I cared about the environment but now it’s more for the entertainment of the varied negative responses I get.

It’s not so easy for the user to recycle. There is some work to do in order to get the system into place. They have to get a box, their building needs to offer the service, they need to see that its worthy to recycle and it’s not just a hoax, of course, in our busy complacent lives it takes a bit to set these systems into place. Yet every day there is a new bottle to dispose of and as long as the system is not in place they will not recycle. Not all people are proactive. They just do what has been set up for them. Society is built on the leaders and the followers and the complacent apathetics that are lethargic with change. Unfortunately there are more followers and lethargies than “doers” and that is why change in this world is going to be very hard to come by. It takes time and money to change and often we are strapped of both. Corporations are quite the same. Their intent is not to waste and destroy the environment. They didn’t set up a business based on the mission to make the earth unlivable. They just are in the practice of doing so. Its because so many people are involved in these organization from consumers to distributors to manufacturers that once they realize what harm they are doing, no one has been organized to oversee their ecological footprint. When they were setting up their business and becoming kazillionaires no one was delegated to the position of making sure they weren’t harming the environment. It just wasn’t in human planetary consciousness at the time. Fast forward 100 years later and a lot of damage we now find ourselves becoming conscious (some of us) in a system that needs to be totally reworked in order to sustain the rest of our time on this planet and if we don’t there won’t be humans here to make a profit off of anymore. Anyone who contests this is unintelligent and anyone who does not comply should be singled out and ridiculed and their “right” to make a profit at all should be revoked. That’s what responsibility means: do or die. It’s not on the corporations onus alone. No corp. acts alone: buyers, distributors, customers are all part of the system that leads to the waste and environmental destruction. The system was not designed to protect the environment or manage the ecological footprint. Businesses can’t just stop doing what they are doing. They need to keep producing, their alarming effect on the environment will continue. The only way out of this unsustainable paradigm is to create a new system and unless someone or a group is going to do something everyone will just accept the way it is and continue on the same path that has been set out for us eventually leading to the demise of human survival on the planet. Sound too serious? Sound like I am being alarming? Well if you think that then you’re part of the problem. Wake up.

With that being said, it’s not all doom and gloom because people are waking up. That was then and this is now. What IS happening in the world and who IS waking up are the major corporations are seeing the destruction of their ways. They are evaluating the nature of their systems and its impact on the environment and they are spending the time and money to adjust and restructure the way they are doing business. All hope is not lost! As the consumer becomes more conscious with their choices of what company their money is going to based on what they are doing to address these issues, major corps are meeting their demands and making this their major initiatives. And once the corps clean up their mess, change their systems that we all live by, they will intact change the world and then, only then will the complacent follow.

We can’t rely solely on the corp. just like we can’t solely rely on the consumer but the consumer can help with what they choose to consume. That is their responsibility. Those that don’t care or are not inspired should be singled out as well.

So those of you are waiting for something to be done, don’t worry it is. You don’t have to create change yourself because eventually you won’t have a choice. You’ll bitch and complain how “inconvenient it is for you” but in time you will get used to it and hopefully your children will learn the new way and it will be naturally for them to make sustainable choices and live in a more sustainable in the system.

But in the meantime, try to open your minds, spend your money properly and do your part.

This post was in response to and inspired by Marc Gunther’s post: http://www.marcgunther.com/?p=383#comments and Jeff Weintraub’s post:http://soitgoes.typepad.com/so_it_goes/2008/07/marc-gunther-who-writes-prolifically-about-corporate-social-responsibility-and-environmental-issues-for-fortune-magazine-and.html

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The Sacred Act of Sales

By billie | July 5, 2008

I’m last minute shopping for a pair of sunglasses for my trip to Greece. I am going to the ecofilm festival in Rodos to screen Surviving the Treatment: The Return of Myles McLellan and The Long Journey Home which I snuck in on the edit at the beginning. Both should be played together. I am spending an extra 5 days in Santorini as I didn’t want to come all the way to this side of the world without getting the full island experience and figured I could use a couple days to unwind from my incredibly stressful life as a storyteller Santorini will be for reflection, writing, blogs (I have written a few while here) and most of all sun! Glorious sun and views! That’s why I am looking for the perfect pair of sunglasses. I have two requirements. They look amazing on me and they are polarized. Can’t sit on a cliff and look out at the ocean without polarized shades. Anyone who doesn’t know the difference I suggest you check it out. Once you try, normal sunglasses will never do the trick. It’s hard to fit my criteria on shades because not only do I have an unusually large head and long face I am very particular on the shades that I buy. I often get harassed by my choice of eyewear as they are either too expensive and when I settle they look ridiculous. So here I am one day before I leave, on a mad rush to find the right pair. But I don’t stress because for me, I know timing is everything. I find a new boutique shop that just opened the day before and they have the brand of choice (I omit names because this isn’t that kind of blog that shamelessly endorses brands especially when nobody is paying for it) ((ok its Persol but I only say this because they are the coolest sunglasses and I have about 5 pairs and was wearing them long before they paid huge rates to the James Bond franchise)). So I walk into this place that is described as the Harry Rosen of sunglass shops. I am as intimidated as always walking into shops like this where the sales people have an heir about them as if they are more important than those shopping there (I never get A. why they put this off and B. why it works and C. why I always fall for it). Except here I was treated very nicely as I approached the Persol rack in great enjoyment and started trying on models I had never seen before in my great search (I broke the last pair helping a friend move in.) The very slick salesman told me I must be a very sophisticated sunglass shopper as only those “in the know” know Persols. (now you are all in the know) I kind of found his remark and approach a little on the cheesy side, slick salesman type of flattery but I sort of fell for it and for the rest of the experience I accepted and filled the role that I was the guy that was in the know. He then went on to say I was a connoisseur of sunglasses. Man this guy was pouring it on thick but I ate up every piece of flattery he was offering. I think my chest expanded a bit and the guy I was now looking at in the mirror wearing these sunglasses was a sophisticated connoisseur. Man was this guy good! It was somewhat offsetting and creepy that there are still salesmen out there like this and that I was falling for it as well but super slick was a charmer. I was deciding between two pairs I liked and he proceeded to compare them by saying that one is the guy driving his Porsche and the other was cool guy at dinner. Ok, the flattery was wearing off and getting a little cheesy but I was ready to choose my pair and end this before it got out of hand. I was already buying the pair so it was a tad unnecessary as I saw through it and sort of cheapened this experience that I was already enjoying regardless of slick laying it on thick. I was already buying the pair. The sales brigade could go back to camp and rethink their strategy and blatant pitch and let a guy enjoy the art of buying without this entire charade. I wonder if he knows how transparent his sales guy role is. The over flattery is even somewhat detrimental to the sale. I tried to put it aside and not let his cheap act ruin my enjoyment of finding the right pair. I would have rather him be more real and less of a “sales guy” he thinks he is supposed to be. I’d like to send him across the road to Jason Bickerton at Harry Rosen and see how a real pro does it. All those guys over there are the real thing. That’s old school sales men raised in a tradition of sales men. Jason’s dad was a salesman and probably his dad before him. No bullshit with Jason. He is serious about the product he sells. He does not “sell” there is no gimmick; it’s a serious job to be an expert in your field and take it very seriously. Clothes are no laughing matter – not time for shtick and the same should be for sunglasses. Jason does not bullshit me, flatter me, and feed me lines. In fact he often makes me feel somewhat intimidated (not his fault) and I feel like he is so busy that I needn’t take any more of his time than necessary as he is a man in demand and that makes me honour the time I have with him. Clothes buying is serious business as it’s the way you represent yourself and I have been a customer of Jason’s for years because I TRUST him and he is always right. That’s why he is there. I rely on him for an honest opinion and his expertise and he would not steer me wrong. It’s a system of trust we have built up over the years. I would spend more than I am wiling to (or can afford) for this necessary relationship and I know that he would not take advantage of that.

I didn’t feel this way with slick sales guy. At the time though, I did put up with it and didn’t judge him as I do in retrospect (you will see why in a moment) as I just figured that this guy needed this “role” as slick sales guy to help him define his identity. I remember a time when I was the “role” of filmmaker and I sort of hung on to that role to help me feel better about myself. Now that I think of it, it was a time when I wasn’t really a filmmaker but needed to feel like one so I put it on which in retrospect makes a lot of sense with this guy. He wanted to take his role of the high end boutique sunglass guy seriously and I might as well indulge his fantasy while I am there. It doesn’t have to be about me at the moment, why can’t it be about him? So I decided to play along with his role to help him feel better about himself so he could really feel like he made his sale and fulfilled his part in the world. We all need to play a part and this guy is taking his very seriously. So why not? So sell me a pair slick! Sell it like you never sold before! Tell me what you know about sunglasses and guide me to the right pair! You’re the expert! Expertise me man! All I needed was to meet my two criteria and the first one was met so now all that is left is finding a polarized pair. He then told me all Persols were polarized. That should have been my first sign. That is not true. I have a couple that isn’t. But for some reason I overlooked it, I didn’t call him out on that, and I asked him, “are you sure this pair is?” I did not want to be caught over in Santorini Greece with a sub par pair of lenses. I wanted definition.

Now here I get serious. Sales is not to be taken lightly. It’s a necessary function in our world. The product needs a knowledgeable sales person to inform the consumer about the choice they are going to make with both their hard earned money and the use and need of the product. It’s a sacred relationship between manufacturer, product and user. It is not a position that anyone can do. That’s the problem with our retail world is that the job is not honoured the way it should be. When I walk into a store and buy a product, I do not want to be sold. Any selling puts me on suspect. Any sales person should know this. The minute you start to “sell” you lose the confidence of your potential client. Know this: don’t sell me. Learn your product and only give me the info that I need and when I need to know something specific, DO NOT MAKE IT UP to make the sale. Know the truth. It is your responsibility to KNOW YOUR PRODUCT. If you are going to be a super slick sales guy that is fine if you need that but you MUST know what you are talking about. Do your homework and take your sacred role seriously. I come from a long line of salesmen. My whole patriarch is a line of salesmen so I know what I am talking about. My father taught me this a long time ago (my father being the one man in my family that is not a salesman) but he did know enough to tell me the golden rule: Do not bullshit a bullshitter. Looking at any of my uncles you would know that there is no bullshitting them. It would be seen through immediately. But because I have a bit of my father in me (an extremely tolerant individual who gives love to all), even though I identified the bullshit, I had tolerance for it, and for that I paid greatly. It was a great lesson. When you see bullshit, call it or you will pay dearly. It would be better to live in world without bullshit but sadly that is not the case. As long as there is a responsibility to not bullshit (which is not taken often) there might as well be an onus and responsibility on those being bullshitted to call the bullshitter out on it when they see it. Why did I fall for this? The blame is not solely on the bullshitter. I take full responsibility as well. As a consumer, I will allow myself to be sold anything. That is the trust us consumers give to those that sell and make products. For so long we have freely given our trust to the corporations and thus we have been continually duped and a culture has been created where we fear the corporation for fooling us and we resent the corporation for this and are angered because we need them. Our dependence fuels our frustration. But this cycle must stop. It takes two to tango. First the corporation must stop lying to us. Responsibility starts there. Tell the truth. Is this too ideal of me? Are we unable to do business in a sacred manner where the exchange of money for product is a holy one? Back in the Greek times (now that I’m in Greece the parallel is suiting) the God of Mercury saw over every exchange. We pass energy between us – being the element of mercury (I should look further into this because I don’t really know what I am talking about but it makes sense) Business is and should be sacred. We need things (some of us want more than we need but that’s a future blog). I think the corps should start with stopping selling us something that we don’t want. Especially when we are specific about it.

Now I know slick isn’t a corporation but he sure has been caught up in the culture. He has been seduced into thinking he has to behave that way: make the sale at all costs. He truly wants to believe that he is that guy that overlooks the truth in his responsibility.

But the onus does not lie solely in the corporation. It is also within the consumer. It is time for the consumer to stop being so passive. We have allowed this behaviour for so long and then we blame which is worse than being passive – its passive aggressive.

So here I am, in Greece, squinting at the sun and disappointed (in both slick and myself) that my sunglasses are NOT polarized. When I get back I am returning to the store and have a talk with slick. I will help him see his erroneous ways (without blame because he does not know what he does) and I will tell him to replace my sunglasses with a polarized version and hope he understands what his lack of knowledge has cost both of us.

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