12,000 Shopping Bags a Year

We had the most humbling morning at the Dansk Design Museum's theFlowmarket exhibition: a a quiet room set up to look like a new age grocery store with soft lighting, a glowing fire on a flat screen television, and squishy black chairs lining the walls. What's for sale? Plastic pill bottls labeled 'time for each other,' hypodermic needles promising to deliver 'collective consciousness, and aluminum cans filled with 'renewable energy.' But all the containers are empty.

theFlowmarket is designed to refute what I think is the largest lie of our times: that we 'vote with our dollars,' instead of by involving ourselves in the world around us. When half the world lives on less than $2 a day, we're voting for continued inequliaty when we vote only with our dollars. Buying organic food might be better for you, but don't kid yourself into thinking you're doing anything nice for anybody else.

They say the best things in life are free, but if by 'best,' you mean clean air, safe drinking water, tolerance, inner peace, silence, good vibes, and unconditional love, you better check your receipt. I think we're being overcharged.