Tag: social comment

Perfume: The Smell of Extinction

The human race is heading for extinction.  No, guess again: it’s not climate change – not yet anyway.  It’s much more basic than that.  We stink.  We absolutely reek of chemicals.  Every day, we pour, spray and smear huge amounts of artificial smells on our bodies.  If that isn’t bad enough, we fill the air around us with a chemical cocktail, as well.  We’ve become obsessed with odor, and we attack it like it’s Satan’s grandson.  However, in our zeal to defeat aroma, we’re cloaking ourselves in a chemical cloud capable of defoliating Denmark.  Our noses haven’t worked properly in decades, and our poor lungs can’t even gasp for help anymore.  Most importantly, we’re losing our original human scent, and this will be our demise.

I know it’s hard to believe in a world filled with Driven, Hidden Fantasy and Hugo Boss, but we humans have our own smell – individually — just like cats, dogs or elephants.  It’s a perfectly agreeable odor that is simply Mother Nature’s way of recognizing her kids with the lights off.  We don’t smell it consciously anymore because we’re a gillion generations out of the caves.  Basically, we haven’t needed to distinguish our buddy Cro-Magnon Carl from the local sabre tooth man-eater for many millennia — so we don’t.  But it’s still there, all the same.  Ask any couple who’ve been together for any length of time and they will tell you their partner/husband/wife/lover has a distinct smell.  It’s recognizable on the pillow, on their clothes or in a room.  It’s identifiable.  This smell is extremely important.   It’s how animals find and keep sexual partners.

In our oh-so-sophisticated contemporary society, we don’t want to believe we’re still just really smart animals.  We think we’re halfway to the gods or something, and ordinary human activity is dirty, dangerous and offensive.  Just take a look at how we go after bacteria.  We’re willing to flush tons of life destroying chemicals into our water supply and massacre whole species of fish just so our children don’t touch anything that isn’t double-dipped in Lysol.  We treat smell the same way (worse, actually.)  We’ve convinced ourselves we smell bad, and not just occasionally – all the time.

Take a walk through any shopping mall and count the number of places that sell fragrance of one kind or another and not just perfume — any fragrance.  The only places that don’t are A & W, the bank and the guy selling lottery tickets.  There are entire stores devoted to smell and that’s just human smell.  Other stores have departments for kitchen, bathroom and household odors.  Still others have a whole aisle for air fresheners, and some have little mini-sections strictly for pets.  This is outrageous.  Clothing stores have tables for celebrity perfumes, hardware stores sell AXE and gas stations sell travel size deodorant  – just in case.  In case of what?  It’s a gas station!  It smells like gas!

We don’t generally notice the amount of retail space given over to the war on smell — simply because it’s everywhere.  However, the real problem is, it’s chemical warfare!  Most of the perfumes, deodorants, soaps, body sprays etc sold, are not naturally derived from the lavender plants of Provence lovingly crushed by the local peasants.   Trust me: 99% of the stuff we use every day is concocted by scientists in a laboratory.  And get this — it’s a secret laboratory — because the makers of all those perfumes, deodorants, soaps, body sprays etc. are not obligated by law to list their ingredients on the label.  These are unknown chemicals folks, in strange and unique combinations, and we’re putting them on our skin — which, by the way, is porous.  Unless you’re Robert Downey Jr. from Iron Man II your body is absorbing those chemicals like a brand-new loofah.

The other side of the coin is that some of those chemicals remain on our skin and attack the sensory organs of the people around us.  Try walking through the perfume department of The Bay (no offence, it was the only name I could come up with) and you can taste the fumes in the air.  Or ride in an elevator with a Radioactive AXE Man, and somewhere around the 25th floor, you’re going to need oxygen.  I have no fear of industrial air pollution because we are breathing the chemical waste of Obsession, Heat, Glow, Unforgiven and a thousand more – up-close-and-personal — every moment of the day.  No wonder there’s a pandemic of asthma and respiratory illness in our society.  Our lungs simply weren’t made to absorb this amount of crap.  These days, people who quit smoking just come out about even.

Eventually, between the amount of fragrances we use to disguise our natural scent and the damage we’ve already done to our noses, lips and tongues, we’re not going to be able to smell each other anymore.  We’ll all smell the same.  This is not a good thing.  Any anthropologist, biologist or zoologist will tell you that animals, including humans, depend on smell.  It’s the most intimate of the senses, and it’s essential — not only for reproduction but also for natural selection within the species.  If we’re not careful, we’re going to become a-scentual.  After that, it’s a straight slide to extinction.

Right and Wrong: There’s No Debate

There’s been a lot of talk lately about right and wrong.  This is totally odd, because most people are uncomfortable with the concept.   It makes them uneasy, as if something rude just happened.   They would prefer to look the other way or wander off.  When the topic is unavoidable, they tend to dance around it or cleverly disguise it, calling it ethics or morals or some other such euphemism.  It’s as if they’re desperately hoping parlour game philosophy will make it go away.

There is no place in our society for right and wrong anymore.  It’s like those old, heavy TVs nobody wants.  They work perfectly well, but most people wouldn’t be caught dead with one in their living room.  It’s not our fault, though; the essence of right and wrong demands a judgement call.   Someone has to be wr-wr-wr not right.  Unfortunately, we’ve been taught from the cradle not to be judgemental.  It’s something to be avoided at all costs.   But right and wrong still exist, regardless of whether we like to talk about it or not.  For example, walk down any street in North America and you will eventually see a Starbuck’s cup.  The person who put it there is wrong – full stop.  There is no reason to litter.  Unless that Starbuck’s cup was on fire or you were being chased by wolves (both highly unlikely) there is no situation that would force you to throw it on the ground.  The person who did it, did it deliberately.  He or she made a personal choice to despoil the common environment.  That’s wrong.  There’s no way around it.

Of course, most people would like the local litterer to be evil – it makes things a lot easier.  The battle between good and evil is honourable; it has a long history, and it’s always been a two-sided coin with plenty of heroes and villains.  Evil people do sinister things, like littering; good people do not.  Hitler was evil.  Mother Teresa was not.  It’s cut and dried and ready for polite conversation.

The choice between right and wrong is quite different.  First of all, it has no history; each choice we make is brand new.  Every Starbuck’s cup has the same potential for ending up in the gutter as the recycle box.  In all depends on a personal decision.  Secondly, there are no heroes — only villains.  We don’t get extra points for doing the right thing. That’s what we’re supposed to do.  We only lose points if we do the wrong thing – like throwing our crap in the street.  Third, regardless of how we act, we’re not morally superior to the litterer the way we are to Hitler.  Chances are good the person who so casually dropped that cup does not have fangs or green saliva.  They’re probably quite likable, nice to children and puppies, and have never committed genocide.

When we talk about right and wrong, we don’t have any high moral ground to stand on.  Good and evil are simple.  We have all kinds of reference points — Hitler and Mother Teresa are two obvious ones.  But ya got to work at right and wrong — every time — without fail.  That’s why we’ve created a sliding scale of mitigating circumstances.  It alleviated the personal burden we all feel — which brings us back to that philosophical parlour game.

Here’s how the scale works: stealing is wrong.  But if your children are starving, it’s not quite as wrong.  Except if you steal from a child who’s unable to defend her bread due to an injury.  However, if she’s from a rich family…. and the nuances go on and on into the night and the third bottle of wine.  We need this sliding scale, but, unfortunately, we’ve come to think that it’s real.  It’s not.  It’s just a device: an artificial “Get Out of Jail Free” meant to ease the burden of guilt we feel when we do something reprehensible, like throwing our trash on the ground.  In the cold, dark soul of four o’clock in the morning, we all knew that stealing is wrong.  That’s what separates good people from the evil ones.  Yet we also know that in certain situations, we will steal.  That’s what separates smart people from stupid ones.  That’s why we find it so difficult to talk about right and wrong — because many times the morality just doesn’t match the reality.

Right and wrong are absolutes.  We can fool ourselves with excuses, justify our actions to others or proclaim our “good person-ness” from the rooftops.  So what?  If you cross a moral boundary, you are wrong.  There’s no second opinion.  Judgement has already been passed because regardless of how our society tries to slip/slide around it, integrity is what you do when the cell phones are turned off and no one’s watching.

Vancouver Riot: Part II

Photo - Anthony Bolante/Reuters

There are several myths circulating in the aftermath of the Vancouver Riot.  Let me set the record straight.

1 – Some rioters have come forward to admit their guilt.
This is not true.  Some may have walked into the police station and admitted participation in last Wednesday’s disaster, but I doubt it — at least I haven’t heard of any.  The vast majority of rioters who’ve come forward so far have already been clearly identified on Facebook and other social media.  They were trapped by their own brazen behaviour.  When you’re photographed with the smoking gun, it’s best to admit the crime.

2 – Many of the rioters were just caught up in the excitement and hysteria of the moment.
No, they were the hysteria of the moment.  They committed antisocial acts of wanton destruction.  There are no mitigating circumstances.  Since when has misdirected adrenalin been an adequate defence for a criminal act?  “I stole a purse from The Bay ‘cause I was all excited,” just doesn’t cut it.

3 – Most of the rioters have expressed genuine remorse for their actions.
Maybe, but on Thursday morning many ordinary citizens went downtown with brooms and plastic bags to help clean up the mess.  I didn’t see any of the remorseful there.  In general, they were probably sleeping it off, perhaps resting up to be remorseful at a later date.

4 – Outing rioters on Facebook and other social media is vigilantism.
No, in our society, if you see a crime being committed, it’s your obligation to help identify the criminal.  Just because there happened to be hundreds of criminals  n the same place at the same time Wednesday night doesn’t make the situation any different.  If you see somebody set fire to your neighbour’s car do you call 911 or watch it burn?  If you have a picture, do you show it to the police or delete it?  If you know the person…etc. etc.

5 – The rioters are suffering from an overwhelming public backlash.
Wrong again.  The Wednesday night rioters are not the victims here.  They caused millions of dollars in property damage.  Certainly, that can be fixed and paid for, although I doubt very much if any of the over-exuberate youth are ever going to pony up the bucks.  The real problem is the reputation of every citizen of Vancouver has been ruined internationally.  We’re not going to get that back any time soon.  The public is justifiably angry and they should be.

Here’s the truth.  Hundreds — perhaps thousands — of people went nuts the other night.  They wantonly destroyed my property and my neighbour’s property as well.  If an individual had committed these crimes and been photographed in the act, he or she would have to answer for them — perhaps even be made to make restitution.  However, given the circumstances, I don’t think I’m allowed to recover the damages inflicted upon my neighbours and myself.  I think we’re just going to have to pay for those burned-out police cars.  Also, through no fault of my own, my exemplary reputation has been destroyed.  All the glamour and goodwill Vancouver generated internationally from the 2010 Winter Olympics has been ruined.  Again, if an individual had done this to me personally, I would have some recourse.  I could hire a lawyer and sue for slander and defamation of character.  Unfortunately, I can’t do that.  I just have to live with looking like an idiot.

The perpetrators of these crimes are being identified.  They are the focus of public scrutiny.  The public is angry, and rightfully so.  Those people who committed these crimes need to understand that we are all neighbours.  It’s not acceptable to burn your neighbours’ cars, break their windows or steal from them.  Nor is it acceptable to ruin your neighbour’s reputation just because you got caught up in the moment.