Quote Originally Posted by ZenSojourner View Post
Let me just add a footnote to what crazycanuck has said.

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's hypocrisy.

Selling out isn't about conforming a bit on the outside so you can keep body and soul together and, more important, PAY THE PEOPLE YOU OWE.

Selling out is about lying, cheating, and stealing. It's about lack of integrity. It's about selfishness.

Is your sense of self and integrity is so shallow and poorly rooted that it can be damaged by moderating your appearance so you can get a job and pay your bills? It's a shame if so.

If you want to talk about ethics, then don't try to paint the fact that you are running out on debts you ran up in good faith as if it's a great adventure of self-expression and "being true" to some higher good.

When you borrow money and then don't make a good-faith effort to pay it off, that's stealing. That's lying, because you are going back on the agreement you made when you borrowed the money. That's a lack of integrity, because you are willfully breaking the promises you made. That's selfish, because you're taking off to play when what is needed is to work and pay back the people you owe.

I think credit card companies are one of the greatest evils on the face of the planet, and I haven't had a credit card in 20 years. But the truth is that you took out those "high interest credit cards", no one forced you to take them and, more to the point, USE them. You took out those student loans, there was no corporate enforcer standing with a gun to your head forcing you to do so.

If this conversation has become about "hair color", it's because you have made it THE issue. Not us. You're the one who thinks that changing the color of your hair is somehow going to soil and dirty your soul.

In a sense, you're right. You're hair color really DOESN'T matter, in the greater scheme of things. And SINCE it doesn't matter, it shouldn't matter if you change it so you can get a job and pay your bills.

It all sounds very high-minded. But in the end it's an excuse to run out on your responsibilities. Because you are too inflexible and rigid to even consider moderating your appearance - which is, after all, even LESS than skin deep, being that it's ALL surface stuff - you are unlikely to get a job to pay the bills you ran up. Running off to Europe isn't going to change any of the societal ills you are complaining about, or do a thing to pay off any of your bills. Flying on the plane means you are partaking of the evils you blame on McDonald's and Starbucks; riding trains on your "Euro youth pass", hitching rides, you're partaking of the benefits of the society you decry; even eating food that you didn't grow yourself means you are benefiting from the evil, evil, horrible society you think the world has only recently become.

What was that? What's the definition of hypocrisy?

You don't fight evil by running away. You fight evil by starting with the small evils that we meet in every day life. You fight evil by not lying; by not cheating; by not stealing; by living up to the responsibilities you took on, by keeping your promises. Even when it's hard. Even when, horror of horrors! - it means wearing clothes you don't like.

It's not about not drinking Starbucks Coffee. It's not about not eating at McDonalds. It's not about, thank god, eating out of dumpsters from some warped sense of moral superiority.

You fight evil by resisting it in your daily life.

You don't start on a global scale; you start with your self, your own life. You start by keeping your promises.

You start with the woman in the mirror.

And if that takes actual, real sacrifice, then you make that sacrifice, such as, say, by facing your responsibilities and doing whatever it takes to get a job and pay your bills instead of taking your security deposit and going gallivanting across Europe. Talk about exploitative; you want to go on safari, LOL! And one of the MOST exploitative industries on the planet is the very fashion industry you so badly want to plug yourself into.

You know, joining the peace corps not only permits you to be of service to others - REAL service, not the lip service of withholding $5 for a double chocolate mocha latte with extra foam from Starbucks - it also puts your student loans on hold, giving you some legitimate breathing space while you figure a few things out. It gives you the opportunity to right some of those evils you talk about so blithely in the abstract, only up close and personal. It would give you some badly needed experience with the real world and the people who actually HAVE to live in it. It would give you experiences that could not only lead to personal growth, but to learning and honing skills that will be useful in a wide variety of job situations. Maybe working for an organization focused on righting some of the BIG wrongs you talk about. It might serve your soul better than becoming just another fashionista, don't you think?

All this talk about regretting things undone is silly; you're 25 years old. You have plenty of time to work, meet your responsibilities, save up, and go on safari some other time when it won't mean ducking out on your debts.
Ok, I have no idea where on earth you got that I didn't intend to pay off my debts. The whole point of saving up for a couple months includes an amount I'd set aside for credit cards (I'm looking at like $50 - $100 a month total for credit cards, and they don't have balances that are THAT high- they're not maxed out or anything). I just havn't been able to pay them lately because of the starving student syndrome and subsequent difficulties in finding work (which i am still looking very hard for). I'm doing everything I can be doing, so don't get the impression I'm ducking out. I have every intention of paying this stuff off.

With student loans they dont even start charging you for 6 months after you graduate, so I don't have to start those payments for 5 more months, and after that they said I could easily defer further if I needed to, although at that point I should at least cover the interest payments.

Hypocrasy in politics- not getting into it. I never used the word "sell out". I don't use that word and honestly I dont really believe there is such a thing.

There are many contradictions in life. An anarchist in a capitalist society still has to survive within that capitalist society. That causes many contradictions and requires much compromise. That doesn't mean their political views and beliefs have to change. You can believe whatever you want, you have that right. I have the right to believe in different things then you do. We all have that right, so like I said, lets just agree to disagree on that for now.

You can't boycott everything, but you can at least boycott some things. I try to keep 2 major food corporations on my boycott list at all times, and they change once in a while. Right now it's starbucks and mcdonalds. Something is better then nothing, is my point. I still have to stay alive in this world you know. And I'm not saying everything in this society is bad either, or that i lie cheat and steal. In fact those kinds of actions are probably just as against my ethics as they are in yours. . I honestly have no idea where you're getting all of this from.

Maybe if you pulled that stereotype that you have of me out of your head we could have a reasonable conversation... you just seem really prejudiced as if you have some knowledge of how "my kind" of people are... I'm not most of the things that you just described, and it bothers me that you would judge me right off the bat like that.