Samhita Barooah
We are looking for readymade solutions these days. Replacement seems to be the norm in the money driven economy not to miss the digital money rather than cash. If we are not happy with something, we can replace it with a new one. From skin to teeth, knees to heart, kidneys to liver the market provides a choice for everything that is old, fatigued, worn out or leaking. I wish emotions also could be replaced with new ones. Here the entertainment industry is working hard towards emotional replacement as well. Anger is replaced by action, pain is replaced with drugs, anxiety and fear are replaced by alcohol and addictive substances, happiness is replaced by high sugar intake and sometimes hate and jealousy is replaced by cigarettes and alcohol.
Replacements are also there for both personal and professional relationships. We change, shift, move on and move out of homes, people, places and every situation which stifles us. Replacement is what the plastic and digital economy wants you to do. Every sim card, every phone, every car, every scooter, every cycle is replaced with a new model. There is no longer a charm in keeping the same object as a prized possession forever. Every reward, award and medal is replaced every season with new targets, achievement parameters and experiences.
Replacement is the buzz word these days. Repair, recycling and re-use seems like an archaic concept. We want to renew old wine in new bottles but we do not want to replace our egos and stress levels with happiness and peace. Replacement actually suits the new age market targets which run on sales, numbers and consumers. Every consumer is encouraged to replace their possessions with something new. People get into the trick to consume for happiness, consume for peace, consume to satisfy others, consume for their needs and sometimes consume to be part of the herd. Neo-liberal economy is replaceable but life on earth is not replaceable. Any life form which exists on earth is not replaceable. Re-invention and regeneration have been replaced by consumerist principle of “more is less”. We are literally dragged into the band-wagon of more is less and thus we jeopardise everything else around it.
Replacement can reinstate lost pride, lost hope, lost looks, lost resources, lost friends, lost ideas and lost relations. Everything can be replaced at least; we live in the mirage of this replacement process. Without replacement the world seems like an obsolete anecdote which does not exist in any given time and space. However much I try to replace certain ideas like inequality, indifference and indignity they are just not replaceable. But I can always renovate and recycle certain ideas and practices.
Renovation and recycling conserves more energy. I wish I could recycle all material requirements in life whether they are making sofas out of suitcases or tables out of broken chairs or building a home out of plastic bottles and wood chips. I wish I could recycle the water that I use for toilets, washing, cooking and bathing, I could save so much water.
Renovation has to find durable and sustainable solutions for basic living in everyday life. Otherwise the replacement culture will steal away our very existence. We have been recycling waste materials to make organic manure but what about our sewage. If we could recycle human want, we could break the cycle of replacement. Second hand is an old concept. Children live with second hand clothes, parents die with second hand clothes and people generally fight for second hand ideas and sometimes even die for second hand ideologies.
Recycling saves a lot of energy and replenishes the limited resources on earth. Renovation strengthens the old with new exteriors. Reinvention holds the power of change from within. But the market economy does not have space for such ideas. In September 1992, Artist Ted Dave founded the ‘Buy Nothing Day’ in Vancouver which has awakened people about consumerism. It has been promoted to get beyond the supermarkets and make a commitment to local and support your independent shops and businesses. It holds further relevance to share and exchange goods and services. Somehow it endorses the ideas of reuse, recycle and reduce on the basis of cooperation rather than competition. Our communities in North East of India have their own traditions of interdependence and solidarity which does not depend on the markets alone. Here replacement does not hold ground rather regeneration and restoration becomes much more important. Cooperation helps in well-being rather than competition. Competition has resulted in closures, conflicts, communication breaches and collapse of human resilience. But cooperation has sustained communities all along.
We need such cooperation to sustain all the available resources on earth. More than ownership, trusteeship holds more power in sustainability. Replacement economy needs a replacement to ensure living on earth possible again.
