The Amazon Landfill
[Kurt Vonnegut tells his wife he's going out to buy an envelope]
Oh, she says, well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet?
And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don't know.
The moral of the story is, is we're here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And, we're not supposed to dance at all anymore.
Note: I have been boycotting Amazon since about 2018. I don't expect any one else to join me in this act of protest, especially the folks who rely on its low costs and ubiquity. However, I would argue it is not that hard to avoid buying from Amazon (you can almost always go straight to the manufacturer’s site), and a hell of a lot more rewarding to eschew the fast fashion & expendable goods that are clogging up our homes and landfills.
Amazon (the Goliath online shopping platform, not rainforest) has revolutionized how we shop. And firstly, I will admit it has done a lot of good: I understand the convenience and cost effectiveness of buying certain things on Amazon, especially if you live far from physical shopping opportunities, making goods available that might otherwise be out of reach for many people and families. It has also democratized free trade in some positive ways and forced competing manufacturers and distributors to bring down market rates. I could even see how working for Amazon could be positive as they continue to improve benefits and working conditions (though this was not always the case).
But here's the important caveat: at it's core, in the deep dark recesses of it's black heart, it was created by profit obsessed billionaires to exploit humanity and turn us into a monoculture. And not the good kind, where everyone went and saw Titanic in theaters. The kind where culture is homogenized and everyone owns the same mass produced garbage, not the handcrafted, beautiful products that can only be produced lovingly, at a small scale. Amazon has boiled our consumption down to an algorithm, and manipulated us all into thinking those savings come without a cost—when in fact, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Let's start with shipping. By creating a culture of "free shipping" for Prime members and lulling consumers into the idea that hurtling goods across the planet could ever be truly "free", Amazon has completely obliterated to correlation between the resources needed to ship goods and the convenience of said goods magically appearing on your doorstep. So everyone just settles in to this idea that it doesn't cost anything to ship shit all over the world. But it has a huge environmental cost. And then half of this shit arrives on your doorstep and you realize how shitty the shit is so you return the shit and it just ends up in landfills with the rest of the shitty shit that Amazon shits.
But the biggest issue here (and I'm by no means the first person to point this out) is what Amazon does to small businesses. The world needs small businesses to remain unique and colorful and diverse. They're good for the economy, especially local economies where money can circulate outside the inane revolutions of "the market" that has little or no impact on most people's actual lives. Ask any economist—we need small businesses.
However—if none of this resonates, and you really don't care about the environmental of philosophical costs of participating in a toxic, circular exchange of petroleum products and bad vibes—please just think twice about buying your books on Amazon. They are putting small business bookstores around the world out of business, and actively encourage the sale of AI generated knockoff titles that dupe buyers into complete garbage that goes straight to the landfill. Instead, go visit your local bookstore. Give a thumbs up to a firetruck. Talk to the cashier, ask questions about books, poke around and find stuff you would have otherwise never discovered. Get out and move around, put on do not disturb and get lost in the stacks. Or don't—just stop participating in book stores’ demise by utilizing Amazon for that specific product.
After all - we're dancing animals.
I will admit, there's one thing I still buy on Amazon: dog poop bags. Since they're actually intended for the landfill, it feels okay. And filling shitty Amazon products with actual shit is satisfying. But I still pay for the shipping.