I used to run a micro-business that produced websites, multimedia and computer generated 3d content. For no particular reason, other than the fact that I liked the name, it was called Capsule. Simple as that.
After a few years I found myself with a suite of corporate clients whose values were out of step with mine.
There is a quotation, and forgive my poor memory, along the lines of 'no person is so blind as the person who is paid to be blind'. How very true. We find it difficult to cope with the fact that our occupation, such a significant part of our lives and our sense of being, is often the cause of the very social and environmental problems we want to solve.
Anyway, rather than elaborate on the ways my occupation, as most occupations, directly and indirectly contributed to the very problems I spent my spare time trying to solve, it's enough to say that I wanted to address this dilemma rather than ignore it.
It just so happened that at this time I was thrown a life-line in the form of a 'greenie' job. However, the pay came nowhere near to what I was accustomed and so, out of selfishness and cowardice, I declined the offer. Needless to say, I was annoyed with myself for missing this opportunity.
A month later I was offered a job at the Wilderness Society, so I closed Capsule down and became a full-time conservationist.
So, what is this website now?
It's just a place where I jot down a few random thoughts. Thoughts inspired by a pervading feeling that the world really is crazy, not least because we realise that the natural environment is being rapidly undermined by our voracious appetite for material goods and services, and yet we do very little about it.
Worse still, much of this consumerism is driven more by ego than necessity. Sharon Beder of Wollongong University advocates decoupling status and consumption.1 I agree. It's absurd to determine a person's value by how much they accumulate. On the contrary, they should be pitied, if not held in contempt.
Given that I work full time for the Wilderness Society and spend my spare time campaigning for the climate change campaign group, Beyond Zero Emissions, I doubt that I'll find the time to keep this site regularly updated.
Btw: my name is Scott Bilby and incidentally, the 'bilby' is now a highly endangered Australian marsupial, merely one entry on a very long and growing list of threatened and endangered species; which in itself is but one manifestation of the widespread environmental degradation we've caused.
References:
1. Consumerism, an Historical Perspective.
Sharon Beder - 21st February 2009
Professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Wollongong.
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/consumerism-an-historical-perspective-by-sharon-beder/
