Plastic world is a threat. The fact that we are already in trouble what comes to the amount of waste still seems somehow too far away to deal with for too many. We enjoy the massive production of goods far away cheaply with materials that are often reasons for bloody conflicts and shady business, but we like not knowing about such atrocities, less to let them affect our behavior. Consuming habits are unsustainable even though there is plenty of information and research provided all the time for us to change what we do, which would be reasonable. Such reasoning is beyond every day. It is easier not to bother. Waking up happens when things already are on the wrong so badly there is nothing to do but to change our ways of doing, thinking and making. ’Treehuggers’ have been doing the waking up for decades. Childish term for people who are concerned for a reason. Markets guide our behavior and we are the market, strangely enough. Thinking we deserve our standard of living, our goods manufactured cheaply, new gadgets every year discarding those that don’t please any more, holiday trips abroad, meat and dairy products daily because we are used to such diet and to question any of these habits brings out outrage and instant denying.

Where am I getting at with the same old critique against our way of life, we are doing what we can, aren’t we? Um yeah, kind of, up to a point and there is clear division between people: there are those who are interested and then there are those who do not know and do not care that much for various reasons. It hit me at Aalto-university, a place where they educate people who design goods, packages and visuals in the future. If at a university the critique against unsustainable production, against consumerism and exploitation is nonexistent what hope is there? If university is that unpolitical and quiet about flaws in our system then I am truly concerned. If critique is being offended by not seen as appropriate and vital for system to evolve it also an intellectual crisis we are having.