Branded Baby

With every inch of public space featuring an advertisement or an inducement to buy, with an economy based around debt and overconsumption, and with a culture that refuses to challenge the lies they've been raised with at the same time that we witness our society teetering towards collapse; raising a conscious child becomes not just a biological process but an act of political necessity.

I want my child to know the names of more tree species than corporate logos. I want them to have seen an animal that wasn't on television, imprisoned in a zoo or domesticated for our amusement. I want them to care about acts of political struggle or creative expression rather than celebrity gossip. I want them to experience the rich diversity of the world and to view the monoculture of parking lots and strip malls with the same disgust as a forest clear cut. I want them to celebrate community and to reject the atomization and alienation of modern existence. I want them to live free and to struggle for those who can't.

I'm having a baby and it means I believe the future is worth fighting for.