WASTE & ALTRUISM




Doll with Fake Flower (rescued), Image: Monika Thomas

ANYTHING CAN BE WASTE! Once  human attachment has faded and there is no promise of further use or commercial gain - it gets banished - often into our rubbish bin.

I want to return to the subject of desire and toys, especially dolls, teddy bears, action figures and so forth. In  her  review of 'Death, desire and dolls in Darwin' for Art Monthly Australia (No 179)  in 2005  Suzanne Spunner wrote that the appeal of dolls is ‘ancient and the need they fulfill primary. There is invariably something ghostly and unsettling about an abandoned doll of any kind, as if some spirit remains with it – a memory of a child who played with it, the life that once animated it. Dolls that are still being played with are palpably different: they feel alive and pregnant with possibilities.’

Further ‘The relationship between the self and a beloved doll is a primary one; the doll is me at an earlier stage of my life, and I am the owner, the mother/primary caregiver, the bringer-into being of the doll, the puppet master of my alter ego. One looks to the doll to find oneself reflected as ‘mini-me’. Playing with dolls is a way of exercising power and mastery. The pleasure of the fantasies enacted is the realization of desire for control – when one babies the doll, one is no longer a baby but a powerful mother; when I dress I dress Barbie and strut my stuff I am all grown up and in charge of my own fate, and the mother is vanquished. We practice and rehearse genre; the little girl does not mother Barbie, though she has given birth to her, rather she plays her, in dreams of what she herself will become'. Spunner provides  an interesting insight into the psychology of play and boys are part of the equation with their love for action heroes.



"Heroes" (rescued), Image Monika Thomas

'The Day My Teddy Stopped Talking', Image: Monika Thomas, 2013 

This of course is Anthropomorphism.  - the attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena or abstract thoughts.  


TOYS, ETHICS & HUNGER?

Do we dare talk about morals and ethics when we talk about desire and  waste? Every minute 18 people die of starvation in the world!  How would one less toy make a difference to somebody starving? 
 
I find Peter Singer inspiring. Listen to his 

TED TALK 

The why and how of effective altruism 

"If you're lucky enough to live without want, it's a natural impulse to be altruistic to others. But, asks philosopher Peter Singer, what's the most effective way to give? He talks through some surprising thought experiments to help you balance emotion and practicality -- and make the biggest impact with whatever you can share. NOTE: Starting at 0:30, this talk contains 30 seconds of graphic footage. Sometimes controversial, always practical ethicist Peter Singer stirs public debate about morality..."

Doll Head (rescued), Image Monika Thomas

In 2007 ( United Nations ) around 25,000 people died every day due to hunger or hunger-related causes. This means, approximately every three and a half seconds one person dies!  Children are dying most often. 

We are all co-creators of  the world we live in: Altruism is about changing what we desire and taking appropriate action.

All images are Copyright © 2010 - 2013 Monika Thomas