Page 19 - GOTIL (ENG) Sample

Introduction xvii

and man. They think that food comes from a shop, light
from a switch, and health from a pill. Multinational
corporations rape Mother Earth, exploit her resources,
entice people to hellish factories, and sell all kinds of junk
to them. Industrialization and consumerism engender
selfishness, ignorance, and gross materialism. Secular
education teaches man to consider himself master of his
own destiny, and nature a beast to be hacked and tortured
into submission as an adjunct to “progress.”

For all their advancement and economic development,
modern townsfolk cannot get even fresh food, what to
speak of peace and contentment. The millionaire living
in his posh apartment with all modern amenities cannot
get even fresh vegetables, a staple of the poor villager. In
modern cities potable water must be purchased because
the tap water is repeatedly recycled sewage mixed with
chemicals; nor does bottled mineral water have vigor or
taste comparable to that of fresh river or well water.

People in big cities drive out to the country on weekends
just to breathe some fresh air, whereas in the village air
means fresh air. What a nasty civilization — that crowds
people into unhealthy, crime-ridden cities, has them work
in horrible conditions, and provides them poisonous air
and food.

Because city dwellers don’t have to walk very much, carry
water, or labor in fields, they tend to look down upon
villagers as backward and primitive. But for all their