I recently read an article on Slate about chewing gum. The author is concerned about the low biodegradability of the gum, and that city administrations such as London are spending huge money to remove gums from the streets, using things like steam or chemicals. Therefore, he seems to advocate recycling chewing gum, which would imply convincing people to dispose of the gum in a separate garbage bin. Or, even better, we could buy green (magic word) tropical chewing gum from friendly gum farmers in Yucatán.It really sounds like a great idea, doesn't it? This would create jobs in areas where people would otherwise emigrate from and "invade" civilized countries (and, in the case of Europe, become parasites of the welfare state). It is a much used argument, invoked as a panacea for all problems of modern society, from global warming and garbage disposal, to poverty and immigration, and it is the core of the new green attitude and policies gaining ground in Western society. But in reality, this is only another of those delusions of modern society, according to the principle "change everything so that everything remains the same".Luckily, the article also reminded the reader that chewing a gum is a totally useless activity. Thank Goodness. It is funny that we need someone to remind us that. So many everyday actions, or products we shop, have become so typical and so deeply embedded in our modern lifestyle that we dare not question them. But it is far worse than this, unfortunately. Chewing licorice twig is also mostly useless, or at least the reason why most people would chew it as I do sometimes would probably be just the fact that it tastes good. The difference is that while licorice is a real thing (natural and readily available, without factories needed for processing) and has interesting medicinal properties, chewing gum is exactly the opposite.Chewing gum is a symbol of the dominant culture: a totally useless, pointless act, that involves massive destruction of the natural environment (through the construction of factory to process the raw materials, and dams and all sorts of power stations needed to power them). There is something far worse than failing to throw a chewed gum in the bin: it's the act of chewing it in the first place. Or, even worse, the act of buying it in the first place. Chewing gum is a non-food without any purpose at all - in fact, through the massive production of saliva it induces, it fools the digestive system into thinking that food is being ingested, so we are the whole time on "digestive mode" while in fact we are not taking any food whatsoever. Its flavours are fake, like eating a pizza made of plastic (who would do that? oh, it's coming, I'm sure of it, and then, we'll all buy it!), and if not directly dangerous or noticeable, they do have an effect on our metabolism, and they certainly do have an effect on the environment, because of the technology and the energy needed to manufacture them. Do we really need all this?Oh, I almost forgot: we even spend money for this! And, given the amounts, a lot: "Worldwide, humans chew about 560,000 tons of gum each year", the article says. Do your maths, and please include the costs for cleaning up the streets. Chewing gum is a powerful symbol of modern society and its attitude towards money: we make money by 1) destroying the natural environment, 2) forcing animals and traditional peoples out of their traditional environments (yes, dams count too), and ultimately, 3) we rob these poor brown people of their own culture until they start desiring the white man's way of living, and eventually start participating in the wage economy, at conditions usually extremely unfavourable for them. And what do we do with this money? We throw it away buying fake food.But it's not all. Now, we are green, remember? So it's time to do something about our environment! So after we have destroyed their habitat, impoverished and enslaved them (it's modern slavery, not old-style, mind you), we even force them to work for us to produce our green chewing gum, that of course will be organic-certified and fair-trade and sold with a nice surcharge, just so that you'll remember that you're actively helping the environment and the poor farmers (not like those commoners who buy cheap stuff). So they will be basically forced to cut down their own rainforest, that for millennia provided all they needed to sustain their traditional lifestyle, to grow (certified) chicle trees for our green chewing gums. Which we don't need, like we don't need to cut down tropical forests, exploit "third world people", and neither us or the environment will have to pay the toll for the factories, power plants, the processing, packaging and transport of the products. Great idea, indeed.
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