By Bethany Mandel
Friday, April 22, 2016
The term “crunchy” refers to the crunching sound of
granola. When someone is called “crunchy” it refers to a certain lifestyle
focused on living an environmentally friendly life. Think organic food, hiking,
gardening with a composter in the backyard, and for moms, cloth diapers,
breastfeeding, and maybe a natural birth in your own bathtub.
Generally, the term refers to the more politically,
economically, and socially liberal among us. The intersection of liberal
politics and the environmental left is in many ways a complete overlap. A good
number of us conservatives, however, hide among the organic-kale-munching
tree-huggers. We are conservative, but in our spare time can be found beating
our bongos in non-partisan drum circles. Unlike our liberal crunchy friends, we
know what we can thank for being able to live the lifestyles we chose:
capitalism and representative self-government.
You Aren’t Forced
to Use Cloth Diapers
My crunchy lifestyle manifests itself in a myriad of
ways. Most clearly it is in my role as a mother. I’ve been known to use cloth
diapers, which has become a litmus test for how crunchy a mother truly is. If
you’re willing to put human excrement in the same washing machine with your
clothing (though not at the same time), it’s the ultimate crunchy mother merit
badge.
I cloth diaper partially to save money, and partially
because I hated creating so much unnecessary waste. While many in Communist
countries were or still are trapped cloth diapering out of necessity, those of
us living in economic freedom in the West can do so (or not) of our own
choosing. Thanks to capitalism, we have a countless number of brands to choose
from. New cloth diapering businesses start every year, often from the homes of
young entrepreneurial parents looking for the perfect way to cover their baby’s
behinds.
We’ve graduated from the age of prefolds and safety pins,
and now cloth diapering families have any number of “systems” to choose from:
all-in-one, pockets, or hybrids. If a parent decides to use more
environmentally friendly disposable options, there’s any number made out of
biodegradable components that break down easily in landfills, and, in the case
of at least one, can even be flushed down a regular household toilet.
That latter kind of diaper is offering a 20 percent off
coupon in honor of Earth Day, because capitalism. If liberal crunchy parents
decide to drive their Prius with Bernie bumper stickers to the airport en route
to the socialist paradise of Venezuela, they should be prepared to pack diapers
on the capitalist end, because they won’t find any at their destination.
Lifestyle Comforts
the World Dreams Of
Childbirth and breastfeeding are yet other ways my
personal crunch manifests itself in my life as a mother. I chose my midwife
partially because the hospital her practice delivers in has all of the comforts
of a hotel. Given a good number of other local hospitals to choose from,
hospitals tout the amenities they offer new mothers. I had a large private room
with a beautiful view of Princeton and my own shower, and my husband had a full
pullout couch to sleep on.
After my children were born, a lactation consultant
visited my room in the hospital to help me with first learning how to get my
babies to latch on. Had I delivered a baby in Canada, the United Kingdom, or
any other country with a socialist healthcare system (as many crunchy liberals
wish we had), I would not have had the freedom to choose my care provider or
lactation consultants to help me with the basics of breastfeeding. Several women
in my community work as freelance lactation consultants. We can thank
capitalism for their ability to be entrepreneurial small businesswomen.
Several months ago my son was diagnosed with a possible
food allergy to gluten. The diagnosis came after visiting several specialists.
Again, thanks to our healthcare system, I was able to shop around to find a
doctor who listened to our concerns about his health. Now that he is on a
gluten-free diet, I’m shopping in the gluten-free aisles a great deal. Thanks
to the explosion of gluten-free eating as a fad diet for the health-conscious,
we can buy remarkably well-made and gluten-free pastas, breads, ready-made
meals and more.
The supermarket shelves of socialist and communist
countries are bare, with only a handful of options. In the United States and
across the capitalist West, different kinds of pasta and cereal each take up at
least half an aisle in most supermarkets. Are you able to eat free-range eggs,
organic kale, fresh juice from your Vitamix, and cruelty-free meat? Be thankful
you live in a country that boasts more economic freedom than most.
Thank Freedom for
Your Self-Expression
One place I sadly won’t be joining my crunchy friends is
at political protests. I say sadly because I am secretly a big fan of some of
the more catchy chants, and I’m a sucker for a good drum circle. Minus the
rapes and squalor, camping out at Occupy Wall Street actually kind of looked
like fun.
These protests are possible because we live in a free
system of government. While the Left spent eight years calling George W. Bush a
dictator at protests, they were only able to do so because he was not. These
same activists and professional progressive protesters provide the manpower for
environmental and economic protests for Greenpeace, minimum wage, union
disputes, and more. They are able to express all of these opinions, no matter
how misguided, because we live in one of the freest countries in the world.
This Earth Day, as the crunchy among us celebrate the
worship of all of the wonders Mother Nature has to offer, we have not only her
to thank for the more natural lifestyles some of us may enjoy. We are able to
buy Birkenstocks from Germany and a handmade hemp baby carrier, and put bumper
stickers of our choosing on any kind of car or bicycle we choose because we
live in political and economic freedom.
No comments:
Post a Comment