I am a nice person.

 

Would you write that on your dating profile?

 

That’s what companies do when they tell you they’re ethical. And so:

 

I reject the greenwashing of empty ethical claims.

 

I say that Minimal Misery Manufacturing™ is our only hope. See:

 

Minimal: we reduce misery wherever and whenever possible. A total elimination is unlikely.

Misery: work is hard; that’s why there’s pay. Misery festers in the asymmetry between work and pay.

Manufacturing: hard work now hidden in an object now held. Time made flesh: gone, yet still sold.

 

It is in my power to make these five promises, and so I promise them to you:

1. 
   
   
   Your Clean Alibi product was made by someone who wanted to make it, because they believed in it, and because they wanted you to have it, because they wanted you to know that it is still possible, in this world, at this time, to have a product that unites both utility and beauty, and that was made from beginning to end by the same careful pair of hands. I make this testimony because those hands are mine. 
   
   
   

2. That person made your Clean Alibi product while entangled somewhere inside civilisation’s menu of joys and sorrows - and while bearing the joys and sorrows that amass on the shores of any individual human heart, too - and we know these deepen year by year. I make this testimony because that heart is mine.
   
   

3. That person made the whole product, pretty much. They even designed it. Even where they had to engage in production line ways of working, they still got to see the entire product journey from beginning to end - eventually. I make this testimony because that work is mine.
   
   

4. Not a single product left the building until it was fully finished and ready for posting out to you. Nothing was shipped hither, or thither, or way over yonder, to have this done, or that done, or to reach a distant zenith of final, total assembly. It all happened under one roof - and it was a roof that was going to be electrified and powered, and gas-fed anyway, because the roof was one of a small studio workshop. I make this testimony because that studio is mine. 
   
   

5. Where verifiable standards and benchmarks exist for the components I use, I will refer to them clearly. This is not a testimony. 
   
   

Nobody can abolish misery in manufacturing. If they could, everything in life would be free, and it’s not, and it can’t be.

 

For decades I have been making useful things that hold meaning for me. I do not rest.

 

With Clean Alibi I decided to start making these things for others, with the same care, and (where possible) with joy or love. And I hope you feel that.

 

Even if you don't buy anything, I hope you feel that; in the words I say, or the images and videos, and information that I share. 

 

 

 

"Conscious Consumption"	Nobody should be shopping while unconscious, just as nobody should be making anything while unconscious.   The widescale penetration of this absurd term tells us everything we need to know about today’s cloudy picture of ethical shopping.
‘Conscious’ is a special case. [read why]

Ethics without ethics? 

The whole concept of ‘ethical’ consumerism is a dream floating in a fog of fantasy. Take a look at what any of the UK or international standards say about making ethical claims and you’ll see what I mean.

Here’s the ISO (International Office for Standardization) coming clean about it all:

The proliferation of ethical claims has led to confusion in the marketplace, particularly where terms are used that are insufficiently or inconsistently defined, and where the scope of a claim, the basis of conformance or method of verification is unclear.
(Source: ISO/TS 17033:2019(en): Ethical Claims and Supporting Information). 

The minute we use the words ‘ethical’ or ‘fair’ we lose ourselves in an endless lexical jungle of brands using the same words to describe very different things. That’s how these words have lost their meaning. 

 

But it’s so much worse than that. 

If a word has lost its meaning, then its use is necessarily misleading. Without meaning, there is no path to clarity or truth. 

What, then, is a meaningless word? In a poem it might be a slithy tove.

But in marketing?

A meaningless word is a lie.

Ethics (the word) without ethics (the meaning) is unethical.

Until meaning is restored to terms like ‘ethical’ and ‘sustainable’ then we have to be very careful about using them. 

If we keep using meaningless words we will soon rinse away all traces of their original standing, and we will all fall down. 

I mean it. 

Now for some possible hypocrisy: 

Q-  Is Clean Alibi an ethical brand? 

A - Yes. Clean Alibi is an ethical brand, because all of our products are made freely and deliberately, with meaning and intention, and in a safe, dry, and warm environment, with plentiful access to respite breaks and hydration.

Riiiiiiight, OK, but look who’s talking.... Look at the url. We know you want us to be ethical, so we are telling you that we are ethical, because that’s the word that search engines favour, and search engines are the bosses of everything, and we want you to buy our soap. Whose website is this? This is Clean Alibi’s website. Clean Alibi, knowing that you want your products to be ethical, is now telling you that they are ethical. Every single website claiming to showcase an ethical brand is doing just that.

Where do we go from here? Sometimes it feels impossible or pointless to proceed. Always getting bogged down with endless relativistic weighings-in of various spectrums of ethics and harm, lost on a scale of good and bad. And surely, surely always more bad than good. Or?

What do you think? Do you think Minimal Misery Manufacturing makes sense? Or do you think it's a cop-out? Should we sing about being 'ethical'? Shout about being 'sustainable'? Are we splitting hairs? 

All we know is that Minimal Misery Manufacturing is the only way that Clean Alibi can deliver a genuine promise that comes anywhere near what the world deserves. It's also the only thing we can say without cringing inside, without knowing that we're using a once-bold word, now emptied of its meaning, to tell you, well, not very much in the final analysis.

Minimal Misery Manufacturing is us telling you that we will do the best we can to reduce negative impact. It’s us admitting that we can’t eliminate harm, and that no-one can. Not yet.