I had a look at Annie Leonard's video, The Story of Stuff today and was amazed
at some of the facts and figures and the perspective that she offers. She
basically walks us through the cycle of the consumer economy and with a few
digs at the US government and corporates shares the stark facts and figures of
our current reality. A bit like a lesser researched "Inconvenient Truth".
She's not going to win the Nobel Peace prize but she has done an excellent
first take at simplifying the overall picture and showing how we contribute to
the environmental challenges we now face.
At a point she mentions retailing analyst Victor Lebow who when talking about
how to rebuild the American economy after world war two suggested, "Our
enormously productive economy ... demands that we make consumption our way of
life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek
our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption.... we need
things consumed, burned up, replaced, and discarded at an ever-accelerating
rate."
At the time President Eisenhower's council of economic advisors chairman
stated: "The American economy's ultimate purpose is to produce more consumer
goods." Not better health care, education, housing, transportation, or
recreation or less poverty and hunger, but providing more stuff to consumers.
Not really surprising, we find ourselves where we are. It's going to be fun if
we all aspire to live like American's although I think many of us have moved
on over the last few years and raised our goals.
The video is beneficial for anyone wondering what all the fuss is about
recycling and climate change and why we should be concerned about it as
individuals. If you're into this theme then you must have a look the book
Hope for the
Flowers
written in 1972 by
Trina Paulus. She does a magnificent job of illustrating the futility of the
rat race.
As my friend Paddy says, "even if you win the rat race - you're still a rat"
The Story of Stuff is available as a web stream or is downloadable from the
web site.