Did you watch The Colbert Show last night? I’ve been a fan of Colbert’s since he first spun off Jon Stewart‘s nurturing wing. I like Colbert so much that I got up early to brave the crowds and mud to see a taping of his 2010 Vancouverage last month. Check out my pics from that Vancouverage event, if you like.
Anyways, I got off topic there… last night Colbert had Annie Leonard on as his guest. The interview struck a chord with me and I immediately went off to youtube to watch her very well made, and well thought out short film (20 minutes), The Story of Stuff. Released in 2007, the film has had millions of views, and has incited many conversations across the web. I’ll admit, I’m a little late to the game here, but it’s still awesome, and worth spreading the word about!
The film has a beautifully simple style with Leonard exploring the material economy (how stuff follows through the system of extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal) while hand drawn illustrations support her points as she talks. Delving into each of the 5 pieces of the story, Leonard uses effective statistics to illuminate the real costs of our stuff consuming system.
Wasteful linear system
Calling this a system in crisis, Leonard explains how stuff gets from the natural resources of the Earth to our homes, and then off to the landfills. The crisis is that we have a linear system with finite inputs cannot last forever, though we continue to to consume as though it will. There are many limits to this system, as well as many hidden costs that do not factor in the the price tags of that shiny new thing at the mall.
Lenoard’s description of our system of stuff is not shocking. We are all aware that we only have one planet, and we are using it’s resources at an alarming rate to fulfill our insatiable desire for more and more stuff. We do stick our heads in the sand, and some folks are more entrenched in the system than others, but the truth of what we are doing to our home, society and ourselves cannot be ignored all of the time, at least not by me.
What I find shocking is the fact that this system was designed and completely premeditated. After WWII that US government, and corporations wanted to jump start the American economy. Politicians, economists and businessmen came up with this hyper-consumptive model, that has wastefulness built into it as every step as a means to make more money. Leonard quotes Victor Lebow, who is often credited with the invention of consumer capitalism to drive the point home:
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 disguarded, and at an ever-accelerating rate. – Victor Lebow
I am shocked! My life-long love-hate relationship with stuff and consumption was pre-meditated by some old white men in the 1940s! I, and pretty much everyone I have known are on what Leonard call the “Work-spend-watch treadmill”, where we work hard to earn money to buy stuff, which tires us out so we watch TV, take in messages about how lame our lives are because we don’t have a bunch of stuff, so we go out to buy more to feel better, which means we have to go work harder to afford the stuff we bought. Yikes!
But there is hope! Leonard is hopeful in the knowledge that there are people at every stage of the linear system working to improve how stuff moves between people. People who are trying to convert this wasteful linear system into a productive cyclical system. Really, if we want our species to continue so that our children’s children may have fruitful and enjoyable lives, there is no other choice. We each have to do our part to clean up the system that is no longer serving us well (did it ever?). The best place to start is to inform ourselves, and act accordingly. So, watch The Story of Stuff, and pass the message along!
Happy cyclical system
You can watch the movie via you tube above, or watch it on the dedicated The Story of Stuff website where they have chapter navigations control built right in to the videos!
