A world designed for consumption

As a part of my English studies, I watched Annie Leonards “The Story of Stuff” – a short instructive film about production and consumption. I have always known that there are several downsides of consumption but this film really got a grip on me. Leonards presents the facts in what I would almost call a selling way, with more than one ounce of humour and satire which really appeal to me. If you haven’t already seen it I truly recommend you to.

Leonard mentions that USA has 5 % of the earth’s population and uses 30 % of the natural resources. This actually scares me. Why won’t we realise what we are doing?? I don’t know what the numbers are for Sweden, but we just can’t keep on like this. We have to lower our consumption in every possible way in a drastic speed.

80 % of the world’s forests are gone and 2 000 trees are cut down every minute in the Amazonas. 2 000 TREES PER MINUTE! If we keep going like this the Amazonas will soon be a big clearing. That just can’t happen. The earth is way too beautiful and fragile to destroy. Not to mention the need of it for the survival of the human species.

Another thing Leonard mentions is how we take other peoples land without caring for them. I think this is slavery of today. We take their land and to survive they don’t have any option than to work for us and this work is dangerous in many ways and very poorly paid. How can we do this to other people? I’m really ashamed to admit to myself that I often close my eyes for this since I want the product to be cheep. I don’t let my self think of the consequences of it both for the environment and for other people. And even if this film is a really good wake-up call I still don’t know if I will lower my consumption. Probably in the short-term, but in a little while I think I will be back in my old habits. It’s a really bad excuse – because there are non – but this is how I was raised. I live in the consumption era and consumption is almost a reflex.

Then, what does Leonards blame this consumption and environment destruction on? The government and corporations. She says that shortly after world war two the American government and corporations wanted to ramp up the economy and the analyst Victor LeBeau came to this conclusion:

“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.”

It’s really scary to think about these people with great power that uses it to decide what you and me should do – and make us do it without us really realising it. A world designed for consumption… I could write about this for ages – but I won’t. I just want you to think about it for a while. A world DESIGNED for consumption…

Anyway, I wanted to know more about this little movie by Leonards and I started Google. There are many voices out there that has things to say about “Story of stuff” and my conclusion is – It’s a great movie – but Leonards makes some things sound like something they are not. Some things are not as bad as she makes it sound. But at the same time, maybe it’s better to think it’s that bad and do something about it…

In one article I read about “Story of stuff” there was a link to a clip with George Carlin, a stand up comedian, who talks about Stuff. He sad among other things that “Your house is just a place for your stuff. … That’s all a house is. It’s a pile of stuff with a cover on. … A place to put your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.” It was fun, yes, but when I started to think about it, he’s correct. My house is obviously a place where I keep my stuff, but it’s also a place where I feel safe (because I have my stuff there). The main thing my house is for though is a roof above my head. But if that was all I needed - that could be any roof, anywhere. My house really is a place for my stuff. Without the stuff – I wouldn’t be needing a house. What would the human beeing of today be without all her stuff? Would she survive?