Sunday, October 26, 2008

Story of Stuff

I was just running through a few emails and came across link from Caleb Walker.  It's a little video called Story of Stuff. This is a video that not only should everyone see, but they should watch it at least once a week to combat the constant brainwashing that we receive in this country.  The kind of brainwashing constructed by our friend Victor LeBeau
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.– Victor LeBeau, Retail Analyst Post WW II
who I guess we could refer to as the father of consumptionism.  I particularly enjoyed the notion that our national happiness peaked in the 1950's and also the part about Planned Obsolescence and Perceived Obsolescence and that 99% of what is produced is trashed in six months.  So, next time you're in the mood for shopping, maybe you should take twenty minutes, watch the video and ask yourself, "do I really need this?" 

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