The Story of Stuff
Annie Leonard’s simplified, straightforward 21 minute video on the true cost of our consumer products, The Story of Stuff (see dedicated website for a synopsis and more info).
Once you get used to the “gee, like, you know” teen-like tone and the preachiness about it all not being peachiness, this is a worthwhile video suitable for all ages, with a stronger second half.
Birth Control. The planet simply cannot sustain many more people. We can play with models till the cows come home, but it doesn’t change the root cause, which is overpopulation. Unless we’re going to return to a completely agrarian model which hasn’t been seen in two thousand years, we all have to produce and buy and sell and transport and trade goods and services to each other in order to make a living. We can’t all be educators! :P
Any self-sustaining model is ultimately a model of isolation wherein arbitrary limits are established for individual consumption, which means, in turn, that the people who produce the proscribed products must find other reasons to be.
Take the Military Industrial Complex for example. If we suddenly stopped creating and producing and shipping and trading and maintaining systems destined for military processes (the dump), we would suddenly find about half the population of the United States with nothing to do, with no means to support themselves. Of course we could retool everyone in those industries to become educators or Peace Corps workers, but it still would not get to the root cause of the problem.
So the chicken and egg question becomes, which to limit first? The product or the people? If people stop buying what we’re selling, what do we do then?
If current trends continue, there will be two major career tracks for anyone born on earth: soldier or security guard. The haves will live in walled cities and all they will consume will be protection from the have-nots.