The Story of Stuff

You might like this. You might hate this.

This video covers a lot of ground in 20 minutes. But it’s very important ground. You might find it a little cartoonish. And it might offend your right-wing affections. Despite any real or perceived faults, it does an outstanding job of articulating why our western way of life is unsustainable. In fact, this video paints the clearest and simplest picture I’ve seen portraying the economic realities we’re facing, if we care to consider realities.


Like I said, you might be offended by her simplistic demolishing of conservative ideals, but many of the concepts discussed are well supported and widely accepted; concepts like planned and perceived obsolescence, externalized costs, and post-WWII consume-and-throw-away marketing. In fact, many of my business school cases looked at utilizing these very strategies to exploit and profit.

So, this is a step away from the faith subjects I’ve spent most of my writing about. Or is it? Our religious idealogy (which, by the way, has flourished since WWII) has helped create the problems. Perhaps we could be a part of the solution. The kingdom of God as a present reality... maybe too much for one short post.



BTW... If you have trouble with the video, it's also available on YouTube. And if that doesn't work and you'd still like to see it, I’ve got a copy on my puter and can put it on a USB stick.