The story of stuff - the political angle

A few weeks back we got to thinking about how to show people what was going on in the world. Take a step back - see the big picture. It sounded quite exciting - come up with some cool video - people watch it - job done.

Since then I've been looking about at what others have been doing and have found some good stuff. A good example is The Story of Stuff - fronted again by a Greenpeace linked organization. It essentially sets out the way the Consumer society works. I have some problems with the video. Mainly that it does not stick to the key point - but instead throws in multiple pejorative points. The use of the word poison is way overdone. However - the core message is sound. For me - the key point is that the "Consumer Way of Life" is fundamentally non-sustainable. The Capitalist free market works as a consumer system and hence requires constant growth and consumerism.

Ooops - big problem. Sounds like if we want to get to our sustainable society we have to tackle Consumerism. Problem is that we are all consumers - and the alternative is generally held as unthinkable.

So we have economics tangled into the sustainability issue - and now politics. Again - the Little Action approach of "do as I do" is not going to stand up to the economic and political weight of the West.

The counter to this video  The story of stuff - the Critique gives a strongly Conservative view. The general thrust is that resources are plentiful (I'd be interested to know what resources really are available in the mantle of the earth - I'd guess the same as in magma = limited..?), technology will save us and this Commie Greenpeace bitch is talking balls. I'd agree on the odd point that the original video is OTT and hysterical. However - the main thrust again is clear and I don't believe the Critique gives any riposte to it. The Consumer society is not sustainable. Our current society, including economic and political systems are set up to be built on Consumerism. Consumerism is the antithesis of sustainability. Hence there needs to be some changes to the political and economics systems.

I don't believe this means a rush to Communism or Marxism - but we will have to fundamentally change things. Free markets - yes, continuous growth - no, unfettered wealth for 1% of the population - probably not