For the uninitiated: http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html
I remember my first few years as an undergraduate in my University's Broadasting program. (I chose "Broadcasting," which eventually became "Television/Film," rather arbitrarily, but that's another story for another time.) "The Story of Stuff" touched on a few things that I learned years before, taking a few courses from Dr. Robert Vianello.
To make a potentially long rant short, the goal of TV (and mainstream Hollywood cinema) is to sell consumers to advertisers. Objectively, this is neither a good nor a bad thing; it's just a thing. In the video, it shows a loop of work > TV > shopping > work > TV > shopping > etc. Wow, this is just in time for the Super Bowl!
Anyway, in varying degrees of silly, here are three ways to break the cycle of consumerism that's destroying the earth:
1. Do the green, sustainable thing mentioned in "The Story of Stuff."
2. Build a rocket ship to an Earth-like planet or a time machine to the pre-human past to begin again. At the very least, it won't suck for the generation that begins again, unless the dinosaurs or planetary natives aren't so friendly.
3. Be a producer, not a consumer. Okay, that doesn't fix anything environmentally, per se, but it's better to be a sheep dog than a sheep.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
"The Story of Stuff" Is Nostalgic
Posted by
Ryan DeRamos
at
12:01 AM
Labels: consumerism, environment, film, memoirs, propaganda, robert vianello, tv
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