I’ve got a few bits and pieces to report, but none of them ground breaking. I have committed to reading more, so The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist is being gnawed away steadily. I had a major disagreement with my Kobo device as it decided not to update where I had got to! It has done this before, so my love of it is waning. I usually read on my phone anyway as I always have it with me.
The main reason for this post is to provide a link to a video called the story of stuff. This is a video that I found on the only blog in my blogroll so far; Post-Consumer Life. I am grateful for their help finding it. The video is quite full on, but while I usually don’t pull the hard line on subjects like this, I found that there isn’t much of the video that you can disagree with.
As I find out more about anti consumerism it appears that the same basic arguments are used in this and the ecological debates, and they are valid for the same basic reasons. The story of stuff states that consumerism is the driving force behind the industry that requires us to break the planet. Quite a bit of the issues raised in the story of stuff could be resolved in a slightly idealistic future where we can create the things we need in a way that doesn’t produce harmful chemicals and exploit nature and other people. Still, the video servers as a good aid to removing the blinkers of our first world existence and at least showing us the reality of our actions. What we choose to do with this knowledge is up to us.
I’m also very aware from post consumer life blog that one person’s changes don’t solve world issues. On the other hand, talking about why you do it just might! I have a feeling that this where the story of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist is also taking me. Its changing the understanding of a lot of people that is the problem, or put another way, if you accept the system, you support the system.
Have I found a way to keep myself to a path to read the books I don’t get round to, or have I unexpectedly found something else that brings together other more ecological views that I have previously held.