The Story of Stuff -a review

Annie Leonard's "The Story of Stuff" discussed about a linear system, which involves extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. "The Story of Stuff" make me think about how easy it is for many of us to toss away our stuff even if it is still in good condition, and it is easy to get ourselves a new one without being aware of where do all our stuff go after that.

Recalling from our discussion in previous classes, about rights, it makes me sick to think of how big corporations take lands from the people of Third World countries. They build their factories there, harvest the natural resources and the people who live there have no other choice but to work for them. These people have their rights being violated.

The world of capitalism we lived in, force us to buy stuff. She did mentioned fashion and advertisements that somehow tell us that whatever we have now is not enough and we should buy more and more stuff. For the most of this part I agree with her. But when she mentioned perceived obsolescence, and compared the flat screen monitor with the big, cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor, I have trouble to agree with the way she represent the idea. Isn't the flat screen monitor a better innovation than the latter? It takes less space, and much lighter. Furthermore, a flat screen monitor uses LESS energy than a CRT.

We have "a system in crisis", according to "The Story of Stuff". But, it is wrong to say that "it's just not working" since this system has benefited a lot of us. If it is not because of this system, you will never have met the Internet. "A system that doesn’t waste resources or people, sustainability, equity, renewable, local living economy…” as suggested by her may be possible to achieved. But that is not the question. The question is, whether the government and the corporations that played the most important roles in this system are ready to give up the profit-making paradigm that has been their purpose of existence nowadays. Remember, in this capitalist world, if a corporation does not make profit, it will disappear.