Less stuff
December 7th, 2007If you are not sure you are ready to come into my world with the podcast below, click this link for a really good starting point in the shape of a cartoon (thanks to Charlotte). It’s funny, it’s extremely eloquent, and it is so true before christmas.
I found the section on shopping especially fascinating - how it is designed to be glossy, appealing and keep you coming back for more. Keep Out of the Shops needs to be my mantra for 2008.
I have been shopophobic for years, so it’s no big deal for me. Now I have an excuse for not buying anything for christmas.
I am infuriated by the way goods are intended to be disposable. I don’t want disposable, I want things to last.
It was a great movie. I’m getting used to go to shopping malls without actually buying stuff. I can’t really deprive myself of looking at the colorful, glossy, brand-new stuff in the windows, but I know that buying one will not make the same impression when I’ll be home. On the Less stuff subject, I’m gearing up for Less Books next year. Tough. Even tougher than Less Handbags.
Becky: at least those that are officially disposable do not pretend they are made to last. The goods I hate the most are those flimsy kid’s toys which come with tons of packaging and which fail after a month. One day, they will have to have a label: “keep away from children; store in a cool, dry, dark, inaccessible place; after opening, use within two weeks; highly toxic - do NOT dump”.
Smithereens: books are an exception. They are not stuff like the rest. Did you see that commercial some years ago in which they parodied an infomercial selling a book as if it was any miracle mop or car wax: they were glorifying all the physical characteristics of the book (the washable cover, the format, the smoothness of the paper), and not the content. I found this a very convincing arguments that books are not consumer goods.
I have not watched this yet, but I will. However, I will just say that I have not been to a mall in over two years. I HATE shopping. I am not a shopper, I am a buyer. I have a list, I go to the store where I know I will find what I want, I get it, pay for it and leave. If I can do it on-line without going to a store, even better.
I have one purse. I have never understood why it is necessary to have more than one. I know women who have 50 pairs of shoes and a purse to match every pair. How do they stay organized? Oh, one lady told me she has a purse that has all her necessary stuff in it that fits INSIDE her purses, she just transfers that from accessory purse to accessory purse. Now that takes that cake in my book for completely useless consumption.
Advertising and consumer-society somehow play the same role as Louis XIV’s sumptuous court: to keep the people (resp. noblemen) envious and tame.
[…] job, whatever the job. But as I have said, it is quite certain that the world does not need more stuff, so I have to be really careful about what good it does the world if I work more at what I do. For […]