How Stuff is Killing the Planet

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

I couldn't quite get myself to pull the trigger on linking to this presentation. It has sat in my inbox, taunting me, for almost 2 weeks now. I don't even remember whom to hat-tip for linking me to it.

This is a young lady doing an engaging job of telling how our consumer culture is destroying the world upon which we depend. I think it was 20 minutes long, so set aside a little time if you plan to watch it. She uses numbers that I seem to recall being torn to shreds. I know I've heard them before from rabid greenies, the kind that don't care one whit about facts if they're getting their way. At best they are pulled out of the air, and at worst they're carefully culled and framed to manipulate.

With that caveat, she gives a great, wide-reaching overview of what's wrong with being a consumer culture so I'll share it. Enjoy.

These guys really amaze me

These guys are doing things with bicycles we never even dreamt possible.

Kids today have a lot to be proud of. They really are better educated and able to do hundreds of things we could never compete with. They have my respect.

Believing is the New Baby Killing

I was asked to listen to song 1 and song 5 of the new John Mayer CD. I guess the first song won a grammy, and the fifth is about life's deeper hopes. I found the third song to be the most arresting, though.

My comments in > red.

Is there anyone who
Ever remembers changing their mind from
The paint on a sign?
> Great point!
Is there anyone who really recalls
Ever breaking rank at all
> Wow. I wish I'd said this. It is spot-on
For something someone yelled real loud one time

Everyone believes
In how they think it ought to be
Everyone believes
And they're not going easily
> I cannot think of anything more frustrating.
> He's right. Nobody moves easily from their position, no matter how little thought has gone into it.

Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword
Like punching under water
You never can hit who you're trying for
> Odd thought. I cannot picture belief as a sword at all, and just barely as armor.
> Now, if I picture belief in a false philosophy, I could see the armor thing. You're protecting yourself against some other thought. But belief in a thing that is real is not an armor. It's just a correct understanding of the laws that govern the universe.

Some need the exhibition
And some have to know they tried
> Sounds like every evangelistic evangelical I've ever known. Ouch.
It's the chemical weapon
For the war that's raging on inside
> Whoops. First serious miss.
> There's a war raging inside us all, he says, and belief unjustly ends the struggle. By belief we kill the opposition illegally, and very thoroughly.
> Now, I can limit his lyrics to talking about toxic belief, but he does not.

Everyone believes
From emptiness to everything
Everyone believes
And no ones going quietly

We're never gonna win the world
We're never gonna stop the war
We're never gonna beat this
If belief is what we're fighting for
> That's a mighty big "if" there at the end of that powerful statement.
> I thought we were fighting for oil, and for imperialist expansion. Nobody, but nobody, but nobody that I know thinks that America is fighting for beliefs. Could he be assaulting a belief in democracy? Nah. That doesn't make a lick of sense.

What puts a hundred thousand children in the sand
Belief can
Belief can
What puts the folded flag inside his mother's hand
Belief can
Belief can
> Just brutal.


Mr. Mayer mourns both the deaths of civilians and soldiers. The symbolism of the soldier story is that of an American funeral, so he's definitely talking about the Iraqi war amongst maybe a number of things. And he talks about "we" all through the song, so he's not talking exclusively about the Islamicists who teach their own babies to suicide for Allah.

John Mayer really believes that the deaths in Iraq are about American beliefs? Christian beliefs? I will concede that the song is too vague to be hold him to anything I'm saying about it, but the symbolism sure seems spot-on clear. Mr. Mayer aligns Christians with baby killers.

I love expressive songs, and passionate ones, but I cannot swallow this one.

Maybe I'm guilty of believing too much to listen.