Week 5: Indicators of Our Culture of Consumption

According to today's seminar, some people have seen the blogs of others. Now everyone knows I'm an arrogant asshole.

Now I'm gunna talk some about my wonderful end-of-year projects from the past.

The first article we had to look at this week is The Rise and Fall of Consumer Cultures by Erik Assadourian. It reinforces the ideas of week 3. Basically, the excessive consumerism that is encouraged and we now think is normal is actually a relatively unnatural development which has its roots in the weakening and conquering of North America's native population. However, he ends on a positive note, mentioning some trends in human behavior that are moving back to sustainability.

The book name drops a documentary called The Age of Stupid. Inspired by Steven Soderberg's Traffic, in which the individual tales from a number of different people to tell a larger tale, dealing with the "War on Drugs" The Age of Stupid focuses on consumerism and how it effects different people in different societies.
Here's an animated clip from the documentary:

I noticed the spice traders were speaking French...but the Spice Trade was primarily regulated by the Portuguese and then the British and Dutch through the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company respectively. I had to do a lot of research for a presentation about them, so I just notice things like that.

More specifically, the DEIC or VOC was one of the first multinational companies in the world.Before its formation, companies were formed before and dissolved after voyages but the VOC lasted nearly 200 years. The VOC was given the ability to issue stocks and pursue military and political operations by the Dutch government and through the military and politics, the VOC was able to establish a monopoly on spices from Indonesia. And by military exploits, I mean massacres and by politics, I mean pitting the native princes against each other.

Results were boats full of swag.

Next, we had to look at Facts and Figures on E-Waste and Recycling as presented by the Electronics Take Back Coalition.Technology is seen as providing the solutions to all our problems and improving life, but not everyone is aware that electronics consist of poisonous or hard-to-recycle material. We have the technology to recycle it safely.  However, many companies would rather export the waste to developing nations rather than shoulder the cost. In these developing countries, they don't have the equipment or technology to recycle electronics properly, so the population is exposed to harmful substances when taking electronics apart for disposal. I remember taking a Communications class when I was a 3rd year student and my topic for the end of the year was E-Waste. I was fascinated by the subject, but unfortunately, my teammates decided it would be a good idea to try to appeal to the professor and thus, half the presentation ended up being devoted to showing why Apple was better than Microsoft because it was more Earth friendly.

Our professor saw right through them. Never been more embarrassed in my life.

Also, after the whole Foxconn thing, I doubt anyone would want to try to convince a class that Apple is anything-friendly.

I will never forgive my ex-teammates. Ever.

Next, we were to focus on the work of Richard Louv, primarily his excerpt from his book Last Child in the Woods and a video presenting the concept of Nature Deficit Disorder. He describes his childhood being one filled with natural play, which he contrasts with the past-times of his kids. What sparked this was his young son asking him why things were "more fun" when his father was a boy. Since I was a kid, I always wanted to engage in natural play, but I was never let out further than my backyard for most of my childhood. Stranger danger, you see. One of the educational books our mother got for us was about a kid who would regularly take walks in the forest and it was all about the animals and plants he saw there. Another told stories about different camping trips. I used to entertain the thought of just heading out across the road into the woods where I would find interesting things, just like the kid in the book.

Which brings me to one of my favourite comics of all time: Calvin and Hobbes. Not only is it clever and well designed, a great deal of natural play is depicted. Calvin's free time is usually playing outside, interacting with nature and using his expansive imagination. A good number of the strips take place either at his tree house, jumping into a pond, taking walks in the woods, or sliding down hills in the winter. Even as an adult, a part of me envies Calvin's childhood, even the parts designed to "build character". This is the last strip of the comic. It's unusual, since most of the strips consist of a joke about childhood behaviour or some social critique, but there's something very wistful about this.