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The Story of Stuff

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A reader who enjoyed the Affluenza series pointed me to The Story of Stuff. The site features a 20-minute presentation that is very engaging and informative. The description on the site reads:

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.
Set aside some time to watch this. I think it can help Christians see the connections between "the disease of greed" and some very negative consequences in our world. Contentment isn't just personally rewarding, it's good for our neighbors and for the planet.

Posted by on January 1, 2008

Comments (6)

Wow. While the Annie Leonard video may have some connection to your affluenza sermon/blog series, and even be supportive of some of your points relative to contentment, I found it pretty strongly oriented toward environmentism (creation worship)and overtly anti-corporation and anti-capitalism. She called out Radio Shack, and she might just have well said Wal-Mart by the use of the smiley face on the "always low prices" sign behind the cash register when talking about BAD retailers!

I am not interested in taking the time to do a point by point analysis of her presentation, but I did found one that makes some good counter observations. Don't know the author AT ALL, but he makes some good rational points that reveal a number of overstatements and even outright fabrications on Annie's part. And where he is in agreement with her, he says so.

http://www.andybrain.com/qna/2007/12/07/annie-leonards-the-story-of-stuff-review-and-analysis/

Posted by Chuck Thomas | January 1, 2008 11:09 PM

Oops! Should have been "environmentalism", not environmentism.

Posted by Chuck Thomas | January 1, 2008 11:17 PM

I couldn't agree more with Chuck- Annie has some pretty serious holes in her presentation.

Posted by Josh | January 5, 2008 5:37 PM

I couldn't agree more with Chuck- Annie has some pretty serious holes in her presentation.

Posted by Josh | January 5, 2008 5:37 PM

While I agree that we should be good stewards of everything God entrusts to our care, including the environment, I found that film to be a rather blatant piece of leftist propaganda. I shut it off as soon as she started whining about the military.

Posted by Jon C | January 6, 2008 7:28 PM

The first red flag came when she blatantly stated one of the key functions of government is to protect us. True only in a very limited sense, but she plainly puts government in the theoretical role of saviour. Next was her thinking it necessary to make the point that half our tax dollars go to military...a claim I rather doubt. Her characterisation of ALL resource gathering as "trashing the planet" was over the top. Sure it happens that way, but she makes it universal and normal. Her characterisation of the whole process as finite in a closed system is the typical environazi scare mantra. By the time she got to characterising ALL production/manufacturing activity as merely taking toxic chemicals and putting them into our bodies, I'd had done with the lot of it and signed off. At least she's a lot more bearable than Michael Moore...but, in the main, the same stuff. Meh!!

Posted by lewsta | January 9, 2008 2:33 PM

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