Annie Leonard & The Story of Stuff March 20, 2010
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Happiness, Less IS More.trackback
Image by net_efekt via Flickr
Annie Leonard is my hero. One of them anyway.
Her message is simple ~ we have too much stuff. And it’s getting in the way of our happiness.
A few years after I started clearing clutter from my life, I stumbled across her animated clip The Story of Stuff (which has now been viewed by millions), and fell in love because . . .
* She conveyed her simple message simply.
* She didn’t use big, scary words and awkward construction to beat people upside the head with her intellectual prowess.
* She used great examples to show her audience The Story of Stuff (from Extraction to Production to Distribution to Consumption to Disposal).
AND
* She made the stick figure of the Corporation look like an enormous bloated bloodsucking tick which made me laugh.
If you haven’t seen The Story of Stuff, you can check it out by clicking here:
My favorite section, Consumption: we work hard, come home exhausted, watch TV, get bombarded by advertising messages saying You Suck! (because we don’t own the latest, greatest gizmo and gadget), which makes us run to the mall to buy something to make us feel better which means we have to work harder to pay for more stuff and we come home exhausted and watch TV and get bombarded by messages saying You Suck! . . .
While on the site, you can also look around and watch:
*Annie’s interview with Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report
* WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show featuring Annie
*Swimming in Stuff, Annie’s CNN interview with Christiane Amanpour
Recently, Annie wrote a book, The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health ~ and A Vision for Change.
Read it. Support The Story of Stuff project. Or do both.
Make Annie Leonard your hero.
Let’s save our precious planet from enormous bloated bloodsucking ticks.
Quote: Simplify. Simplify. Simplify. ~ Henry David Thoreau
Comments
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Spirit Lights The Way 
Would buying several copies of her book make me happier? (grin)
While an accumulater of stuff myself, I often feel the pressure of it all, and am always embarrassed when I come across an item that I “had to have”, which is lying unused, or worse, still in its box.
First break I get in my writing scheduld I’ll check out the site.
Ha! Colbert asked essentially the same thing. : )
When I think of all the money I wasted to buy stuff that sat around screaming to be dusted . . . I shake my head in disbelief.
Definitely. Check out the site.
It’s an awesome collection of awesome information about saving this awesome planet.
I loved this book! I recommend following it with Cheesemonger by Gordon Edgar which is interesting because he is living some similar principles (while selling cheese in a coop–a worthy story in its own right)
Thanks, Inger. I’ll check it out.