THE LIGHT BULB CONSPIRACY

 

I cannot recommend this film enough.

Once upon a time products were made to last.

To truly understand how things have changed and staid America morphed into its current state as a consumer society endlessly fulfilling the infantile needs of a brainwashed populace it is necessary to understand the input of Edward Bernays.  Bernays who, with assistance from his uncle Signund Freud, created manipulated social change and brought about the happiness = consumption mantra. He began his work around 1918.

THE CENTURY OF THE SELF.(here)

Then, at the beginning of the 1920s, a group of businessmen were struck by the following insight:

A product that refuses to wear out is a tragedy of business' (1928).

Thus Planned Obsolescence was born.

Shortly after, the first worldwide cartel was set up expressly to reduce the life span of the incandescent light bulb, a symbol for innovation and bright new ideas, and the first official victim of Planned Obsolescence.

This is also the time when ""Keeping up with the Jones" became part of the consciousness of the average consumer. Born was a sort of consumption one-up-manship and a need to not fall behind. One had to be the coolest, most up to date of the crowd.

During the 1950s, with the birth of the consumer society, the concept took on a whole new meaning, as explained by flamboyant designer Brooks Stevens: 

'Planned Obsolescence, the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary...'.

The growth society flourished, everybody had everything; the waste was piling up ~ preferably far away in illegal dumps in the Third World ~ until consumers started rebelling...

The current throwaway climate ~ where the latest technology is outdated after a year and electronics are cheaper to replace than to repair ~ is the basis for economic growth.

But infinite consumption is unsustainable with finite resources: With the economy crumbling and consumers becoming increasingly resistant to the practice, has planned obsolescence reached the end of its own life?

Combining investigative research and rare archive footage with analysis by those working on ways to save both the economy and the environment, this documentary charts the creation of ‘engineering to fail’, its rise to prominence and its recent fall from grace.