(This is a short translation of my talk at the first TEDex conference in Helsinki, held in October 2009.)
When our son turned
one we started reading him Margaret Wise Brown’s ”Good Night Moon”. The main
character of the book is a modest-looking bunny. What happens then is that the bunny
goes to sleep, and says ”good night” to all the things in the room, including
the stars and the moon.
So our son turned
two, and started talking. To our surprise, whenever we left the house or
daycare, he took an extra minute to greet all the people ad objects nearby. So we
heard: bye bye daddy! bye mirror! bye lamp! and bye bye washing machine!, etc.
This was of
course so cute that I did not dare to correct him by telling that you actually don’t
need to greet objects, just people. I mean, it sounds a bit silly, doesn't it, and the washing machine doesn’t
even say anything back, does it?
It only hit me some
time ago that Margaret Wise Brown might have had an agenda, and that agenda is shaping our son's view of the world. In this view people and objects, the starts and the moon all seem
to somehow float in the same category. They are all things that you show respect
to, in this case, by greeting.
This of course
differs from the way the rest of us sees the world and the things in it. We have already learned that the relationship between people, objects and nature is hierarchical. People come
first, objects and nature that are harnessed to serve us, come second. So with no regrets we have learned to
use our environment for whatever cause without having to give anything back. Everything is and
must be available for a price, because otherwise life could not become perfect. If things don't work, it's ok, let’s replace, get a new one that works better, and throw the old away because life is short and we are so darn
busy. We buy because we can and it’s cheap – even if it's just
trash.
This is my topic: trash. We produce and consume too much of it, and hence we are about to become a trash society.
What’s trash and what’s not?
To me it has been
inspiring to think that in any object around us is materialized the thoughts of the person
who made it. It’s like the designer or the maker of a product has put in this product a piece of themselves, and that piece continues living in the object. So the object is always a
mixture of their thoughts and skills. If these thoughts and skills are superior,
the object feels great. This inexplicable feeling we translate as good quality. If the thoughts and skills for making an object have been poor or suspicious, that shows
in the object too.
Similarly, we
project meanings to things around us. Well-made objects to which we can
connect stories value more than meaningless, storyless objects.
Think about everything you have in your
home in terms of quality and personal meaning. You find:
1) 1) Objects
that are high quality but personally meaningless. These things you are happy
to recycle: to sell or give forward.
2)
2) Objects
that are high quality and personally meaningful. These objects you want to keep
and cherish, pass on in the family.
3)
3) Objects
that are poor quality but personally meaningful. Gifts, self made objects that
you don’t have the heart to throw away.
4)
4) Objects
that are poor quality and personally meaningless. This useless trash you want
to get rid of.
Say no to meaningless bad quality. Buy things from second hand or buy things that last. Imagine ownership as something that passes from one person to other. Ask all brands to launch their own vintage shops.
It’s time to say goodbye. Goodbye to buying stuff you don’t need. Goodbye toys that break when you get them out of the box. Goodbye cheap cotton clothes. Goodbye fast cycle fashion and interior trends. Goodbye wasteful lifestyles that make us feel so bad. End of story.