In 1963, the Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Company was getting ready to celebrate their 20th anniversary. To commemorate this event, the company asked their publications editor, Don Fabun, to assemble a book based “on the future.” Fabun, an ardent student of the literature of the future, set about to create this book, a book he eventually entitled The Dynamics of Change. For 45 years, I’ve relied on this book to help me understand the increasing volume and speed of change in our lives. One of the people he asked to contribute to the book was Walter Weisskopf, a well-known university professor and futurist. Weisskopf’s article, which he entitled “The Tyranny of Goods”, was true then, and even more true today.
I’ve paraphrased his predictions for you: “Today, we are enslaved by the tyranny of goods. The time and energy used in the consumption of goods and gadgets takes away from the time and energy available for the satisfaction of non-economic needs. Not enough time and energy will then be available for love and friendship, for the enjoyment of nature, the contemplation of beauty and truth, for artistic expression and non-purposive behaviour.”
I dare say that Weisskopf was deadly accurate with his prediction. Now, keep in mind that there were far fewer goods and gadgets in 1963, as compared to what now exists. There was no Internet, no video games, no CDs or videos, no microwaves, no personal computers, or faxes, or scanners, or a hundred other devices we now take for granted. Further, research done last year indicates that the overall selection of products affordable by the average household has expanded by nearly 890 per cent since 1970. If Weisskopf was worried about the Tyranny of Goods way back in 1963, imagine the horror he would feel when viewing today’s endless selection of goods and gadgets.
On a daily basis, I see countless friends, family members and acquaintances who are enslaved by the burden of consumption. In fact, the producers and marketers not only lure us into buying a multitude of goods, they also dictate to us how we use our leisure time. The ever-increasing amount of time required to consume the constantly expanding selection of goods and gadgets is also progressively restricting our freedom. Perhaps we need to amend Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedom to also permit the freedom to not consume.
A few weeks ago, my five-year-old granddaughter and I laid on the lawn outside her home, and I spent the next 60 minutes showing her how every cloud really did resemble something else. While she’ll forget about the bike I bought her, or the dresses she now wears, somehow, I think she will remember, for a very long time, laying on the grass with her grandpa, looking at the clouds, consuming nothing, and enjoying the luxury of wasting time.
To conclude this commentary, who better than our old friend, Stompin’ Tom Connors, who sang for us:
“Yes we are the people, running in the race,
Buying up the bargains in the old marketplace
Another sale on something, we’ll buy it while it’s hot
And save a lot of money, spending money we don’t got.”
Brian McLeod is a St. Albert resident.
