A good friend sent me a link to a short film created by a very talented animator called Leo Murray.
It touched a raw nerve in me for many reasons. I enjoyed the simplicity of the movie itself and the straightforward explanations of the problems we’re facing with climate change and I particularly connected with the references to the pressure we’re put under by advertisers to buy, buy, buy, as I’d outlined in my chapter on ‘Rubbish Obsolescence’.
I urge you to set aside 10 clear minutes, make yourself a cuppa and sit and watch it and if it leaves as much of an impression on you as it did me, be sure to pass a message onto your friends to watch it too.
Here’s a nibble from the website for the movie.
This film is a seriously old school direct transmission of information to the viewer, which constructs individual audience members in the Enlightenment model - as rational beings.
Sadly post-modern understanding of human behaviour shows that we are far less rational than we thought. Somewhat embarrassingly, it turns out that our behaviours and beliefs are actually determined by complex, invisible currents that flow beneath the surface of consciousness. These strongly influence us in ways that can result in behaviours, which lead us in the exact opposite direction than would arise from a rational pursuit of our own best interests.
This is the premise of the multi-billion dollar advertising industry - to pull the subconscious levers that work our controls in order to persuade us to buy things that we do not need. Why not try to be rational for once, rather than the puppet of your unconscious fears and desires?
If that sounds a little deep and meaningful, I make no apology, I guess it is and once you’ve watched it, you’ll understand the message Leo is striving to get across.
It’s certainly not a complicated one - nor is mine.
Our constant consuming has a price and Mother Earth is the one left holding the bill.
After making contact with Leo over email I received a lengthy response from him that I’d like to share with you. Here’s some of what he had to say:
I’m glad to hear that you find the message as simple as I think it is. What’s got us into the mess we’re in is not, as is often claimed, overpopulation; it is overconsumption. Nobody actually needs to eat individually wrapped biscuits, or drive alone to work every morning through two miles of traffic jams in a vehicle so big it could drag an elephant. Nor do we need to replace our mobile phones every six to twelve months or fly short haul to our second homes in the Algarve every other weekend or have different gadgets plugged into every socket in every home.
Research makes clear that these behaviours don’t actually even make anyone any happier, but it may only be when they have ruined forever our children’s prospects for happiness and security that it will dawn on us how incredibly stupid all of this profligacy and excess really was.
Climate change is only the most lethal and far-reaching consequence of a way of life that blithely refuses to recognise what has been apparent for a very long time; that we live in a finite world with finite resources.
We could easily stop the impending collapse of our civilization if we really wanted to. But right now we’re all too busy entertaining ourselves with the trinkets and baubles of consumerism to even bother trying.
We’re now living through the last tragic moments of a collective suicide which is being visited on every single person on this planet by a few greedy folks in the developed world and hardly anyone has even noticed. Wake up. Then after you’ve freaked out, hurry up and get a grip. There’s very little time left. Let’s get the hell on with it.
By changing some of the ways we live, we can have a lasting and positive impact on our local and global environments and also our pockets.
It’s time to open our minds to how we can start making those changes and to understanding why we should.
Rubbishly yours,
TSx
Visit the film’s website at wakeupfreakout.org for more information, a copy of the script and contact details.
Dear Tracey,
I think you’re right - Leo Murray’s “Tipping Point - Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip” animation is so clever because it is simple.
I love that it paints a holistic, if terrifying, picture - it is not just about the science. It appeals to our better smarter selves.
He draws together the collective intelligence of Herbert Marcuse’s philosophy of “false needs” and the idea of us realising our ideal selves rather than subjugating ourselves as merely Platonic puppetry for advertisers.
In so doing he appeals to our more intelligent collective selves to quit our dumb square-eyed lemming communal antics.
Like your book, i hope many people take the time out to absorb this. It is slow going for the first couple of minutes but it gradually draws you in, joins the dots, and hits home.
Emma x
Hi - I fully agree with you Emma. It nails it for me too. It’s time for us all to take time out and learn what the consequences of non-action would be for a start. It’s not all lost, we can prevent further damage, but we simply have to simply act now!
Kelly O
Hi All,
Great to get your responses to this powerful film and really glad you liked it.
I think the arts generally can provide a great medium to spread the word about simple, green living in lots of ways. Robert Bradford and his beautiful sculptures are another great example.
But it’s high time for us to heed the messages being conveyed here and act upon them.
Readers, please do all you can to spread the word about Leo’s brilliant piece of work.
Love to all,
TS
x
Hi Tracey - Thanks for sharing, this is a great find. As you know I’ve enjoyed a couple of decades of over-consumption and it’s only in the last year have I realised the effects of my actions, on both the environment and on my own sanity, with the constant drive to want more. By contrast, I now enjoy the feeling of not just living with less but wanting to diminish that further. I’m currently having a buy nothing new month, which has been much more enjoyable than coming home from the sales with things that I never needed and were forgotten about weeks later. For those who don’t think about the planet, they also don’t acknowledge that WE ARE the planet. They just think it’s animals, eco systems and populations that are miles away from their daily lives, to which there is no association. But it’s all of us that will see the effects. Ah, that’s me off my soapbox and huge thanks to Leo for kicking this off in the first place . xxx
Evening AMA,
Great to get your wise words on it all, but its interesting, your confessions of ‘guilt’ have provoked another line of thought from me.
I think if we were ‘all’ to sit down and analyse what we’ve bought, indulged, wasted and thrown away recklessly in the years before our awakening, we’d all be mortified!
Guilt is such a destructive emotion.
If we recognise ourselves in this film and feel physical pangs of shame, don’t hide, don’t hang your head, just DO something about it! Make tomorrow morning the first day of your new start.
Move beyond the guilt, turn it into a strength and above all, be the good friend that helps your friends take stock of their position and encourage and support their migration too.
TSx
Wow what a great film, we’ve just sat and watched it through and it coincides with me reading ‘Enough’ by John Naish, a brilliant book if you can get it from your library.
I feel so committed to making changes, when you look out at your garden and see what a beautiful world we have that sustains us, it is heartbreaking to think we are trashing it and not loving the hand that feeds us.
Hi Almost Mrs Average, I know exactly where you are coming from, I cringe at the stuff I’ve consumed over the years and wish I’d known all this a bit sooner. It’s great to hear how well you’re doing. I feel too that I want less and feel the need to simplify my life even more. You get to a point then after a while want to move along even more in the direction of less.
Less is more eh?
Love Deb x
Hiya Deb,
I know ‘Enough’ well - it’s a great read and it’s what got me onto contacting John to feature in my ‘Book of Rubbish Ideas’ - I figured he’d know all about what I was aiming at.
You really mustn’t cringe at your previous life though old bean! LOLOL….i know it’s hard, but let’s face it, you and I both wafted about during Maggies opulent years (and even a few of Tony’s!)… To look back in angst would be destructive.
Use your previous way of living as a foundation to build on and strive for more less, so to speak….lolol…
Right, must be off, trying to psyche myself up for a wash and the bathroom is freeeeeezing!!!
I quite like the idea of being stitched into my clothing for the winter! LOLOL….oh, washing is sooo overrated…
Love to all,
TSx
Ladies - I’ve read John Naish’s Enough too…introduced to me by Tracey through her blog over at Sustained (LOL - thought I’d drop that in - another fab website). John Naish has really managed to capture the madness of it all and I am so glad I picked it up this year. Debbie, I think we have to listen to Tracey’s wise words and look at the last few decades as a part of history in its own right. I can see it now. In a few decades time, history students will not only be learning about wars, recessions and the dark ages, they’ll be learning about “the consumer years”. I’ll be turning up with my zimmer frame saying, I remember it well…
Just imagining you in a zimmer missus. I suspect it’ll be fashioned from recycled something-or-other…..
Happy weekend dear chums,
TS x