“I hate when my phone charger
won’t reach my bed”
“When I go to the bathroom and I
forget my phone”
“I hate it when my neighbors block their WiFi”
“When my mint gum makes my ice water taste too cold”
(“First
World Problems Anthem”)
How nice
it must be to enjoy a nice glass of water, and have it taste cold, no
less. How nice it must be to have gum
that comes in a brightly colored package made from ink that also makes crayons,
school books, and coloring pages in the aisles preceding the checkout counter
where the gum was purchased. How nice it
must be that the gum was probably placed next to a small red refrigerator
containing the gloriously tasting bubbly cancer water that consumers can
conveniently purchase in singles, six, and twelve packs for even more guzzling
fun at a fraction of the price. How nice
it must be to be able to hear that satisfying *spritz* of carbonation and have
the bottle additionally act as a cooling mechanism for foreheads suffering under
the beating sun adjacent to the brightly lined swimming pool. How nice it must to have the opportunity to
casually throw that bottle out of a plane during a thrilling adventure through
the sky, littering the ground below, without any consequences. How nice it must be to be rid of that bottle
since it was taking up the cup holder space where the next bottle will
rest.
How nice
indeed it would be to be rid of that bottle, thought Xi, the protagonist of The Gods Must Be Crazy, a film directed
by Jamie Uys (Baden, par. 1). As a Bushman living the Kalahari Desert, the
most advanced technology that Xi has ever experienced is two sticks coming
together to make fire---up until this strange thing fell from the sky. One
would think that this thing, or as
modern civilization calls it, a Coca Cola bottle, would be a great addition to
his family’s life style. It is hard and
sturdy; it can act as a rolling pin; it can be used to store water or dried
meat; they could even break it and use the sharp edges to more easily cut meat
and wood. But with all of the good that
comes with the bottle, there is also evil that infiltrates Xi’s family. Not only was it prone for fingers to get
stuck in (Uys 9:44), but since there was only one, it could not be shared, so
it brought about selfishness, envy, anger, hate, and even violence (Uys,
10:44-11:18). Probably the most
interesting feeling the bottle brought was the feeling of need for something
the Bushmen never needed before.
A need for something they never needed before, even
when the circumstances have not changed?
What an oxymoron! This is the
reality of many modern civilizations. When a thing appears, or is invented for
convenience, after a couple of generations, people cannot fathom getting by
without it. There is just absolutely no
way that a person can function with a hairline crack in their iPhone, especially
when the new edition has just come out.
It is preposterous to suggest that somebody should hang their clothes
out on a fence to dry when the machine has broken down. Oh dear, there is no WiFi or 4G LTE; without
Google Maps getting lost is a definite.
A real map? Made of paper and
everything? But if Siri is not there to
tell one when to turn, then the map is useless.
This is the mind set of many modern civilizations. While helpful in everyday life with
communication, convenience, and creativity, the excessive use of ‘stuff’ has
become the true first world problem.
The trend #FirstWorldProblems was obviously meant to
be a joke. But what is the point of the
joke? Perhaps it is to make people feel
better about themselves for not caring about the children and adults in Haiti
who recited some of these ‘first world problems’ in the video “First World
Problems Anthem.” The true problem is that new generations are not taking these
as jokes anymore, but rather, conceiving them as real problems. Children are so privileged now that the
biggest problem in their lives is peeing without Fruit Ninja when there are some
children who have never seen a piece of fresh fruit in their lives. What is worse
is that the children are so privileged that they do not understand what is
wrong with that picture. They do not understand how this dependence on ‘stuff’
impacts them, because they have never known a weekend without their cell
phones. They have never finished a magnificent
1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of a wild animal when they had to stay home from
school because of a fever, or created blaring music with pots and pans to the
beat of the thunder claps on a rainy day, and they certainly have never
considered that these seemingly harmless tools are unconsciously making them unhappy.
They cannot conceive living without this ‘stuff.’
Xi’s family however, knows that there is no way that
they can live with ‘stuff’ without
being unhappy. The Bushman tribe sees
that this simple tool, although helpful, also tore apart their family and their
values. Now, the rise of ‘stuff,’ specifically technology like smart phones and social media, is very beneficial
in some ways. Society can spread news
and keep in touch with loved ones on the other side of the world. That is nothing short of amazing. One woman
says “…technology does keep me in touch with people I wouldn't necessarily have
the time to meet with face-to-face on a regular basis” (Cafferty, par. 13)
which is generally true for most people, as well. But the same woman also says “I think that we
need to have good technology etiquette while in public” (Cafferty, par.
13). It seems that humans have lost the
ability to effectively interact with other humans in person, with the exception
of a few in close circles.
It has become a challenge amongst the species to not
look at one’s phone for longer than five minutes instead of filling a silence
with substantial conversation. Children
can hardly think of games to play with each other that do not involve iPads,
let alone that involve being outside and getting their hands dirty. It seems that the most substantial
conversations some children are capable of is telling another how much they
love another’s possessions, and how they wished their parents would buy them
more gifts. The Bushman children in the
film have never had a case of the ‘gimmes’ because they have always shared and
appreciated what Mother Nature has given them.
They are not bored to tears without a virtual bird to fling at a pig
because “their games are cute and inventive” (Uys, 4:33). It is clear to most people that technology,
while extremely convenient and helpful, also has certain detrimental factors to
the human race. But being an extremely self-oriented species
who “refused to adapt himself to his environment, and instead he built his environment
to suit him” (Uys, 6:15), what many people fail to notice is that the true first
world problem is that all of this ‘stuff’ is killing the ‘first world’ that
they live in.
The Story of Stuff is a twenty-minute film that was released in 2007 by humans
who are green with love for Nature in attempt to educate other humans who are
green with envy. The initiative was to educate
people about where this ‘stuff’ that they hold so near and dear comes from; how
it is made, who is involved in making them, and the impact this ‘stuff’ has on
the environment pre, during, and post-production. Annie Leonard, writer and narrator of the
film tells her audience that the system of production is in crisis because “…it is a linear system and we live on a finite planet and you cannot run
a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely” (par. 3). Leonard explains the first step in this
system of production: extraction.
Extraction of what? Natural
resources of course, but perhaps exploitation
is a more fitting word. Just one example
would be an electronic device. The
inside of almost any battery powered item comes from the mountains that were
blown to bits causing groundwater contamination, damage to the foundations of
surrounding houses, and impacting local climates (Pachiolli, par. 15). People justify the mountain blasting by
having a mindset of ‘But this helps the world to go paperless, the trees will
be saved!’ What many people do not realize is that there are thousands of non-paper
products that come from trees. Just a
few of these things that humans use every day are toilet seats, rubber, and our
own clothing (wisconsincountyforests par. 1, 3).
It is not just trees however, that industry exploits; in the last thirty
years alone, the world has consumed one third of Earth’s natural resources
(Leonard, par. 11). One third in thirty
years. The first humans began to evolve
from apes between four and eight million years ago (Wikipedia, par.9), modern
humans evolved 200,000 years ago, and civilization came about between six and
seven thousand years ago (Howell, par. 1), but somehow, our species has managed
to suck up almost half of the Mother Earth’s resources in less than a
lifetime. And just in the United States
alone, Leonard tells us “we have less than 4% of our original forests left. Forty
percent of waterways have become undrinkable… We [The U.S.] has 5% of the world’s population but we’re consuming 30%
of the world’s resources and creating 30% of the world’s waste” (par. 13, 14).
Many countries, especially the United States, exploit third world countries for
their resources in order to effectively take more than their share of Earth’s
gifts. The result? Poverty, disease, famine, dirty water, no water, and of course, no natural
resources. No plants to clean the
air. No trees to prevent mudslides. No mountains to maintain the rainforests and
deserts. Land so barren that nothing can
grow. Far less animals to balance out
the ecosystem. There are even far less
animals for food, so to solve that problem, humans choose to tear down forests,
killing millions of more animals, to make room for the factories that will
breed millions of other animals who will be inhumanely killed for their meat
and who’s skin will be tossed away or be processed with bleach, glue, and other
poisons to trick pet owners into thinking that it is a great treat for a
dog. If only people were more like Xi,
who humanely tranquilizes his deer, apologizes to it, and slaughters it after
it is asleep so that it does not feel pain (Uys, 5:00). He even uses the skin and carcass for water
pouches, shelter, tools, and clothing.
Developed countries have been living in such an advanced way for so long
that it is unrealistic to attempt to live like the Bushmen. However, minimalizing consumerism on items
that a person is capable of living without or can have access to right in their
own backyard is a great way to simplify their everyday life. Growing one’s own vegetables for example is a
fantastic way to get fresh and tasty food while also purifying the air around
one’s house. Cleaning out one’s closet
for donations monthly or bi-monthly is a good way to give back to the community
while slowly but surely allowing one to realize that they do not need a wardrobe
that is bursting at the seams to get by.
Allotting a 15-minute period each day that will be ‘technology free’ is
a simple way to allow a person to relax and focus on themselves, be more
productive domestically, or have a face to face conversation with someone. This can even become a goal oriented activity
for a person, working their way up to an hour or two a day of no technology. Though
none of these changes appear to significantly counter the mass destruction of
the planet, it is important that life style alterations are made, no matter how
big or small.
In Xi’s family, “they believe the gods put only good and useful things
on the Earth for them to use” (Uys, 3:09).
There is no need for them to exploit certain resources, because
everything has a good use. They do not
have problems of one person having more than another because there is plenty of
what Mother Nature provides for everyone.
They do not need to make new discoveries or new ways of doing things
because they are perfectly content with what they have. Nobody in their family suffers, nobody is
lacking, and nobody is unsatisfied because they have the respect for one
another and the Earth to be able to live fruitfully without living excessively. There is no distinction of first and third
worlds because they recognize that they are all children of the same Earth, the
same gods, and that there is no need for such a separation of their brothers
and sisters. Xi’s family even briefly experienced what it was like to live
“excessively”, and it did not take long for them to choose to go back to their
traditional lifestyle. The Bushmen live
in a harsh and dry world, but yet their Earth is bright blue and lush
green. Modern society lives in an abundant
and plenty world, but yet our Earth is an oily black and barren brown. It is
apparent in the film how one single piece of technology destroys a family, so
how come modern societies are blind to how endless pieces of technology are
destroying their very own ‘first world?’
Works Cited
Cafferty,
Jack. "Technology Replacing Personal Interactions at What Cost?" CNN.
Cable News Network, 3 Jan. 2011.
Web. 25 Mar. 2017.
Howell, Elizabeth. "How Long Have Humans Been On
Earth?" Universe Today. N.p., 23 Dec. 2015. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.
"Human." Wikipedia. Wikimedia
Foundation, 30 Mar. 2017. Web. 01 Apr. 2017.
Leonard, Annie (director). The Story of Stuff. Free
Range Studios. Dec. 2007. Web. 25 Mar. 2017.
Pacchioli, David. "Assesing the Human Impacts of
Mountaintop Removal." Www.psu.edu. N.p., n.d. Web.
"Products Made From Trees - Wisconsin County
Forest Association." Wisconsin County Forests Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2017.
Uys, Jamie (director). The Gods Must Be Crazy.
Dir. Jamie Uys. New Realm, 1980. Film.
