Ever feel like you’re not being told the whole story? Well you’re not. And you should be grateful for it, because the whole story is way too complicated. You’d hate it. The PR of recycling knows that if you overload people with information they didn’t really care about in the first place, you risk having […]
Entries Tagged as 'Philosophy'
How much to tell the public
March 27th, 2014 · No Comments · Consumer Issues, Philosophy, Recycling
Tags:educating the public·Master Recycling Program·recycling·Recycling School
Avoiding pesky labor laws by sending work abroad
June 24th, 2013 · No Comments · Consumer Issues, Excess of Possessions, Manufacturing, Philosophy, Polystyrene
What was I saying last time? Oh yes — we send our Styrofoam to China and they make it into cheaper plastic products. So what’s wrong with that? If China can recycle polystyrene into a more inert kind of plastic that isn’t going to be breaking up into little particles and flying all over the place, […]
Aftermath of Tragedy: explosions, shootings, storms, & floods
April 24th, 2013 · No Comments · Decluttering, Philosophy
It seemed inappropriate to write about clutter with that whole bombing thing going on in Boston. I was watching and re-watching the videos just like everyone else. Maybe not just like everyone else — I’m not sure. After a point, I made myself stop. I think for a while we do it because we just […]
Tags:clutter reduction·decluttering·despair·throwing stuff out·too much stuff
Collectivitis combined with the ecological mindset
March 18th, 2013 · 1 Comment · Collecting, Consumer Issues, Disposability, Philosophy, The Packrat Mind, Trash Disposal
You might think it’s dumb that I write about things like pen caps and sock hangers — but that would mean you were missing my larger purpose. My assignment (call it a compulsion if you must) is to scrutinize each and every little item and ask the big questions — go all the way back […]
Tags:cheaply made goods·collecting·collectivitis·disposability·garbage problem·landfill·packrat mentality·throwing stuff out·too much stuff·waste·waste disposal
From whence the drive to collect?
March 14th, 2013 · No Comments · Collecting, Excess of Possessions, Hoarding, Packratting, Philosophy, The Packrat Mind
I admit i have a bit of a “thing” about collecting. There’s a-whole-nother category that lies somewhere between packratness and hoarderliness, and I’m in it. The people in this category are called “collectors” instead of packrats or hoarders because they collect things in a systematic, purposeful and orderly way, display their collections in a proud […]
Tags:collecting·hoarding·packrat mentality·saving stuff·too much stuff
What about those New Year’s resolutions?
January 31st, 2013 · No Comments · Philosophy
Out the window already? Don’t worry. Be happy. Perhaps you weren’t completely yourself when you made them. Way too much is piled onto that one poor day, don’t you think? I don’t partake in that whole New Year’s resolution silliness. This year, though, I caved to social pressure and snuck in one or two. Fortunately, […]
Tags:vows
A few words about books
January 4th, 2013 · No Comments · Excess of Possessions, Philosophy
Ah, books! — for some of us the hardest thing to part with. Book collecting is the most excused area of hoarding, often confused with intellectual prowess. But it’s still hoarding. Remember that Umberto Eco book that was so popular, called The Name of the Rose? The one he wrote following that, Foucault’s Pendulum, was…. […]
Casting Stones in a Glass House
December 13th, 2012 · No Comments · Philosophy, The Packrat Mind
As for the rest of us, the ordinary, run-of-the-mill Packrats, we should refrain from pointing and staring at the Hoarders (e.g., watching that show), and recognize that when we do that, we are indulging in one of the lowest forms of human entertainment, namely, seeking out people “worse” than we are, so that by gawking […]