Haussmanization

In the mid-nineteenth century, about 1849, Napolean III hired Baron Haussman to renovate Paris, France in order to make it into the cultural capital of the world. Haussmanization is the term used to describe Baron Haussman's modernization of Paris. As part of the process the streets were cleared of garbage and reconstructed, sewers were built and old tenement buildings that housed the poor citizens of Paris were torn down and replaced with expensive housing units, cafes, stores, parks, museums, opera houses, etc. Haussmanization resulted in the beautiful Paris that we know today and it became a consumer's paradise. Unfortunately, those who's houses were torn down and rebuilt could not afford this new face of Paris. They either moved to the outskirts of town or were forced to live on the streets. The new, upper class society that moved in from all over Europe lived in close proximity to each other, yet were strangers living together in this city. They began to view each other's worth as measured by where they were seen and what they were seen wearing. Baudelaire, a famous poet in France at the time, viewed this modernized France as ugly. He felt that while clothes and other possessions can, themselves, be beautiful, they cannot make their wearer beautiful on the inside. After reading Baudelaire's article, The Painter of Modern Life, I think he is saying that the citizens of Paris became too engrossed in their possessions to be productive and intellectual citizens who can contribute to a better France.

Haussmanization has spread throughout the world and the resulting consumer's society has become the norm. America thrives on production and consumption. Without constant spending, consuming, trashing and replacing, America's economy could quite possibly come crashing down (even further!). Businesses and the government know that if Americans stop spending, businesses could not stay in business. We are bombarded with advertisements every day of our lives that tell us what fashions we should wear, what foods we should eat, which stores we should shop in, what our body's should look like, how we should wear our hair and the list goes on and on. As a society, we have allowed business to tell us how to be. In my opinion, business does not have our best interest at heart. I think they are much more concerned with their own profits. 

The escalation of a consumer's society began with Haussmanization and needs to come to an abrupt end. All of the consumption is resulting in overuse of Earth's natural resources and overfilling of our landfills with toxic and non-biodegradable materials. In Annie Leanords video, Story of Stuff, Annie says that out of all of the "goods" that we, as Americans, purchase on a daily basis, 99% of it is trashed within six months of purchase (www.storyofstuff.com). That means that all of the spending that we do and all of the gobbling up of Earth's forests, fossil fuels and the like, only 1% are items that we cherish enough to hold on to for the long term. The remainder is trashed and much of it is not recyclable. 

As a global leader, America needs to step up, put an end the seller/consumer mentality and really begin to move in a more responsible direction. Businesses should focus on environmentally friendly technology and stop focusing on telling us how to be cool. I encourage all who have not seen the Story of Stuff to visit www.storyofstuff.com and spend 20 minutes watching the video to learn more about the detrimental effects of being a consumer society. Go Green!