James Burke : Connections, Episode 5, "Wheel Of Fortune", 5 of 5 (CC)

[BugsWisely]

As quality of life goes the GILBREATH's were perverts.

[BugsWisely]

Time and motion was their thing? i prefer to call it exploitation and dehumanization. The notion that anyone cares who lives or dies is pure fallacy which leads to sophism.

[finite150]

A truly stimulating series. 

[Willldragon]

I do research on sustainability, and so I'm using the very last speech at the end to describe the current consumer culture and the problems associated with it in one of my papers. It's very useful to know how this came about via the production line and where that all began

[MrLotharofhillpeople]

I get what JB is saying, but I have always thought the items I carry as utilitarian, and my pockets as nifty ways to carry those mundane items. But, I get the cookie cutter metaphor. Living in a city, I understand this loss of individual would be much worse. However, I live in the country, and life is still what you make of it, even in 2011. So my every moment and my means of paying the bills are all at my discretion. My life is pure individual, unless I chose to own a fancy phone, which I don't

[vinnycriss]

I'm the youngest of 8 kids. I'm now 45. My elder siblings were into this program when I was just 13 or 14. We had one TV in the house, and being the youngest - instead of watching the Brady Bunch like the rest of my friends - I had to watch this, and Nova, and the like. It made me a more curious, skeptical, and broadminded individual. I guess the irony here is that these "events" changed how I thought as a kid, and in turn, as an adult. Which of course, is the point of the show. Great stuff.

[battlebauble]

Your right there, Jim! Wait! ...Where'd you go? LOL!

[Skamatics]

But the true reality is that we are living in a larger consciousness, there is no individuality. We are all connected. Individuality is the cause of suffering, its the idea of separateness. Because we are separate. we don't feel compelled to help those starving in Africa or those be ethically cleansed in Cambodia. It's a false sense of "being separate" that our possessions only escalate.

[Skamatics]

"Existential individuality"..what James Burke may be referring to is the false notion that our possessions define our individuality. How can our possessions show our individuality when everything is manufactured and thousands and millions of people have the same thing? It's a false belief frequently widespread by our own personal views of satisfying our own needs and wants, thus contributing to the idea that we are separate from everything.

[Oliphantes]

the last minute of this sent shivers down my spine

[vmelkon]

And with all this automation, it is still not cheap enough so they export the entire fabrication plant to foreign land.

[KevinByrne2]

8:40 -- Would wearing handmade underwear or socks suddenly make you "uniquely individual" ? Does your stuff define you? If you lost your stuff (in a fire or flood), would you cease to exist? I don't think so.

[MLAOTNMCC]

This is so brilliant! Thank you!

[soweyesee]

i used to watch this show with my dad... shit almost 15 years ago, and it still got me hooked again. i always thought it is just the british accent, but this guy puts 2 and 2, perfectly together on issues that are kinda boring, but he presents them in the most humble, down to earth funny, witty way that lets you have a good time and learn something new at the same time... priceless.

[spectre111]

I respectfully disagree with JB there at the end.

Think of all the different forms of life on this planet. Human beings, whales, snakes, birds, spiders or even something as simple as a virus. All made up of the same bits & pieces all useing the same language to maintain and operate their bodies.

The only difference between them is four little letters organized in totally different ways, A-T-C-G. Exact same letters infinitly different results.

[ryoushii]

@spectre111 The organization isn't even that different. the light sensitive spots on a flat worm, the compound eyes of a fly and the human eye are codified in the same sequence of dna. The difference is in how they are expressed, that is how they turn off and on. Tweak the expression and humans could have compound eyes like flies because the basic code is the same for a fly's eye and a human's eye. Nature is very conservative and will use the same pattern over and over again if it works

[PhilJonesIII]

Yes, I noticed that. All the comments, good or bad have still been positive without resort to insults.

Hope for mankind yet.

[d45osu]

these are all brilliant, why is there nothing like this around anymore?

How can we have a Discovery Channel and a Science channel and pbs and this or something like it not be found on any of them?

I'd love to get drunk with this guy :-)

[gbCerberus37]

@d45osu This needs to be the top comment, in my honest opinion.

[Grak70]

Thomas Jefferson "promptly went bananas" at a lot of good ideas. :-)

[Ratama]

this was a great one.

[Grak70]

Agree. some of the connections are a bit tenuous (cf. Episode 2).  This one is spot on and interesting the whole way.

[Monkor001]

I like the gingerbread man pose

[ehswan]

So sad, this comment stream, so filled with hope and desire. As a fellow traveler of the "Illuminadi, in the mid "50s" I realized that our presense on this ever so rare and beautiful planet was becoming obscene. In the near future there will be far fewer of us! I ever so love this Earth and shall be glad. SO SAD!

[breathless46]

I think the only change Bic made is the extra bit added to make it child-proof... though I am not sure it is done on all Bic lighters.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

It's nation dependent. I bought one in Hong Kong which did not have the metal safety guard.

Of course if you look in the ashtrays and discover a discarded *foreign* BIC lighter, you'll invariably find that the safety thing has been plucked out.

Standard practice.

- JBW

[mikeyman211]

This existential individuality thing bothers a lot of people, especially an old man who lived up the road from me. He built all his own furniture and was an artist so his home was very very unique. before the old man died and I went to University, as a gift he coached me as I made my own study chair. Wood, weave, and metal wheels. He shall be missed.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

I'm not sure what it means: "Existential individuality" that is.

And, with some elaboration, what is it about it that bothers you? Perhaps you're not talking about the same thing as the above (or below) poster...

- JBW

[mikeyman211]

By "existential individuality thing", I was meaning that with todays plastic, mass produced world, the concept of individuality fades, what he was alluding to at the end of the episode.

It doesn't bother me, this is the world I grew up in - handcraft was rare and mysterious. But I can see that it would be problematic for some types of people. Art seems to be our only avenue we have to express our individuality, whereas in bygone eras, everything we used, we made, and was personal expression.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Right. I have to admit was away for about 3 days and was zipping through all the comments not reading carefully enough.

I understand your point and it does not bother me either as I don't think we are defined by the objects we possess. Art is one avenue to express one's individuality but not the only way IMHO. We also express it in how we interpret the world around us. The individual is still there, but not as evident as before; exposed on the surface. Now you have to look a little deeper.

[ryoushii]

@JamesBurkeWeb You really don't get what he is saying. It' isn't the things per say, but that there is nothing that differentiates you from anybody else. And to say objects don't say something about you is silly. It is the very nature of being human that objects we use and create are a direct extension of ourselves, in the way an elephant's trunk, or a bear's claws and teeth define what it is. our objects are our trunks and claws, our way of dealing with the world to exist.

[Grak70]

Hmm...I don't see the problem with this in your mentor's view. Lots of people are willing to pay top dollar for good cottage industry and hand-craftsmanship. I don't think this is just a luddite response: people genuinely like to have a personal connection to someone (even a stranger) through objects they possess. Just think about how much a skillfully made gift from a friend or loved one means to you.

I guess the modern response would be: "it's a marketing problem!"

[mikeyman211]

Good call.

[flatlander30]

If I'm not here, where am I?

great, now I hate myself existentially. Thanks James Burke.

hahah

[JamesBurkeWeb]

lol

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Hmm, that's true. I guess Bic must have realized that "you don't fix what 'aint broke" ;)

- JBW

[supergeek0177]

did he just say phone at 8:33 - thts interesting i thought this was done during the 70's

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Nope ;) He said "comb"

- JBW

P.S. If you turn on the captions you'll get the full transcript.

[VinnfordSansbury]

He said comb.

[Grak70]

Ah, the short-lived comb-shaped cell phone of the 1970's...truly before its time. lol

[PaulUmbarger]

I love the last minute of this one. It is one of the more truer things every said about the modern man. Make sure to listen to that last minute or two a couple of times. It's the most profound thing that you will probably ever hear on a television show.

[Joyeuseful]

I really like the ending, too. It's so true for the time that was made. But at the same time, I don't think it's true today. With the internet, we're all watching, thinking, and reading such different things. Sure, our material objects are still pretty similar, but why should we be defined by the things we own? It seems like a very materialistic view on the one hand, but as I said, was pretty true for society at the time.

But who cares about that? An awesome, entertaining episode indeed.

[PaulUmbarger]

I know what you mean! I think what he is getting at is that because of the things those folks did over the centuries, we no longer have to hand make every thing we own and carry with us but, the down side is that there isn't much of "us" in the stuff that we all have. What could an archeologist say about a person from today as opposed to what we "know" of say the guy that was found frozen in the Alps? Handcrafted items say more about us than the store bought stuff. It's a lack of individuality.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

I think they'd get a pretty clear picture: Highly advanced (in order to produce things like plastics) but uniform in interests meaning a highly structured and directed propaganda force defining what it is people aught to aspire to; obtaining useless products at the expense of pursuing interesting and *potentially* useful knowledge.

By deduction education would've been the domain of a specialized class, so progress was too slow to prevent self-destruction; they were too easily manipulated

- JBW

[PaulUmbarger]

Good point. Nothing that is particular to any one individual says nothing about the individual other than he/she was just one of the herd! LOL! We've gained a lot but, we've lost a lot as well.

[PaulUmbarger]

A one off handcraftred television set? LOL! I have used that line a thousand times since I first heard it here! LOL!

[Drumspiracy]

Oh, Hortense.. my love!

[johnthekeane]

Yeah,pretty cool..but I think I prefer the german girl with the electric lips!

[crockyoshighty]

Her name was, Hortense. . .? I wonder what they bastardized her name to? You know, like Jonathan is John, Marcus is Mark, Susan is Sue, Albert is Al. You get the idea, dont you? But officer, thats my husband in the car. Look sweet cheeks, I heard what he said. Whore, get in the car. No officer, thats my name, Hor. Its short for Hortense. Yea, right lady. Who has a screwy name like that? Now turn around and put your hands behind your back. John, John! Hes arresting me. LOL

[eightyocho]

Now that's funny.