Obslescent Technology vs Cultural Artifacts

After the tidy-up…

Basil: I see you’ve still got that old carpet in the middle of the room.

Polly: But I’ve had it for forty years. It has a history. It’s like an old friend.

Basil: It’s red. Doesn’t go with the room. Ditch it.

Polly: But you don’t abandon people just because of their color, or disabilities, or tattoos.

Basil: Look, I just threw out a perfectly good phone, it still worked, but I’d upgraded.

Polly: But an old phone is just obsolete technology. Carpet's an artifact. Apples and oranges. The carpet brings me joy. I remember the people who walked on it.

________

Voice-over

When decluttering, according to Marie Kondo, you have to be committed to following a minimalist approach. Do it in categories, thank the items and discard them. But a key question, which Basil misses is, “Does it bring you joy?”

Hoarding

Michael helps Jade carry some boxes home.

...

Michael: You have no space.

Jade: If I move a few things…

Michael: You should do like I do, I’m going to buy something new, I throw out something first.

Jade: Can’t do that. Old things might come in useful.

Michael: You’re impossible. You mean, you’re too attached to the old stuff to throw them away?

Jade: Maybe.

Michael: You’ve got this addiction to things. You buy something, you like it, you can’t throw it away. You shop. You hoard. Your house is full of clutter.

Jade: At least it’s organized. All in boxes.

Michael: You buy new boxes every month.

Jade: Not my fault. Chimps hoard. Everyone hoards. It’s a survival instinct.

Michael: What good is that when you live in a small condo?

______________

Voiceover

Michael is very assertive, perhaps he is frustrated at having to lug heavy boxes around. Hence his exhortation, “You should do like I do,” his exasperation, “You’re impossible,” his quasi-analysis, “You’ve got this addiction,” and his weak-kneed conclusion, “What good is that…?”

Since Jade doesn’t fight back, we can only assume that Michael keeps his hoarding confined behind cupboard doors, and is thus quite human, or he is an obsessive-compulsive thrower-outer, and thus not properly human.

...