Planned Obsolescence: A Symptom of a Deeper Crisis

I received three class action lawsuit notices in the past three months, informing me I was entitled to cash settlements for purchase misrepresentations. That fact, and recent headline news, prompted this essay.            

In my ancient past, I could always count on hyperbole, yes, but also some basic truth in a sales pitch. I didn’t ever believe a new appliance would bring me happiness, but in whatever I bought, I could generally expect a modicum of safety and reliability.  

Today, it seems, this expectation has become a thing of the past.  

Now products seem to all have a predictable failure or obsolescence date, which will then prompt me to buy a replacement, while its predecessor winds up in a landfill.  

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This is costly and irritating and wasteful and a lousy way to run a planet. On an everyday level, who wants to have to buy a new toaster every few years? The consequences can be catastrophic when it comes to expected safety and reliability in things, well, like an airplane. In short, our trust that someone, somewhere, has our backs regarding our very lives can no longer be taken for granted. This social contract — our very understanding of what to expect in our economic transactions — has, literally and figuratively, come crashing down around us.

What Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, stated over 100 years ago still holds true today: “The world is in great turmoil, and the minds of its people are in a state of utter confusion.”

How do we find ourselves in this perilous place? The Baha’i teachings point out several important components of that crisis, including this one: collectively, we’re transitioning through the age of human adolescence into the coming age of maturity.  

It’s become painfully obvious that the accepted laws, mores, and values of our past, which often kept some egregious behavior in check, are no longer adequate. However, humanity tends to resist an expanded understanding of who we are and what is required of us in this new age of our adulthood. We long for what we remember as simpler times but are also being propelled into the future at warp speed. Along with the erosion of basic trust, this push-pull predictably fuels turmoil and confusion.        

So, it’s worth exploring remedies that will enable us to create a new social contract and build a new social order, one we can trust and rely upon. Baha’is believe these solutions are all spiritual in nature.

We Are Not Only Mammals

First, we need to redefine who we think we are. Our reality is a spiritual one, and as human beings, we have each been created with an inherent nobility. This requires us to progress beyond the belief that we are only animals — with all the excuses this provides for inflicting suffering on others. True, our bodies are animals, however, we have an added component — a soul. This allows us to act beyond, and overcome, the instinctual behavior that leads to self-serving, destructive actions. With this understanding, it should be clear we have a choice in how we value and treat others.

Living Up to Our Nobility Can Give Us Hope for the Future

Second, we must also redefine who we are in relation to one another.  

God, the Baha’i teachings affirm, has “… created all humanity from the same stock” and “decreed that all shall belong to the same household.” Baha’u’llah wrote:

Since We have created you all from one same substance, it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest.  

An understanding of this fact — of the organic oneness of the entire human race — requires a maturity that leaves our adolescence behind.  

Growing Up Elevates Our Sense of Responsibility to One Another

Finally, the Universal House of Justice, the democratically-elected leadership body of the world’s Baha’is, informs us that:

The welfare of any segment of humanity is inextricably bound up with the welfare of the whole. Humanity’s collective life suffers when any one group thinks of its own well-being in isolation from that of its neighbours … 

If we come to understand that only thinking of ourselves is not an advantage, but a hindrance to our progress, we can propel ourselves into a future previously unimagined, but foretold in glorious terms by the messengers of God.  

As we transition into our collective maturity, then, we will all benefit individually and as a society when we infuse a spiritual perspective into our lives.  

What are the consequences for humanity in insisting on prolonging our period of adolescence? We’ve reached a point where simple answers and money cannot solve the massive global issues we face. We now have societies split along the lines of those who wish for a past that no longer exists, those who push for a future without necessary spiritual guidance, and those frozen in uncertainty. Those societies are always suspicious and on guard, disaster-prepping for the unknown.  

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However, we now have spiritual solutions, brought by a new divine messenger, that will ease growing up and the consequences of what we have created thus far.

Societal trust erodes when self-interest and the profit motive run amuck, leading to flawed decisions, inferior products, and seemingly intractable conflict. Material wealth became more important to many than reliability, safety, and even human life. So, if we are created noble, and want a way out of the mess we’ve created, it requires we now act with nobility. Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’u’llah’s son and successor, wrote:

The honor of this creation and the worthiness of this garment therefore require man to have love and affinity for his own kind, nay rather, to act towards all living creatures with justice and equity.

I actually remember one toaster that served our family throughout my childhood and was still working when I married and left home. I bet it might still be working somewhere today. So, it’s not difficult for me to imagine a world where this could be expected to happen again. We know the old solutions are failing us. Let’s look to the future, have faith in God, and apply, in this day, His new spiritual guidance.