THE THROWAWAY SOCIETY
        
              We fix few things anymore.  If something breaks, we just
        chuck it into the trash and go buy another whatchamacallit and
        think nothing of it.  Fix-it shops are nearly extinct, gone the
        way of the dinosaur.  
              Have you ever wondered how our throwaway society began?  How
        have we evolved from a nation of fix-it-uppers to chuckers?  Let
        me share with you my notion on how this phenomenon came about.
              Once upon a time, every man, woman, and child carried a
        handkerchief with them.  Many children today do not even know
        what this word means.  A handkerchief was used to care for the
        nose.  Some were very elaborate having their owners initials
        embroidered on them.  Others were made of silk so that they would
        be pleasing to the tender tissues of the sides of the proboscis. 
        Carried in the sleeve of the shirt by some or in the back right
        hand pocket by others, the handkerchief was part of the wardrobe
        of people the world over.  
              In the 1950's someone came along with the notion that
        carrying such a dirty piece of cloth around was nasty, and
        invented a paper product called the "kleenex," a 6" x 9" piece of
        very thin paper tissue which the user could tear from a box and
        use to blow his or her nose.  No more messy cloth to carry around
        in the back pocket; no more transmission of disease by touching a
        soiled, linen handkerchief.  
              This event did not affect the known world like the discovery
        of E=mc2.
        However, it created a cultural aftermath that is still causing us
        to reel about for the past 40 years.
              When men and women stopped carrying handkerchiefs and
        started using kleenex, convenience replaced conservation.  It was
        easier to throw away a kleenex than it was to wash a
        handkerchief.  The argument was that it was more sanitary to use
        kleenex than to carry around a nasty old "hankie."  So people all
        the world began using their handkerchiefs to check the oil in
        their cars, wipe off the mud on their shoes, and a host of other
        "mop and clean" activities.  
              Evaluating the overwhelming success of the "kleenex
        phenomenon," other entrepreneurs asked their R&D departments if
        they too could produce goods like kleenex.  Items which could be
        made to last for a period of time and then, because of "planned
        obsolescence," a term which means that something is designed to
        last for only as long as the trumped up guarantee lasts, break
        and require the consumer to buy a new one.  Everywhere,
        manufacturers began designing items with limited life expectancy. 
        
              The march toward creating the throwaway society was on. 
        First, small items, like radios and appliances, were produced to
        see if people would buy them.  In no time, toasters and waffle
        irons were being made which lasted a year or two and then were
        broken and thrown away.  People complained but not too loudly. 
        After all, these were cheap items that could easily be replaced.  
              Now that people were conditioned to throw away these small
        items, the proponents of this new thinking moved to bigger and
        better items.  The race was on to revamp the consumer world.
              Cars, trucks, homes, even whole industries became disposable
        items.  The evolution was as simple as this, but it happened. 
        Given the powerful forces in control of this evolutionary
        process, men and women all over the world went along without
        voicing their opinions protesting the eventual outcome of this
        phenomenon in the history of mankind.  
              The throw away society did not stop at manufactured goods
        and other services.  No, the process, like a cancer, began to
        affect the very fabric of human civilization.  
              Where it became most noticeable was in relationships. 
        First, in friendships, and then finally, in the most stable of
        human institutions, marriage.  Divorce was not something easily
        considered in the 1940's and 50's, but by the late 1980's, more
        than 90% of the people in this nation were a statistic that made
        many people shudder.  Traditional nuclear families decreased from
        a high of between 60% and 70% during the 1950's to a abysmal low
        of 7% by the 1980 census.  Even institutions like the priest and
        sisterhood were being affected.  
              All over the nation people were asking what was happening? 
        What was wrong with people?  How could this possibly occur?  What
        was causing people to throw each other away as if they
        were...were just kleenex tissues?
              This is not the end of the story.  In fact, it is still
        being written by people everywhere.  We haven't even begun to
        experience the full effect of the throw away society.                   
              Is there any hope?  Most assuredly there is.  We are
        evolving into another civilization, and it seems to me that this
        evolutionary process will continue until another civilization
        replaces the one we are slowly burying.  
              This has happened before.  History is full of the rise and
        fall of civilizations.  What is unique about this one is that we
        are not reading about it in any book but are living through it. 
        Perhaps that is what makes it so scary.  We are writing history
        and generations from now will read what was happening and how we
        struggled to live through it.  
              The question we must ask ourselves, now in 1993, is, what
        will they read a few generations from now?