Made to Break (Part II)

If you think that you have a product that is safe from obsolescence, you’re wrong, because every thing you own is subject to obsolescence in one form or another. In the second part of Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America by Giles Slade, he begins to talk about the numerous ways in which obsolescence began to effect America throughout time. Giles Slade starts off with one of the biggest industries, radio. Around this time is when the term “death dating” started to be used and this is when planned obsolescence really started to include actually engineering parts to fail after a certain amount of time. From there, Giles Slade moves on to other industries such as housing, computers, and even production of highways. In the description of these industries I think Slade makes a very important argument, that although obsolescence may seem like it only effects what products people buy, it also affects their ideologies and beliefs.

If you think that obsolescence is only limited to the products you buy, your wrong, because even your beliefs and definitions of the world are subject to becoming obsolete. This is a very important argument that I feel Slade makes, because it really shows how obsolescence affects more than just what we buy. In radio, obsolescence seemed to mainly be concentrated on the “death dating” aspect of planned obsolescence, but even radio made some ideas obsolete. For instance, with the invention of the transistor, many companies began inventing much smaller radios that were meant to be kept in a persons pocket so that they could take it with them wherever they went. In order to market this item, the idea of just sitting down with one’s family and listening to the radio was made obsolete. What took its place was the idea of being able to listen to the radio on the go and do other things simultaneously. Also, a perfect example of ideas becoming obsolete is the front porches and basements of houses. When new housing at the outskirts of cities began to be created, very few of them had a basement or a front porch. The businesses did this to keep costs down, but these houses were advertised in a manner that made the whole idea of having a front porch or basement obsolete. Unbeknownst to the buyer, they would suddenly have their old opinion of having a front porch and basement removed from their mind and replaced with this new one. It was almost a form of mind control. Furthermore, an extremely good example of this kind of obsolescence is in the invention of electronic computers. With the creation of the electronic computer, the definition and value of engineers changed. As Larry Owens says “it marked the obsolescence of the cultural values of early twentieth century engineering in which students honed their problem solving talents with graphical methods and mechanical methods of various kinds.” (pg. 141) Obsolescence may be controlling which products we buy and how often we buy them, but it also seems to be controlling how we think of the world.

Without controlling obsolescence, we will not be able to control our own beliefs and values. This is the real point that I think Slade tries to get across through this argument. When the atomic bomb was created and the power and devastation it created was seen, it was proclaimed that modern man was obsolete. (pg. 146) Fortunately for us, man was not yet obsolete, but just the fact that such a conclusion could be come to shows the kind of power that obsolescence has. American culture needs to keep a tight leash on obsolescence, because without it American culture will simply become a large group of people running around looking for the next advertisement to define their beliefs and opinions.