Fig. 9.1: Grin & Bear It, © 1962 North America Syndicate Inc.
Problems: Planned Obsolescence.”19 By the early 1960s, the idea of planned obsolescence had become prominent enough to be a subject for a number of newspaper cartoons, such as the one in Figure 9.1, from the Washington Post.
In 1968, a play was staged in Los Angeles, taking comic aim at “horsepower addicts,” while in the process dealing with issues of intergenerational diference. The play explored the idea that planned obsolescence separates the young from their elders. In it a youth informs us that “planned obsolescence has penetrated into the heart of the people. For us of this generation, nothing lasts, not even love.” One reviewer, writing in the Los Angeles Times, wryly opined that; “the play is one that would be unlikely to enjoy a long run in Detroit but Angelenos will find it an interesting trip.”20 A Chicago Tribune piece pleading for the preservation of an old Chicago federal building makes a similar association between planned obsolescence and the aesthetics and values of the younger generation, explaining the urge to trash the old building as a product of: “the cult of newness, youth, and planned obsolescence.”21
Moral Panic about Utility
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