Consumerism has reached a new low with the trampling of a man in a Wal-Mart Store by shoppers eager to obtain deep discounts on the day after Thanksgiving. While shocking, this kind of behavior is a consequence of the messages in the United States we all receive about buying things. The “Holiday Season” has become less about enjoying time with family and friends and more about shopping. We, as a nation, have developed what bell hooks describes in, where we stand: class matters, an “obsession with consumption.” (p. 46)
Advertisements for holiday shopping that used to start after Thanksgiving now start right after Halloween. The decorations are hung, the holiday music plays and just like Pavlov’s dogs, we start to salivate and buy things.
In an earlier post, Tangled Threads and Cultural Beliefs that Damage the Quilt of Humanity, I wrote about how this nation’s cultural beliefs in materialism and consumption along with the myth of the “rugged individual” create a dangerous combination that serves to rip apart the Quilt of Humanity. The reality of shoppers so eager to buy that they trample another human being in the process is a perfect demonstration of how damaging these beliefs are. Even worse, according to one witness, when the police attempted to clear the store, explaining that an employee had been killed people kept shopping yelling, “I’ve been on line since yesterday morning.”
hooks discusses the impact of media messages about consumptions on young people:
“Today’s youth culture is centered around consumption, Whether it’s wearing designer clothes or cruising in luxury cars, materialism becomes the basis of all transactions. For young people, the world is their marketplace. All one’s worth, mass media advertising tells them, is determined by material things. [Youth] are constantly told that the only peace and happiness they can have will come to them through rugged individualism, through a focus on meeting self-centered needs.” (p. 81)
hooks goes on to write:
“In part, youth culture’s worship of wealth stems from the fact that it is easier to acquire money and goods than it is to find meaningful values and ethics, to know who you are and what you want to become, to make and sustain friends, to know love. When materially privileged white high school boys slaughter students who are different from them, from different races and classes, it is easier for the nation to talk about the luxury cars they drove rather than to talk about the emotional emptiness and nihilism that permeate their psyches.” (p. 85)
In my earlier post, I discuss what my approach would be if I were asked to consult to a youth leadership organization to help them replace the messages of materialism and consumption with messages of community and interdependence. Using the Quilt of Humanity ModelTM, I would design workshops to encourage young people to explore how the culture of materialism and consumption impacts them in their daily life (i.e., the way that culture leaves them feeling they need to purchase certain things in order to “fit in”).
Then, I would have them investigate how this culture impacts people in other countries (i.e., how certain products are made in other countries with the use of child labor and sweat shops) as well as how it impacts the environment as a whole (i.e., while the earth’s resources are dwindling, our drive to consume leads us to purchase more and more things that cause damage to the environment). This would help these youth learn about the connections between what happens here and elsewhere as well as between their daily actions and the larger environment.
It takes a conscious, intentional effort to keep at bay the urge to buy and consume. This is made even more difficult with the planned obsolescence of technology of all kinds. As bell hooks writes:
“Confronting the endless desire that is at the heart of our individual overconsumption and global excess is the only intervention that can ward off the daily call to consume that bombards us on all sides.” (p. 48)
This comes at such a great time for my family (siblings) who are raising teenagers who have no sense of sacrifice or appreciation of their parent’s efforts to give them the things they have. As a parent it is natural for me to give my children more than I had, but is it all too much? What is the best way to share a message of want vs need. It’s interesting how my immigrant parents worked so hard, we valued and respected their efforts. We didn’t have everything we wanted but had everythings we needed and we were loved. Today our family youth are spoiled, ungrateful and have no sense of obligation to their parents.
Carine,
I resonate with your dilemma about finding the balance in terms of how much to give my 12 year-old daughter.
Coincidentally, I just decided to provide her with a larger allowance but to make her buy what she wants using that. She received a big reality check when we went shopping yesterday and she found out how much money she needed to spend to buy the 2 new pair of jeans she wanted. it’s amazing how well she can budget and delay gratification when it is “her” money she’s spending. :)
Deb,
I believe that we are losing our sense of understanding of the interdependency of the natural ecology as is evident in our wanton levels of consumption–without apparently giving thought as to where we are all heading, i.e., where our doings are taking us. Are we taking time off to consider our consumptive ways? How will history view us when our doings would have been written finally by those who may have succeeded us? Are we so busy in our desire to get, and can all we can get, without the realization that no atom vibrates in the universe without its impact being felt throughout the universe; and that our habits are in fact upsetting the delicate balances that the Creator has ‘thesised’ for the orderly and harmonious governance of the Earth and the wider Cosmos?
Do we not realize that by our exponentially growing dimensions of consumption that we are in fact transforming energy into both constructive and sometimes destructive formats? What is the ratio of our constructive to our destructive use of the energies that we ultimately utilize in the gratification of our wants and needs? If this ratio is at least greater than one [1], then we are certainly on a complimentary path as we pursue our consumptive habits.
But as we look around this ratio seems to be far from one as we see the destruction of our environment which is manifesting variously in the polluting of our rivers, lakes, oceans and seas; in the destruction of our forests, fauna and biological and marine life; in the extreme and unusual climate and weather patterns that are gradually making losses of many of our gains; in the noise and noisy aspects of our cities and towns that reduce our ability to take time off to meditate and reflect on our apparent path to self-destruction– because the spirit of greed is often empowering us to give more emphasis and value to a life of seemingly senseless consumption as against a life of simplicity and contentment…We seem to have forgotten the old ways of thrift and care that should ensure that there will be a sense of ‘live and let live’ for the current global population as well as for the generations that will succeed us.
I once read somewhere that the Creator did not place a limit to our stupidity; and while not being insensitive to the exceptional few/many, it appears that our stupidity is feeding our levels of consumption never before seen in the history and life of our planet. Maybe the current global economic crisis is a respite in disguise–that we should take time off and reevaluate our 21st century consumptive habits, and perhaps make some vitally needed adjustments–that we return to a sense of sanity and sweet harmony that has been the vision of the Psalmist re “How good/how pleasant it is when we can live together in harmony.” But alas that fraternal harmony may be growing more and more unlikely [and certainly threatened] by our wanton consumptive habits that appear to have us bound in mental and spiritual shackles that are measurably binding us to a future that does guarantee us collective and universally happy and fulfilling lives. O that we pull ourselves, in time, from the brink of self-destruction from the course being charted by our unchecked values and vehicles of consumption and consumptive habits!
Anthony Brumble
For one wonderful angle on this set of issues, see “The Story of Stuff” at http://www.storyofstuff.com
The consumption problems being discussed here sound a lot like the problems of addiction: trying to fill a need by relying on something that cannot fill that need. Perhaps our culture of consumption needs the same kinds of interventions that have helped with other addictions. These involve not only facing up to the consequences of one’s actions, but also discovering some kind of meaning and pleasure in life that involves human connections, helping others, and perhaps surrender to something larger than oneself.
John,
I like your observation of our trying to fill a need by relying on something that cannot truly fill that need; that we need to look outside of ourselves to find the answer to our needs. Are you therefore suggesting that we seek to shift our focus from an internal perspective to a higher external perspective in our search to resolve the problem of our addiction, to which you’re likening our habits of consumption?
I share the grief and consternation over the senseless orgy of greed that our “holiday season” has turned into. The stores whip up a frenzy, but really it is the consumers who allow themselves to be manipulated and to believe that their value as family members and friends will somehow be lowered if they don’t participate in the crazy free for all of buying zillions of presents for all and sundry.
I expressed my upset and anger over the callous trampling of that store employee in my blog entry, http://risingsun1226.blogspot.com/2008/11/blackest-friday.html. I think we need to do a complete turnaround and make the holidays a time to give to charities and not to our family and friends who probably have more “stuff” than they know what to do with already.
There are also plenty of opportunities to celebrate by volunteering, which costs next to nothing. Let’s break the “shop till someone drops” mentality and start giving where it’s most needed.
Thanks Anthony, John and Celeste,
I agree that we need to replace our addiction to consuming and look internally for what really brings meaning to life – appreciating natural beauty, connecting with others, and bringing positive change to the world.
Deb
Well,
I am ashamed at how we have put ourselves and others in this awful place of consumption. When is enough, enough?
Knowing that I have a job that I work 10 hours a week at $8.00 an hour and out of full time work for a year, I find myself agonizing over ways to give gifts to my firends and family members. I have always given gifts, even when there was no occassion–just because, I am grateful for my friends and family members and because I find giving often gives me an excuse for feeling purposeful.
To kill or to lose one’s life over it is hard for me to get my head around this tragedy and the attitude people have for the sake of greed and me-ism.
Bless the family and friends of the Wal-Mart employee who lost his life for all the reasons that the loss of his life could have been avoided. And, prayers to those who could care less.
Monty,
It is hard to take this in. In my mind, the source of the problem is the nonstop marketing and focus on materialism in this nation. I’s the messages we are constantly bombarded with that lead to frenzied shopping – particularly messages that equate having money and material objects as evidencing success.
What we own and are able to purchase becomes more important that who we are.
This is certainly a time for reflection on what is most important and meaningful and for directing our energy toward those things, and not on the consumption of what does not matter.
Maggie,
Yes, reflecting on what is important and meaningful is a way to keep us from getting caught up in the consumption frenzy.
Deb
Over tens years ago i was asked a question by my economic professor pertaining to Capitalism and its course of destruction and how could it be stop? I stated that the only thing that will stop Capitalism is Capitalism itself, by depleting all of Earths resoucres… My professoor said i was absolutely right! After reading Simplicity vs.Comsumption and reflecting back on that day, I realized that i was completely wrong. Capitalism is not to blame. Our uncontrolable desire to consume materialistic objects under the guise that material gain measures the true value and worth of all that we are and capable of becoming, is at fault here. Yes i was truely wrong, only reflection of ones self and understanding that sincere respect and love for humanity couple with a desire to see everyone properly fed, clothed, and sheltered would stop the senseless deaths of people and destruction of our precious world!
Ghani,
Thanks for your input – my hope is that we can rein in our materialism without needing to let capitalism destroy us.
Blessings,
Deb