I've been consumed with a lot of things lately. School for one. Actually, that's the main one. In 3 weeks I will complete my final course for my duh gree. I know what your thinking, 'meh'. I hear ya, I feel the same. Still, I've invested so much time and $ into this thing - it would be irresponsible not to finish. So I am. I hope to Graduate next spring.
I was doing some research for my paper tonight and came across this article called "Why the Devil takes Visa: A Christian Response to the triumph of Consumerism." It immediatly caught my attention as I was sure the big D was an American Express guy. I ended up reading it, which took up most of my evening, but it was well worth it. The guy struck a deep chord with me as I've been thinking about consumerism for some time now.
One of the quotes he cited came from the Thompson Red Book on Advertising, ya that one.
"Advertising aims to teach people that they have wants, which they did not recognize before, and where such wants can be best supplied." Anyone feeling duped? If not read again, slower this time.
Another stinger - "No one has ever in his life bought a mere piece of merchandise--per se. What he buys is the satisfaction of a physical need or the gratification of some dream about his life."
These 2 gems were only the tip of the iceberg. By the end of the article I was ready to throw out all 100 of my Dvds, oh yes, I really do have that many, as well as the dozens of other needs collecting dust. Here's the thing, most nights when I sit down to watch something I inevitably surf. Why do I surf? Well, there's nothing on any of the 75 channels we pay for. What about the Dvd's? I've seen them all, in some cases more then 5 times!!
Still, I like to think I'm not a consumer type. After all, I only drive one vehicle, I still don't own an Ipod and I haven't bought new clothes in over a year. Blows your hair back, doesn't it?
What is wrong with me? What is wrong with us? How can we think the way we live is ok? 150 years ago 6 out of 10 people lived completely off the land. Today, we moan because we have to drive to Superstore where the lineups can last more then 15 minutes!!!!!!
How can we escape Consumer living when we live in Capitalist Canada? For us not to consume we'd have to move to a commune, or be . . .Castaway.
What is left for citizens to do when their continent, country, city, community, culture, church, Christianity and yes even their Christ have become things to consume instead of treasures to cherish? I know Dave, 11 c's.
Should we revolt, give in, surrender, take up arms? None of those sound right. So what? What are we to do?
Consider this a Grid Blog. Please, weigh in.
John
Thursday, April 12, 2007
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6 comments:
I've just signed you up to do our small group talk on greed.
Hope
One of the things I find myself saying a lot is - "no one had that 100 years ago" - for example; internet, tv, dishwasher, prepared food, cars, playdates, etc, etc. I complain that we don't have enough time or money for the things we need (or want). My kids have WAY more than I did. All I have time to do is wash the thousand items of clothes we own or picking up our million toys! Making life simple enough to meet our real needs for peace seems to be one of the most difficult goals in life. It seems a lot easier to just take on more work to "meet the bills" than to get rid of the bills. It seems no matter what - we will pay for comfort and ease at any cost. It is so depressing to think that I am my own worst enemy...
Hi John,
Maybe living in a commune wouldn't be such a bad idea... Is that what being a farmer is? A commune of one family? Maybe living on an acreage where we grow our own food, get our energy from sun and wind, and only need money for, well, not much... sounds kind of attractive to me. More and more these days.
Interestingly, there is a growing movement, even among the non-tree-huggers, to build and live in tiny houses. Big houses cost more to build, cost more in taxes, cost more to heat, cost more to cool... you get the drift... even secular people are starting to reject the bigger is better style of consumerism.
I remember way back when we did the 'hunger strike' in Regina. One of the activities was where we were in groups pretending to be countries and we were all alotted food to use/trade. Some countries ended up with not enough food. There was more than enough to go around.
I think I'm babbling now, so I'll go to bed. ;-)
Good thoughts John.
Cool, Cyrus. I'll join a commune. I've always liked the living off the land thing.
We love the farmer's market, too. It's a good alternative, when you can't do it on your own. Local, organic and all that.
Anyway, good thoughts.
Angie
I saw this neat special about a commune this week - some parts of it looked really cool, except the sex/drug abuse/murder and whole "drink the koolaid and die thing"... but I'd still probably try out Johntown when you start it up - I'm an excellent driver of garden tractors.
I work for an Ad Agency that specializes in agriculture. I have to say that our ads for the most part have a great deal more purpose than general consumer ads - but they are far more politically incorrect. People don't want to be to supportive of companies that sell pesticides and herbicides.
But this farm culture feeds the rest of society and allows for the hands off consumerism that the rest of us can get so caught up in.
As for needs based - I never knew until recently that my teeth needed to be whiter!!
Berta
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