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The Religion Of Consumerism
Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
The notion of consumerism as the religion of the United States is nothing new. That said, Warren Pollock did an excellent job explaining just how corrosive this mindset can be to a society. We were particularly taken by the idea that since the vast majority of people define themselves almost entirely by their level of consumption, or by some desired level of future consumption, their consciousness becomes easily controlled and their worldview easily managed and molded.
They simply cannot see life in any other context and so they become trapped within a very sick and twisted form of human existence.
And then there's George...
"...But I'll tell you what they don't want. They DON'T want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that, that doesn't help them. That's against their interests. That's right. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting FUCKED by system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin' years ago. They don't want that. You know what they want? They want OBEDIENT WORKERS. OBEDIENT WORKERS. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passably accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime, and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it..."
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Please don't apologize! "Earnt" is my new favorite word! I love learning new languages. :)
The left attack everything. It's a shame that more people don't realize that.
I don't want to eat dirt!
PS--I'm watching Absolutely Fabulous right now on the internet. One of the funniest shows ever.
I don't mean to stereotype you or the UK at all, but I'm serious....that is one funny show.
ab fab is brilliant, you might also like blackadder
Right-o! I'll check it out, old chap! Haha! Do you like my English accent?
I love me some AbFab!!!!!
Yes earned, my father earnt his too, well after i left home so there was never any pass on effect, Im not a liberal, liberals are the reason people in this economy feel pain, they have taxed peoples standard of living to the point where a guy cant buy cigerettes cos someone says they shouldn't smoke, doesnt matter people still want their things so cut elsewhere.
I see the down votes because i mentioned i was wealthy i assume, this is how poisonous consumerism is, you think i imply i am better than you because i have more wealth than the average person?
We need to stop comparing people by disposable income, by what they wear or what they drive, only then can we be happy.
You are not the car you drive or the house you live in, donald trump is richer than ill ever be but is he a good man? wealth isnt a scorecard, once you are comfortable its pointless amassing ever more wealth to buy things that dont even give value.
What you call a creature that consumes as its primary M.O. is a parasite. The establishment has created a consumption way of life that has farmed out the production to emerging economies. The saddest part is the lie that consuming is good, admirable, and a source of happiness. It's a total lie. What makes people happy is not consumption, it's production. Producing something is what creates a sense of worth, security, value, and the sense that you're part of something that is adding to the world and building up some karma. Parasites are the ugliest and lowest forms of species, and Americans have become primarily parasitic. We have been virtually forced to be part of a consumption based society because all the work is built taking something other countries have produced and reselling it to consumers. Banks are at the heart of it, because banks don't produce anything. Banks and bankers are pure parasites hiding in the costumes of respectablity--all bought with the money of others and all designed to create an air of unquestionable superiority. People's most intrinsic instinct is to procreate, which is the combination of creating and producing. Creating and producing are the sources of life. Consumption as the motivation is death for all.
Nice post. Stands to reason and Natural Law.
"They simply cannot see life in any other context and so they become trapped within a very sick and twisted form of human existence."
Banksterz and politicians are at the top of the heap as far as "consumers" go. total leachfucks. They are non producers, like a lamprey.
I get a kick out of being as close to a non consumer that I can.
I like stuf I can fix myself.
There.comes a point in ones life where one awakens and starts getting rid of shit. We are there. Relax, food and shelter and rest.
>> one awakens and starts getting rid of shit.
That happened to me going on almost 15 years now. It is astounding just how much "stuff" I've gotten rid of. And I'm still at it. It is hard for me to imagine, now, the vastness of the little possession empire I maintained.
Funny little story, well, funny to me. When I finally sold my commercial property and bailed out of normal society my last two employees didn't want to give up, so I gave them the business. I was just toast, I wanted gone. Much to my surprise they kept it going until now and just sold it. Sold it for a pittance, but still sold it. And although the guy that sold it owed me nothing, and I made sure he knew my feelings about not being owed a dime, he still gave me half. There are good people in the world and he is one of them. I knew it back then, that's why I was good with just giving him the company when I left.
There have always been a lot of good people out there, its just that they are now under pressure of extinction. Good people living a moral life are now the saps, the suckers, to be be made fun of. Muppets I think is what they are called. Societal moral degeneration.
Thanks for sharing that. I've found that there are still very good people left in America. They are rare but they are here. I choose to spend my time with a small number of good people rather than with the normal American parasite. I am much better off for it, too.
What about the other one? Of the two you gave it to, that is?
The other guy walked away
The latest trend in this regard is "content" where "audiences consume content." All the social medai are built for people to share and consume "content," most of which is shallow insubstantial plagiarized creation of someone else who actually applied mental effort--the vast minority of our society now. "Content" gets dumber by the week as "brands" become newsrooms that are really just aggregators of stuff the few remaining living and thinking people have created. So creativity and production diminish while the brain dead drones do less and less creating, and more and more consuming, and have a growing sense of dissatisfaction and unhappiness that they try to fix with more consumption, only to end up more lifeless. When all you see is messages about consuming, you begin to forget that we are wired to produce, to create, to be helpful, to have purpose, to enjoy life by being alive. Being alive is bringing things to life, not consuming them. Consuming produces one thing: shit.
+1
In the 1990's I finished 95% of an MBA. I got stuck on the Strategic Marketing course unit - my lecturer wouldn't pass my essays until I took my commentary out of them. In a nut shell I found the idea of creating a 'want' then turning it into a 'need' sickening, a genuine & useful product sells because its better/cheaper/innovative and shouldn't need psychological tricks unless, IMO, there was a problem with the product and shifting a families spending habits to buy it was a dubious practice at best.
Unfortunately I still fell for the game and went on to work in an area focused on changing "organisational culture"...which, in hindsight, is not much better than cultivating consumerism, back then I thought it was.
I'm an atheist.
Do you really believe that? Prove it.
A small extension from everyone's favourite mad Scottish Psychiatrist, R.D. Laing:
Consumerism is but one manifestation of a much more insidious trend, known in these parts as the cultivation of 'sheeple.'
nice one. welcome.
herding the flocks begins early, instilling the minds with the concept of "nation states", and all that entails - saluting, pledging, enlisting, defending.
breeding, consuming, that just follows on quite naturally, like after-thoughts. . .
Bernays' wonderland.
You don't want one of those? What's wrong with you???
Most people have been caned out of their critical thinking faculties over the years. The ready accusation of 'conspiracy theorist' hinders many from using a critical eye to get to the bottom of things. By merely seeking truth with govt matters, people are labeled crackpots. Most americans are ignorant and would rather remain that way given the option, because discerning truth is hard work and destroys faith in the establishment.
and the worst consumer of all?
It goes by "The FED" and uses FEAR and LAW to CONSUME your earning through interest, inflation, and taxation.
Sustainability means planning our future in a way that we do not set ourselves up to crash and burn at some future date. Long-term planning has not been something politicians excel at or are even good at. Our system is geared at getting politicians reelected and fulfilling the most pressing needs of today.
Things like profit, greed, and quenching our unrelinquishing desire for growth are placed in front of longer term issues and needs. Mapping out a logical and sustainable long-term plan requires delving into some rather hefty philosophical questions like what brings real happiness. More on this important topic in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/04/planning-sustainable-future-for-m...
Not just politicians that don't excel at long-term planning dear.. It's becoming painfully clear that the human race in general isn't very much adapted for the kind of "long-term" plannning that would be necessary to avoid it's own inevitable demise. We like to think ourselves as quasi-god creatures, but in the end, we share well over 90% of our genes with rats. Even our brain isn't all that different from other mammals. Sure it's bigger, but the limbic system still retains the ability to take over behavior for evolutionary reasons that once served its purpose of momentary survival and reproduction. For most of our history, and still true for a large part of the current population, daily survival was/is such a concern that long-term planning was/is not an option. It could be argued that natural selection did push for traits that favored a slight change towards seasonal planning with the advent of agriculture in some cold parts of the planet that needed planning for the Winter season. However keep in mind agriculture has been around for a good 10,000 years, while modern ultrafast hyperconsumption society has only been sprung out during the last century. 100 years might cover 4-5 generations, but this is nothing on an evolutionary scale. The last few century brought such massive change in the way humans live at such a fast pace that natural selection cannot possibly have had the time to keep up. Leaving us with a genetic code adapted mostly for hunter-gathering, perhaps agriculture, but definitely not this hyperconsumption society of smartphones, Internet, endless distractions, endless temptations, and widespread information overload.
In the end very long-term planning may actually be foolish, simply because unexpected events always arise, and such plans are unlikely to work as intended. Take for example someone who self-sacrificed and played by the rules for decades with the expectation and plan of a comfortable and happy early retirement. Just when this person is about to 'retire' after years of tears, sweat and blood, an unforeseeable event such as a geomagnetic storm large enough to fully disrupt glocal electronic devices for a few days occurs. Needless to say all his sacrifice has just gone to waste since a full SHTF-scenario would be sure to follow. At the end of the day, very long-term planning is likely to be futile, the uncertainty of such plans' success' far too high for it to be worth significant sacrifice.
i like shopping.
especially when i can pay cash.
:)
Boom Lyrics...
I've been walking through your streets,
Where all you money's earned,
Where all your building's crying,
And clueless neckties working,
Revolving fake lawn houses,
Housing all your fears,
Desensitized by TV,
overbearing advertising,
God of consumerism,
And all your crooked pictures,
Looking good, mirrorism,
Filtering information,
For the public eye,
Designed for profiteering,
Your neighboor, what a guy.
“Freedom is the possibility of isolation. You are free if you can withdraw from people.” -Fernando Pessoa
“The nine-to-five is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind. You give your life away to a function that doesn’t interest you. This situation so repelled me that I was driven to drink, starvation, and mad females, simply as an alternative.”
-Charles Bukowski, Sunlight Here I Am: Interviews & Encounters 1963-1993
Great quote, and here I was just thinking I was an antisocial fuck!
You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.
Who's "you," Kemosabe?
It's a trap we're conditioned into at an early life, trying to accumulate what we see others' having.
As some grow older and wiser, frugality becomes necessary to simplify lifes burden.
That's if you're in control of your world in the first place. Look around.
A Conversation between Farmer A to Farmer B:
Farmer A: I'm not going to buy hay from you anymore so that I can save money.
Farmer B: Well, I'm going to save money by not buying your milk and dairy products.
Together: Hurray! This austerity will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams!
(Do you believe that, ZH readers? Will Farmer A and B become MORE prosperous by agreeing not to spend?)
---
The message here is that, in a consumer driven economy, your spending is my salary and my spending is your salary. That is why it works so well.
Our consumer society, which we praise for having brought labor saving devices to the world, is exactly what launched the great American Middle Class. And that American Middle Class has now only become threatened and, in fact, eroded due to PRECISELY the hoarding and wealth accumulation of the SUPER RICH advocated in this stupid article.
You would really have to drink the entire punch bowl of Zero Hedge libertarian Cool-aid --along with their Hors d'Oeuvres of "shit sandwich on rye" -- in order to buy into the ZH lie. So, EAT UP!
That was disassociate. I am Chumbawamba.
"In the final analysis, however, Keynesian theory is a set of mutually reinforcing but jointly unsupportable propositions about how certain macroeconomic aggregates are related to one another. Keynesian policy is a set of self-justifying policy prescriptions. For instance, if the government is convinced that wages will not fall and is prepared to hire the unemployed, then the unemployed workers will not be willing to accept a lower market wage, ensuring that wages, in fact , will not fall. Thus, while the intention of Keynesian policy is to stabilize the economy, the actual effect is to "Keynesianize" the economy: It causes the economy to behave in exactly the same perverse manner that is implied by the Keynesian assumptions. This convoluted interrelationship between theory and policy has long obscured the flaws in the theory itself."
http://www.auburn.edu/~garriro/fk7trouble.htm
Ask yourself this: is there anywhere else on the net you get a vast amount of different voices with intelligent backing like you get to debate here?
novictim,
+1. Anti-consumerism is the left's religion. It has been for decades. This is nothing new, and it is certainly not a libertarian value. Never mind that the left contains just as many rich people (maybe more) as the right. You have to ignore that, or the left will call you names. No, what the left wants is for the right to stop being consumers, so that the left will have everything.
Stated differently, anti-consumerism is anti-capitalism a/k/a socialism. The left wants to have everything while you eat dirt.
I think where folks enter into disdain over consumerism is when it teeters into a narcissistic domain where everyone is beat over the head with "buy buy buy". When I see articles on WSJ touting Christmas coming up, like was seen today in May, it seems desperate. Consumerism is a direct result of corporatacratic tendencies where they try to squeeze every nickel from us and push into more debt. I think the connection they are trying to make is that consumerism leads to more debt. Debt is bad, everyone knows that. This isnt a jab at capitalism, it's a jab at debt and a burgeoning narcissistic system that is poured upon us at every turn.
Iridium,
I agree with you more than you know. I happen to be a minimalist compared to most people. As a conservative, I think it is prudent to conserve and save your money. I don't spend a lot of money at Christmas (and I am a Christian, but I don't have kids).
You mentioned the WSJ, which may or may not have been a slam against conservatives, but everybody is desperate in retail. Consumerism is human nature. It's not a conservative or liberal value or fault. It's part of the human condition.
What matters is how you get there. Do you pay for what you want, or do you steal it or borrow for it? That is the difference.
Not by promotion but attraction...it is well documented about the death of retail and the consumer well drying up. I too a a minimalist by necessity. My good friend is upper management at American Eagle. He's got three kids and a wife depending on his job. So far he is ok, but if they go under or slash numerous jobs he screwed. I know those pushing our economy are grasping for anything. There is a confluence of headwinds. I just don't think novictim understood what was being railed against. He comes here as a voice of dissent against groupthink that even I am a part of sometimes. I think true capitalism, laissez faire capitalism, as detailed by Adam Smith and protected by a proper and fair justice system, is a wonderful system! but we are reaping the malevolent effects of economic mismanagement and the push for consumerism is a the final death rattle before severe dire straits. I always appreciate your comments. I appreciate you posting me up last week when I came off strong on Sangell.
Thank you. You are right. There is a confluence of headwinds. I try every day to make sense of it. I love capitalism, but we have severe mis-management. The push for consumerism for the past 40 years has been all about the credit bubble. My theory is that it's ending, and we will slide backwards from now on, to a 1970s standard of living if we are lucky.
I appreciate your comments, too. And I am humbled that you read (much less appreciated) my comments about you and Sangell last week. :)
"Consumerism is human nature. It's not a conservative or liberal value or fault. It's part of the human condition."
LOL...prove it.
You prove that it's not.
Sorry, I didn't make the assertion--you did. Ball's in your court, pal...
The problem with your little scenario, you moron, is that no one's talking about not spending money on necessities--which, for Farmers A and B, include hay, milk and other dairy products--but rather, not spending money on SHIT YOU DON'T NEED, like ANOTHER phone, or ANOTHER tablet device, or ANOTHER fucking giant TV. And of course, your concluding statement in your fictional scenario--"Hurray! This austerity will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams!" belies the confused, idiotic notion on your part that being rich beyond one's wildest dreams is everyone's goal! It's NOT, you monkey. GETTING MORE THINGS is YOUR goal, and the goal of millions of other shallow halfwits like yourself, but I guarantee you that it's NOT everyone's goal. So why don't you just go have another cocktail in the grill room with your buddies, where you can just blabber on pointlessly about nothing--and then go home and watch TV?
"...not spending money on SHIT YOU DON'T NEED..."
Oh! Now it all makes sense! Thanks, Vooter!
Clearly, we need a Gubment agency to determine what people need. Guns? Nope. Housing? Nope...unless the bridge over pass is fully occupied. Computers? Nope...they just take up peoples time.
What would you like to put on the Gubment list of Things You Don't Think People Need, Vooter?
You can spend as much money as you want on whatever you want--who gives a shit? And where did I say anything about a government agency determining what people need? LOL...you made the assertion that NOT spending is a bad thing, because (in your mind) spending is what made this country great (when, in fact, an economy that's 70% based on consumption is a BROKEN economy--strong economies actually make things). I was simply pointing out that as hard as it is for you to believe, many people are not spending monkeys like you. What you believe is "austerity" is actually a healthy condition exhibited by adults who have gained enough sense and wisdom not to act like five-year-olds in a candy store...
Dear Misters ZeroHedge,
Can you please change your f@#king Twitter avatar to the desktop avatar or the Ed Norton at the start of this post (to keep with the Fight Club quote and theme)? I worry that people think I'm following some homosexual feed when they see me browsing Twitter at work or on my phone and that shirtless Brad Pitt avatar comes up!
Signed,
Not just me
A big shift is occurring in what consumers are buying. Recently we are witnessing a shift from general consumer goods to more purchases of autos and healthcare. The first quarter GDP just came out with a near flat increase of just .1% yet these two sectors have been outperforming the economy.
If indeed online and auto sales are roaring up double digits at the same time healthcare spending has increased 4.2% it is only fair to assume small business and someone else is getting their ass kicked. Interestingly, this is all occurring as the government continues to pour out billions of dollars each month in student loans, many of these loans will never be repaid. This can be viewed as more proof we are on the wrong path, more on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/05/consumption-of-autos-healthcare-a...
I think "Narcisstic Consumerism" would be more accurate name.
ownership and freedoms are illusions, the only way back to this ideology, is withhold labor and taxes till they cave. Otherwise dream all you want and think your free to move about, welcome to the machine.
here is one man doing his part to break the chains
If you don't have easy, fed-created cheap credit....most economic problems kinda take care of themselves.
When risk is properly matched to potential reward, it's amazing what happens to the decision-making ability of even the unwashed.
The notion of consumerism as the religion of the United States is nothing new. That said, Warren Pollock did an excellent job explaining just how corrosive this mindset can be to a society. We were particularly taken by the idea that since the vast majority of people define themselves almost entirely by their level of consumption, or by some desired level of future consumption, their consciousness becomes easily controlled and their worldview easily managed and molded.
One could easily replace the word "consumerism" with "Libertarianism" and still have the same effect. Most Libertarians promote the notion that we are so close to having free markets and freedom itself if only we would make a few adjustments. This is why I decided to put the ideas of Libertarians on the shelf a long time ago. Libertarianism is integral in maintaining an ever growing top down command and control central government. Like the boiling frog, if citizens think freedom is right around the corner they will allow themselves to simmer for longer than they would if the illusion were stripped away.
Take healthcare for example. For all intents and purposes, healthcare should have been considered a public sector enterprise well before the affordable care act came along yet it still retains all of the trappings of private ownership, private bondholders etc, that are probably, "leading Libertarians". Libertarian ideology serves the purpose of promoting the idea that there is at the least a possibility of free markets when in reality everything is commanded and controlled by a giant top down central government.
First of all let me say that my opinion of George Carlin was that he was a foul mouthed idiot. He understood a lot of problems but his solutions were for the most part lunacy.
There has been a lot of talk about freedom/slavery, collective/individuality, human nature, consumerism etc. The problem with freedom is that it requires people willing to die for it to keep it. Not saying I am not just as scared as everyone else out there today but the fact is, it took dying to get the freedom we have today and it will take dying to keep it or get any of it back. All this talk about voting, protesting, being independent is just a lot of bs if you are not willing to die for what you believe. The tyrannical side will always find fools willing to die and/or kill you to subject you to their rule. If you are not willing to go the same distance, the best you can hope is to slow down the tyrannical process. Think of every stand you might be willing to take and if you take it to the bitter end and stand the whole way, it will end with you dying or being robbed of everything you have in this world. If you are not willing to go the distance, might as well just be happy to play the game for as long as they allow it.
Consumerism is what I would refer to as covetousness. That IS human nature. To covet, want, have, mostly what we cannot or should not have. Just tell an American he can't have something and he will do his best to prove everyone wrong and damn the expense! There is no satisfaction or contentment in the world today. No one is happy with what they have. It is all about more. And the writer is correct that wanting more leads to slavery by those who have what you want. The degredation of human character can be seen in what we are willing to give for what we want. As a society we are giving away our freedom, liberties, and lives to get what we want. Then we want to cry about it. We want it all. Everything we want at no cost.
All of us here are attached to the monetary system in some way. The problem is when we make ourselves slaves to that system because of the things we want. Limit your dependency on fiat currency and you will have more freedom. The lie is, "If I only had more money, I would be free to do what I want." We are enslaving ourselves and working ourselves to death so we can be free. Problem is "the man" just moves the target so you have to have more to be "free" and you end up dead before you ever reach the goal.
Debt is a great enemy and eliminating it or limiting it greatly would be a great start. Debt is the means for enslaving the world. WE ALL KNOW THIS! So when someone suggest limiting our debt, don't bash them. Find a way to do it because you know it is right.
Covetousness. Control you wants! Don't be suckered in by every commercial. Find happiness and contentment in what you have. Do this by not focusing on how good it could be but rather how good you have it compared to many in the world. Getting more stuff only makes us want more stuff. Look at yourself! All of us have way too much of something that we are NEVER going to need or even use. Stop the addiction to stuff. Quit being a slave to it. Enrich your life; pyhsically, mentally, spiritually instead of your storage facility. Quit being a pig!
With regards to individualism or being on a team, there are reasons to come together but never at the expense of certain individual liberties. A collective function should be for the ultimate goal of expanding and protecting individual liberty. We are not all in this together. I am not responsible for your actions. If I join your group, it should be because I want to and not because you make me. The ability to make ones own decision is a basic tenant of freedom. We are great when we bring our individuality together in a common cause that is worthy of our effort. We are conscripts when we are forced to come together for a cause that we don't agree with or even understand.
Finally, let me end the way I began. With all the great minds and men we have had in history that have influenced this great nation for good and meaningful effort, it saddens and sickens me to see the punk, George Carlin, rolled out as some mental giant in the area of politics, government, and social interaction. Surely to goodness he is not the poster child for libertarianism. I would prefer Thomas Jefferson by a long shot. George Carlin wouldn't have been able to stand in the same room with Thomas Jefferson. One was a man and the other was a bafoon.
That was great. Thank you.
GUBMENT NOTICE
In response to the concerns expressed here on Zero Hedge, we, your Gubment, would like to take suggestions as to What People Don't Need on the WhatThePeopleDon'tNeed.gov website.
We will then eliminate these "things" by 1) destroying your credit and 2) making you too poor to afford "things".
Help your gubment make a difference today.
Please go to WhatThePeopleDon'tNeed.gov and list the many things you don't think other people need.