A Thinking Reed

Other People’s Consumerism

Written by

Lee M.

in

Sojourners has just posted a handful of articles on the topics of consumerism and “the simple life.” One is by big time Radical Orthodoxy guy William Cavanaugh, which looks particularly interesting.

A confession: it’s really easy for me to condemn consumerism in the abstract, but rejecting it in practice not so much. One way I justify my own purchases is their high-brow character. My weaknesses are for good books, good coffee, good scotch, etc. Not lowbrow stuff like Britney Spears CDs or Friends DVDs. There’s a reason, I think, that the phrase that appears in so much social criticism is “crass consumerism;” often there appears to be a certain class angle at work.

On the other hand, though, how do we distinguish good from bad consumption? Obviously there are economic justice and environmental concerns, but beyond that, the things of this world, including the artifacts of human ingenuity, should be enjoyed shouldn’t they?

Comments

5 responses to “Other People’s Consumerism”

  1. Eric Lee

    “Obviously there are economic justice and environmental concerns, but beyond that, the things of this world, including the artifacts of human ingenuity, should be enjoyed shouldn’t they?”

    I haven’t read the article you posted yet, so I don’t know yet if I’m repeating anything here. I agree with what you’re going with that, but I think all too often those things become ends in and of themselves for fulfillment in place of God. Which, of course, ain’t cool.

    You should see my DVD collection 😛

    Reply
  2. Eric Lee

    should be “…where’ you’re going with that…”

    Reply
  3. Maurice Frontz

    Good job with the log in your own eye, Lee.

    I am slowly coming to the conclusion that encouraging tithing is the best way to deal with the consumerism thing. In this culture, so much is viewed as “necessary” that there may need to be a certain benchmark to say, “Hey, my discipleship leads me to bear the cross and to put God first, now, how do I do that? Such an encouragement would no more be preaching works-righteousness than would be encouraging daily Bible reading, prayer, etc. Even giving up all of one’s possessions could gain you nothing without love.

    It is just not realistic to make people feel guilty about being consumers without suggesting some positive alternative.

    Reply
  4. Marcus

    Don’t these things always seem a bit weird in the face of stunning economic inequalities, even within our own country?

    The bag lady with nothing sleeps under a newspaper in which we see a story about Bill Gates, he of the infamous 6 million dollar swimming pool, buying out some African state’s national debt.

    At least since Thoreau, Americans have been partial to periodic bouts of blather about how “we” are too much concerned with “things” – blather that has nothing to do with how we really live, or want to live, or will live.

    Middlebrow media fluff.

    As for me, I’m firmly attached to central heating and air conditioning, reliable and healthy food, a safe place to sleep, access to good books, and a way to get to the Internet.

    😉

    Speaking of good books, I’m almost done with the Charles Jarvis translation of Don Quixote (my Spanish isn’t that good); I’ve just finished John Dryden’s Marriage A-la-Mode (it was witty and impressive, and only slightly immoral – rather less so, in fact, than The Philadelphia Story), and am two acts into Shadwell’s The Libertine (billed as a tragedy, it is clownishly funny, likely not according to the author’s intentions or desires).

    Ah. A propos of consumerism and books, both, the two plays are in an Everyman pb called Libertine Plays of the Restoration that lists for $12 but I got for $5 at a Half-Price Books store. Amazing how well you can do, when you try.

    Reply
  5. Joshie

    They should be enjoyed, IMNSHO. Our society is organized in such a way that whatever your lifestyle, wherever you live, you are a consumer of something somewhere. If we boycott this industry or that, we end up hurting people trying to make an honest living in those industries as much as we do the “fat cats” screwing everybody over.

    The best we can do, I think is try to beat the system by saving and supporting things we believe make the world a better place like the church but also like the humane society, the symphony, public radio, etc at a sacrificial level.

    In the end I think we have to push for justice where it is needed and rely on God’s grace to cover us when we have no choice but to sin.

    Reply

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