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What Next?
- 08/16/08
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Recently I’ve been reading Media Unlimited, a book I stumbled upon while searching Amazon one day. It is written by Todd Gitlin, a professor of sociology and journalism at Columbia University. The book deals with the sticky subject of “how the torrent of images and sounds overwhelms our lives.” Through a couple of [long!] chapters, I’ve already been given much to think about.
This brief excerpt of the book caught my attention. It deals with the consumerism inherent to our society and shows how this consumerism came about and how it now leads to constant dissatisfaction.
[T]he Great Depression was a turning point, frightening workers with the burden of an impoverished free time. After World War II, pent-up consumer demand for a high-consumption way of life was boosted by government subsidies (via the low-interest mortgages and expensive highways that helped suburbanize the country). The die was cast: the public would choose money over time, preferring to seek its pleasures and comforts in the purchase of goods guaranteed to grow ever more swiftly obsolescent rather than in the search for collective leisure—or civic virtue…
Of course, the curious thing about consumer pleasures is that they don’t last. The essence of consumerism is broken promises ever renewed. The modern consumer is a hedonist doomed to economically productive disappointment, experiencing, as sociologist Colin Campbell writes, “a state of enjoyable discomfort.” You propel your daydreams forward, each time attaching them to some longed-for object, a sofa, CD player, kitchen, sports car, only to unhook the desires from the objects once they are in hand. Even high-end durable goods quickly outwear the thrill of their early arrival, leaving consumers bored—and available. After each conquest comes a sense of only limited satisfaction—and the question, what next?
Published in 2008, this book
This is a guide that calls men,
This review of the bestselling
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Comments (5)
He sounds a lot like David Wells.
I believe what he is describing is called "Covetousness" and it's been around a bit longer than he suggests.
Yes, Tim, I agree. I just finished a study through Jeremiah Burroughs' work The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, where he discussed this same problem over 300 years ago. This phenomenon certainly did not begin in the wake of the Great Depression. The folks who committed suicide because of that dreadful Wall Street disaster did not do so because of their ability to be content in whatever situation they found themselves. The problem, in fact, goes back to the Garden.
Gitlin is a tired old Bolshevik, still attempting to crawl to power on the backs of the productive (capitalist) class. Naturally, he must demonize that class, so he does so by impugning their motives. Motivated, hard-working folks who feed themselves and their families year in and year out, and form the foundation for the prosperous North American society must be disparaged as materialist whores so the morally "superior" Left can steal from them with an aura of legitimacy.
Very few people are true materialists, being an all too human mix of responsible adults and sinners tempted by some of the blandishments of our current culture. (And let those without sin cast the first stone. A faster computer? An eco-friendly car? A new shirt?) Those that are true materialists have my pity; what a horribly empty philosophy. Interestingly, most of the materialists that I have encountered are bitter leftists who desire the benefits of risk and labor without having to suffer either one.
"Materialism" is a broad, easy target, like "racism" or "sexism'. Railing against it is a cheap and easy moral puff. I suggest Christians think long and hard about what it is -- exactly -- that they are criticizing when they assault "materialism" and walk away feeling oh so proud of their superior virtue. If you are on the same page as Todd Gitlin, that should give you pause.
Consumerism at its core is greed and those who think its only the well off ,better think again . Granted those with more money tend to play the game more but our desire for "things" is in all of us. We cannot be content , we want more be it bigger homes , fancier cars , bigger TV's etc..nothing satisfies because they are temporary fixes . Its almost an addiction to some. I have seen men and women , more men in general , take up side jobs not because they needed to to live but just to accumulate more debt or stuff. Same with homes in my area . Its crazy the size of the homes being built, which harbor 1 or 2 children at most . But just like the builder who built his life on sand and when calamity struck , like the great depression , or worse the coming day of judgment either through our own appointed time with the grave or the Lord's coming , the house crumbles and they are utterly ruined. Christ is the answer and the hope to break the dissatisfaction of the soul. As John Piper has said clearly in much of his preaching ,God is the gospel and when we repent of our sin, look to cross of Christ and make Him our treasure, our satisfaction in this life , be it times of plenty or need , we have a hope that endures and will carry us through .