consumed

There is a fabulous article in the latest issue of Orion Magazine entitled "The Gospel of Consumption." It explores the cultural shift that took place during the 1920s that led to the consumer culture we now know. To understand the world we live in, it is helpful to look back and realize that there was a time when people functioned differently.

It is staggering to realize that what we often assume now as "just the way the world works" is really only a result of the cumulative choices of people, especially people in power. The Industrial Revolution that began in the 1800s led inevitably to a crossroads. We had gained previously unknown abilities and powers to produce. So a choice was laid before Americans. Now that we could produce our basic needs at a much higher rate, would we seek to use that power for good? Would we seek new and creative ways to use our newfound extra time?

Americans made a choice, and it was the folks with the money that led the way. The article references a 1929 magazine article by James Kettering, director of General Motors Research. The title of the article was "Keep the Consumer Dissatisfied." And there you have the beginning of the culture we now know, live and breathe. As the article says, "he was defining a strategic shift for American industry - from fulfilling basic human needs to creating new ones." The author of the article, Jeffrey Kaplan, goes on to say:

"Business leaders were less than enthusiastic about the prospect of a society no longer centered on the production of goods. For them, the new 'labor-saving' machinery presented not a vision of liberation but a threat to their position at the center of power."

Listen also to these words from President Hoover's 1929 Committee on Recent Economic Changes:

"Economically we have a boundless field before us; that there are new wants which will make way endlessly for newer wants, as fast as they are satisfied."

Consider the prophetic nature of that statement, made almost 80 years ago. These are the beginnings of a movement we have yet to see the end of, but one which is beginning to run its course whether we want it to or not. What began in the 1920s has played out in the creation of a society where the consumer is "king" (or slave?). The wants of the individual, or the creation thereof, drive everything about the world we know. But inevitably, the wants and felt needs of people will collide with reality. The natural world and human community have limits to what they can support.

Think about it from a different perspective: we just watched The End of Suburbia for our monthly Movies and Mindmaps discussion at Karis. This documentary explores this problem from another angle: It specifically focuses on how the suburban movement, which is deeply connected with the larger consumer movement in Western culture, has led us to the current era of peak oil and waning natural resources. The consumer mentality that began in the 1920s, though put on hold a bit during the Depression and World War II, was ultimately indoctrinated in post-WWII America. This "gospel of consumption" became: "Tired of the toil of city life? Move out to the country, live the good life away from the bustle of your workplace. Have your own space, and plenty of it. Fulfill the American Dream and have whatever you need." And heck, that was probably a pretty compelling vision in a society that had just seen some pretty bleak years.

But, as the article argues, all we've done is create a busy world where we run around like crazy in order to keep up our lifestyle of comfort and consumption. We sense that we don't really need it all, but nonetheless we work incessantly to get more, more, more. We could have a bigger house with more privacy. We could climb one more rung in the corporate ladder. We could get the latest technological device to manage our insane schedules. On and on the list could go. But what's the point? That's the great question the Orion article asks. Here's a staggering statistic: we were the richest country on the planet in 1948. Most of the world has not caught up even to where we were then. If we returned to 1948 levels of production and consumption, we could work 2.7 hours a day, and make everything we need!

Now, of course that may not be realistic or even desirable. But it illuminates an important truth for us. Our production and consumption is way beyond what is needed for us to live happy and abundant lives. This production could be aimed toward providing for the real needs of poor people throughout our country and the rest of the world, and we could do this while still working less. Many in our society work 60, 80, 100 hours a week, just to keep producing and consuming. What if we fundamentally had our priorities changed? What if we remembered that our most basic needs are spiritual, relational, and simple physical (read: food and clothing)? What if we were grounded in a deeper reality than the one marketers sell to us every day?

The businessmen of the 1920s paved the way for a society that looks to marketers to create needs, and so we have consumed the world around us with little regard for the less fortunate, the environment, or future generations. We gladly bought their vision, because we are selfish and greedy just like they are. But now we face the hard truth that our own earth can't even support our endless cravings much longer. And we face the even harder truth that the consumer vision is spiritually bankrupt. As God's image-bearers, we are first and foremost relational, moral and creative agents, not consumers. We are made to pour out for the betterment of the world God gave us, not for the endless bloating of our own selves.

The Kingdom of God, which Jesus first pronounced and displayed, turns all of this on its head. It's only in that culture that we can be returned to our rightful state as healthy and whole image-bearers of a good and gracious God. It's only there that my neighbor - rich or poor, strong or weak - matters more than myself. It's only there that we are defined not first by what we have or buy or produce, but by an identity as children of a loving King. It is not a Kingdom that can be bought and sold, but one that is freely given where there is faith in the good promises of the King. In his Kingdom, the last shall be first. So when will we stop our endless strivings and willingly become poor so that we can become a part of this Kingdom? Will we be last in a world obsessed with being first?

The article closes with a great point: "If we want to save the Earth, we must save ourselves from ourselves. We can start by sharing the work and the wealth. We may just find there is plenty of both to go around." The question that remains, though, is: who will save us from ourselves? We haven't proven to adept at that. The force for real change must come from the outside, not within. The gospel of consumption teaches us to live for our own gain at others' expense. The gospel of Christ teaches us to die that others might live. Which will create a good and just society?

Read "The Gospel of Consumption."