consumerism

from creative class:

If Fordist mass consumption had a catchphrase, it was “Keeping up with the Joneses” - and in the past decade it became a fearsome standard. So many of us came to define ourselves not through our work or creative endeavors, but through what we could purchase. We were fooled into believing that our identity and self-worth somehow depended on acquiring expensive or impressive belongings - much of it on credit.

…

How will we define ourselves when we can’t get a quick self-defining “makeover” at the dealership, the electronics store or the mall? How will we rebuild our way of life and our very identity? Those are the questions that many of us, and our society as a whole, will be confronting long after the financial markets have been restored.

what are some other ways that we can define identity outside of consumption?  if we’re not what we buy … who are we?

required reading for sarah palin?

The Future of the American Idea
November 2007
Atlantic Monthly
by David Foster Wallace
Just Asking

Are some things still worth dying for? Is the American idea* one such thing? Are you up for a thought experiment? What if we chose to regard the 2,973 innocents killed in the atrocities of 9/11 not as victims but as democratic martyrs, “sacrifices on the altar of freedom”?* In other words, what if we decided that a certain baseline vulnerability to terrorism is part of the price of the American idea? And, thus, that ours is a generation of Americans called to make great sacrifices in order to preserve our democratic way of life—sacrifices not just of our soldiers and money but of our personal safety and comfort?

In still other words, what if we chose to accept the fact that every few years, despite all reasonable precautions, some hundreds or thousands of us may die in the sort of ghastly terrorist attack that a democratic republic cannot 100-percent protect itself from without subverting the very principles that make it worth protecting?

Is this thought experiment monstrous? Would it be monstrous to refer to the 40,000-plus domestic highway deaths we accept each year because the mobility and autonomy of the car are evidently worth that high price? Is monstrousness why no serious public figure now will speak of the delusory trade-off of liberty for safety that Ben Franklin warned about more than 200 years ago? What exactly has changed between Franklin’s time and ours? Why now can we not have a serious national conversation about sacrifice, the inevitability of sacrifice—either of (a) some portion of safety or (b) some portion of the rights and protections that make the American idea so incalculably precious?

In the absence of such a conversation, can we trust our elected leaders to value and protect the American idea as they act to secure the homeland? What are the effects on the American idea of Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Patriot Acts I and II, warrantless surveillance, Executive Order 13233, corporate contractors performing military functions, the Military Commissions Act, NSPD 51, etc., etc.? Assume for a moment that some of these measures really have helped make our persons and property safer—are they worth it? Where and when was the public debate on whether they’re worth it? Was there no such debate because we’re not capable of having or demanding one? Why not? Have we actually become so selfish and scared that we don’t even want to consider whether some things trump safety? What kind of future does that augur?

FOOTNOTES:
1. Given the strict Gramm-Rudmanewque space limit here, let’s just please all agree that we generally know what this term connotes—an open society, consent of the governed, enumerated powers, Federalist 10, pluralism, due process, transparency … the whole democratic roil.

2. (This phrase is Lincoln’s, more or less)

David Foster Wallace is the author of several books, including Infinite Jest (1996), A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again (1997), and Consider the Lobster (2005).

today we recall david foster wallace, a sensational american novelist who was found dead in his los angeles home after apparently commiting suicide.  foster wallace wrote a number of excellent books and short story collections; his 1100 page (and 400 footnote) magnum opus, infinite jest, occupied my summer’s worth of subway rides about 7 years ago.

foster wallace gave a commencement address at kenyon university in may 2005 that is well worth reading.

Because here’s something else that’s weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it JC or Allah, bet it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

some notes on suicide, from these two sources:

•  on average, 89 americans commit suicide each day.  the vast majority of suicide victims are white, male, and young.  the american estimate is that, for each completed suicide, 25 attempts are made; 816,000 annual suicide attempts are made in the u.s. (or 1 for every 367 people).
• in canada, 3,765 suicides were reported in 2003 (compared with 2,766 traffic fatalities in that year).  suicide is the leading cause of death for men aged 25 to 29 and 40 to 44, and for women aged 30 to 34.  it is the second leading cause of death among youth aged 15 to 24. For each completed suicide there are 100 attempts, and over 23,000 Canadians are hospitalized each year for a suicide attempt.

i’ve seen ‘obay’ ads at a couple bus shelters in toronto: one on the northeast corner of college and university and another tonight somewhere on queen west.  they look like this:

any idea what they are about?   they touch on a pretty inflammatory topic, and there is merit in their messaging.  but i can’t imagine they are art, considering i’ve seen them twice and that (i assume) bus shelter advertising is both expensive and, generally, longer term contractual.  they also don’t have any place someone could go to get further information (like a website), which suggests that more information will follow in subsequent messages, suggesting - accordingly - they are related to someone with a big budget.  it’s got to be something targeted at the 20s/30s liberal demographic who would react to this type of message, maybe something like a magazine or newspaper, but the colours suggest td bank.  anyone have any other guesses?