Hollow Faith 6 - Consumer Capitalism

"Mass consumer capitalism constitutes the human self in a very particular way; as an individual, autonomous, rational, self-seeking, cost benefit calculating consumer.  This, of course, is not what human selves have always been, nor what they will inevitably be." - Christian Smith, Soul Searching, on mass consumer capitalism.

I believe I've mentioned before in this blog that, when I was between the ages of 1 and 15 years old, my family moved every 18 months on average.  One of the more fascinating aspects about this ongoing process was that, upon each occasion that my father would announce the next move, he and my mother would immediately begin The Purge.  They would go through every room in the house gathering up all the stuff that they didn't want to pack and move.  Then they'd have a garage sale.  Next they'd make a few trips to Goodwill or the Salvation Army.  Finally there would be numerous trips to the city dump.  We'd get ourselves down to the bare essentials in the weeks before the packing began in earnest.  Then we'd move and start over.  Oddly, on the occasion of each move, the size of The Purge never seemed to get any smaller than the one before.  Having found all the stuff we could live without prior to one move, we'd always find that we'd accumulated as much stuff again - or more - before the next one.

One of my favorite TV ads in recent years begins with a voice-over announcer shouting, "Too much stuff and not enough space?"  Less than two seconds into the ad, and I'm already laughing uncontrollably.  Why?  Because this is an ad!  Before the product is even named, we already know that the offered solution to this problem will be to come to the store and buy some more stuff!  And, three seconds later, we find out we were right; this is an ad for Space Bags, those magic Sacks of Holding that allow you to squeeze your stuff down to 1/4 its original size.  Now you have room for even more stuff!

There's an old adage that states, "Capitalism is the act of spending money one doesn't have to buy things one doesn't need in order to impress people one doesn't like."  That seems to sum it up pretty well. 

Feel-Good Purchasing 

My mother-in-law (rest her soul) was a hard woman.  Few people got along with her, ofttimes including my wife.  I was one of the few who did, and to this day I couldn't say why.  She did have one habit, though, that drove me nuts.  Each Christmas and birthday, she went completely overboard buying gifts, especially for my kids, her grandchildren.  Not only did she purchase a lot of gifts, but those she gave were, in my opinion, extravagant.  She also watched carefully those gifts given by others, especially my parents, and was always certain to "outdo" them the next time round.  When she died, her credit card charges blew my mind.

In our consumer capitalistic society, every landmark in a person's life - birthday, coming-of-age, graduation, marriage, baby, new home, anniversary, and retirement are all marked by the receiving of gifts.  If we have wronged someone, we give them a gift.  If they've accomplished a goal, we give them a gift.  If they're new to the neighborhood, we welcome them with a gift.

This gross materialism hits its peak every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, a time during which we all go blithefully crazy, causing riots in the stores in our frenzy of shopping for the perfect gift.  Because, let's face it, nothing says "Happy birthday, Jesus" quite like a mall maul!  Like my mother-in-law, we all seem to think that love is expressed through the giving of possessions, both in quality and quantity.

And just where did we get such a ridiculous notion?  Madison Avenue told us so!  Watch any commercial broadcast for an hour during the holiday season and you will learn that there's someone in your life who deserves a new SUV with an enormous red bow for Christmas, that, if you want to say "I love you" to someone, it's hard to beat diamonds, and that, if you're tired of all this crass materialism of the holidays, you should take a cruise to get away from it all.

Not only has the acquisition of goods become a form of love in our society, it has also become a form of therapy.  Surely my wife isn't the only American to call up a girlfriend on a Saturday and suggest an afternoon of "retail remedy."  Whether we care to admit it or not, we really do use consumerism to define us, "keeping up with the Joneses" in the worst way possible.  We convince ourselves that this perfume will make us attractive, that car will make us powerful and this laundry additive will tell the world that we don't have a single care in the world beyond the need to smell like a summer breeze - whatever aroma that is!

I have an undergraduate degree in Radio-Television-Film, which means I was required to spend several semesters studying advertising.  I'm no expert by any means, but I do understand the general principle.  An ad works best if it can plant two ideas in the minds of its viewers: that they have a problem, and that the advertised product is the only conceivable solution to said problem.  The example above of Space Bags is a perfect illustration.  By creating a problem in the consumer's mind, then offering your product as the solution to this problem, you can effectively create a nation of lemmings who will see your product on the store shelf and put it in their shopping cart without ever seriously considering why they're doing it.  And, if you can create an artificial sense of urgency for doing so in the consumer's mind, well, all the better!  As I type this, there is an ad playing in which the advertised item is being introduced and discontinued in the same 30-second ad!  Talk about urgency!

We can track our purchasing rationales by where our motives fall on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. True, a small percentage of our money goes toward physiological needs - food, water, shelter, etc.  But the bulk of our spending is on safety and security, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.  I've remarked often over the years that if everyone in America woke up one morning, took stock of their current possessions and decided "'yeah, okay; I've got enough stuff.  I'm satisfied with where I am now.  From now on, I won't buy any more stuff, but simply spend my money on maintaining my current stock," our economic system would collapse before noon.

Ramifications of Consumerism on Faith 

"People who have everything need nothing, including God."  For people embroiled in consumer capitalism, God becomes one more choice among the thousands being promoted to induce happiness.  Faith becomes one more item in a patchwork of goods and services that promise to lead one to personal fulfillment, to be used or discarded as appropriate depending on its ability to make good on that promise.

With religion just one more commodity to be bought, sold, or traded, some churches and church pastors have "thrown in the towel" as it were and incorporated the consumer capitalist mindset into their sermons.  They sell the gospel just as one might sell a used car, with outlandish promises that if one simply prays earnestly enough, maintains enough faith, and makes a sufficiently substantial contribution to the church, God will reward the devoted follower with abundance (i.e. cash), using the pretext of verses such as "you have not because you ask not," (James 4:2) ripped free from their Scriptural context.  Of course, the only one actually getting rich from this Prosperity Theology is the pastor, but the congregation certainly likes hearing it, even if it doesn't work any better than any other promise made by a used car salesman. (The use of that particular verse from James to justify wealth accumulation is particularly morose, since the entire book of James is a rather scathing commentary on wealth, its pursuit, and acquisition.)

The Gift of Pain

Scripture never promises wealth, health or happiness (at least, not as we interpret the word in the West).  Au contraire.  One would be hard-pressed to find a Western pastor preaching this, but the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount are not read to mean "if one suffers through this, one will eventually be rewarded with that."  In Greek, they actually say that the suffering is the reward.  Today, there are any number of products being advertised with the promise that "you don't have to live with pain."

If you don't know the name Paul Brand, you should.  Born in 1914 to missionary parents in India, he was sent to the UK for his studies.  Upon earning his degree in medicine, Dr. Brand returned to India to treat cases of blackwater fever (from which his father died), dysentery, malaria (from which he had suffered as a boy), Hansen's disease and leprosy.  Not only did Dr. Brand treat patients of these diseases, but he closely studied them, contributing much to our scientific understanding of these diabolical illnesses.

In 1993, Brand wrote a book entitled Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants.  In 1997, it was republished under the title The Gift of Pain. 

In it, he describes one of the most profound discoveries he made while studying leprosy.  He learned that leprosy itself doesn't cause the rotting of patients' flesh.  Leprosy attacks the patient's nervous system, making them unable to feel.  As a result, they became much more susceptible to injury, infection and the loss of appendages without even realizing it.  Dr. Brand discovered that pain is a beautiful thing, even if most of us don't recognize it as such.  "Pain is recognition of our ability to feel."  Whether we care to believe it, pain is one of God's most wonderful gifts.

Gifts that Keep on Giving

Earlier, I implied that giving gifts is a sure sign of rampant consumerism and materialism.  That's not entirely true.  There are many gifts we can give each other that are right, noble and genuinely loving.  "We give others our trust, our compassion, our forgiveness, and our companionship when we love them.  In a marriage, we give our entire self to our partner in trust and love.  Even the root of our theology recognizes Jesus' death as a gift to all humanity."

Simplicity

"Simplicity in its purest form is just that - simple.  Simplicity means less clutter, less mess, and less obligation to keep up with material stuff.  As a nation of consumers, we base most of our choices on convenience.  Simplicity and intentionality call us to make more responsible decisions, which are not always the easiest or most convenient...I have come to believe that having too much and too many options is creating...a certain Christian subculture that encourages the 'waffle effect.'  Simplicity can act as both the fuel for and the method by which to make this transition."

Gratitude

"We live in a time and a place where upward mobility and upgrades are expected, not an exciting exception.  This ingrained belief that we should constantly be on the lookout for something better has destroyed the entire concept of gratitude...In The Price of Privilege, Madeline Levine writes:  'At worst, materialism turns our most valued relationships into commodities.'

"Most of the time, we don't even realize that we've made the shift from relationship to commodity.  Valuing everyone, no matter their...worth, participation level, or monetary or influential wealth is one of the most powerful ways to model gratitude." 

Generosity

Finally, we have generosity.  And let us not artificially limit our understanding of generosity to money alone.  We must also be generous with our "love, time, patience, and grace.  Helping people explore, discover, and develop their naturally occurring gifts and strengths can be a wonderful example" of a generous spirit.  In church, this "generosity of talents can make huge inroads into service and even leadership in an often closed church culture" that values the professional clergy more than the laypeople who actually make up the church itself.

Pax