[MD] Where have all the values gone?

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

Khaled, Platt, Erin,

"Consumerism" is by definition "over consumption". The problem is that
"consumerism" depends on value manipulation to fuel spending. Platt disagrees
with this, but years of "The Journal of Consumer Psychology" has underscored
the simple premise that advertising manipulates what people value.

"Consumerism" is a "meta-problem" associated with this, when the primary message
becomes "if you spend money, you'll be happy". Businesses function, then, on a
dependency on value manipulation, not simply the value inherent in their
product.

In modern culture, the Sophists "man is the measure of all things" has been
replaced with "money is the measure of all things". We derive our worth from
it, with it and through it. It defines greatness and failure. It defines
success and defeat. Rich and poor become good and bad. 

What we value, Pirsig said, is always derived through cultural means. Culture is
the sum total of collective activity among a people. When that collective
activity is guided by nothing but money, when we are taught from an early age
that it is only partcipation in a money economy that motivates great people to
enrich themselves (and incidentally improve society), when our cultural
dialogue is constantly bombarded with the notion that "privatization" and
"private property" are the noble Goods to the evils of community and a public
commons, when our very self-worth is dependent on our consumer purchases, I'm
not sure what kind of success one can have combatting consumerism.

I read an interesting article about the amount of time we spend "engaged in
public spaces" versus "private spaces". Over the past century, since these
"moral pilgrims" arrived on our shores, we have moved the vast majority of our
activity from public to private space. We retreat into our homes, into our
cars, into our narrowly defined daily routine that moves us from private space
to private space, while a century ago our involvement was primarily in some
public space. Interestingly, the authored included metaphorical public and
private spaces, citing the changes in involvement in the local taverns and
coffee houses. A century ago, a person venturing into one of these
establishments not only expected, but demanded public engagement and public
forum (although the establishment itself was "private"). Today, not only are
these establishments "private", but we demand our engagement to be restricted
to an immediate cohort of known interlocuters in a "private dialogue" that is
not only to the public.

Why did we "value" public engagement so greatly then, and conversely value
"private" seclusion so greatly today? Why did we stroll our neighborhoods,
talking with people who made a daily habit of sitting on their front porches,
when now we drive through developments only to see distant images of people on
their rear decks?

Consumerism depends on manipulating value to tie self-worth to purchasing.
Private property tells us that we must own everything ourselves, that any
common or public space is "bad". Put the two together, and you have a good
description of modern America, a land where we are debting ourselves into
oblivion to build castles of isolation.

Just some thoughts...

Arlo