There would not be a market for all the goods that are produced in an industrialized economy if consumers were content with the things they bought. Consumer desire must be constantly on the move. We must continually desire new things in order for consumption to keep pace with production...The shaving razor with one blade had to be surpassed by the double bladed razor, which was bested by three blades, then four, and now an absurd five blades on one razor. This is more than just a continuing attempt to make a product better; it is what the General Motors people called the organised creation of dissatisfaction" How can we be content with a mere two blades when the current standard is five? How can we be content with an ipod that downloads 200 songs when someone else has one that downloads a thousand? THe economy as it is currently structured would grind to a halt if we ever looked at our stuff and simply declared "It is enough, I am happy with what I have"
The truth is, however, that we do not tend to experience dissatisfaction as merely a negative. In consumer culture, dissatisfaction and satisfaction cease to be opposites, for pleasure is not so much in the possession of things as in their pursuit. There is a pleasure in the pursuit of novelty, and the pleasure resides not so much in having as in wanting. Once we have obtained an item, it brings desire to a temorary halt, and the item loses some of its appeal. Possession kills desire; familiarity breeds contempt. That is why shopping, not buying itself, is the heart of consumerism. The consumerist spirit is a restless spirit, typified by detachment, because desire must constantly be kept on the move.
Will Cavanaugh Being Consumed, 46-47
"So I tell you this,
and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and seperated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity,
with a continual lust for more.
Eph 4:17-19
Is that the way you came to know Christ? A rejection of this continual lust for more?
Do the people in your churches resemble the pagans or not?
What are your church leaders doing about it?
I cant count how many preachers I've heard say that consumerism is greedy idolatry, that shopping malls are the cathedral of our cultures Gods.
Well, you have a sledgehammer, go and bust the freakin thing up then!
Why do we allow people to prostitute themselves working in retail?
Or perhaps we are ok with a bit of synchretism in our churches, a bit of paganism never hurt the church did it?
I feel like the church has mostly remained silent and abandoned her people to sad lives of idolatry, as though challenging these really challenging these false gods ( in a real, tangible way) somehow compromises the gospel of grace.
