The Bunker

2 family holiday parties down, just 1 more to go. Our families have largely dropped out of the consumer Holiday Season™ in favor of having a potluck and enjoying(?) a few hours of surreal political discussion. Raspberry jam is the favorite flavor so far this year and my "liberal" aunt voted for George Bush. My cousin, a senior at the UofM, tried to stage an intervention, but he didn't even bother to register himself to vote, so she wouldn't listen.


Anyway, what I wanted to tell you about was this article Steve sent to me about the failure of the anti-consumerism movement, despite being popular (as measured by sales, of course).

What we need to see is that consumption is not about conformity, it’s about distinction. People consume in order to set themselves apart from others. To show that they are cooler (Nike shoes), better connected (the latest nightclub), better informed (single-malt Scotch), morally superior (Guatemalan handcrafts), or just plain richer (bmws).


The problem is that all of these comparative preferences generate competitive consumption. “Keeping up with the Joneses,” in today’s world, does not always mean buying a tract home in the suburbs. It means buying a loft downtown, eating at the right restaurants, listening to obscure bands, having a pile of Mountain Equipment Co-op gear and vacationing in Thailand. It doesn’t matter how much people spend on these things, what matters is the competitive structure of the consumption. Once too many people get on the bandwagon, it forces the early adopters to get off, in order to preserve their distinction. This is what generates the cycles of obsolescence and waste that we condemn as “consumerism.”