"The Politics of Consumption"

[GreenPartyVoter]

Yes, the presidential race has been ugly. But the accusations, smears and spin of the current campaign, although disgusting, are only reflections of a much larger problem. The plain truth is that we are in the process of destroying American democracy.
We can't run an intellectually honest and fair presidential campaign because it is difficult for us to run an honest and fair civic process about most anything. Health-care policy is a shambles, Social Security is imperiled, and Washingtonians can't solve our maddening public transportation problems.

Why? Because we live in a consumer society, a culture of the marketplace that necessitates a way of being increasingly unfamiliar with cooperation, civic participation, sacrifice for the common good.

Instead, we grow increasingly competitive, entitled, focused on acts of individual purchasing and consuming. It seems natural to ask whether you "buy" that idea, "own" your own feelings, or receive enough "benefit" from a relationship to continue "investing" in it.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1019-28.htm