Right now two diaries on the Rec list would seem to be at war with each other. TeacherKen is feeling some kind of guilt for the people who will be put out of work in the retail and insurance sectors with this recession and the coming reorganization of our value and health care systems.
GrannyDoc is arguing that the problem is consumerism (and, I'd say, more generally, materialism), and the companies that foster it. We are now badly in debt, and have imperiled our own planet by using too many resources. Unemployment in the retail sector shouldn't bother us because consumerism is part of the problem.
But TeacherKen wants a values revolution as much as anyone else. I'd say to Ken, for that to happen we have to put some of the liberal guilt to rest. Why? Culture shifts happen during periods of stress. We need this stress if we are going to change our values and our way of being in the world.
For starters, lets reconsider our commodity fetishism.
Update [2008-11-29 14:9:56 by betson08]:: Eugene has a response to those diaries in this one, which is also on the rec list, but I find his argument inconsistent. On one hand he's arguing against GrannyDoc's message that we should just let things fall out as they will, and for government solutions, and then he goes on to promote individual choice via saying we should shop locally instead of in big chains. He's worried about massive unemployment, but the chains employ a lot of people. I'm just not impressed with that diary due to this inconsistency.}
Commodity fetishism basically is placing meaning, even magical qualities, on products. So, lets think of it this way. You buy a regular pair of jeans, which fit well, and then you also buy a pair of designer jeans, which also fit well. Which ones make you feel better? For many people it's the designer jeans. Why? Retailers have convinced us that we will be magically transformed by their products.
I remember taking this literally as a kid. I saw ad after ad for PF Flyers, which were sneakers. The ads showed kids running faster and jumping higher after putting them on. Boy, was I disappointed when I bought them and couldn't run any faster, let alone jump any higher, than before.
The holiday season basically involves commodity fetishism run amok. Somehow, we are bestowing something magical upon our friends and family with that certain gift. At the very least, we are trying to create meaning out of material objects. Do you love me, mom? Then get me that new Play Station!
There is big profit to be made in promoting this tendency in society, as well as big waste, and psychological dysfunction.
The root of the problem is how we make meaning. Meaning making, if you follow the psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton's work, is the psychological basis of our existence.
We shop 'till we drop because this culture has somehow convinced us that material possessions have meaning. We have huge emotional voids that we try to fill by collecting more stuff, and since collecting more crap is basically a meaningless exercise, we keep on trying to fill that void with more crap. It's a never ending cycle of shopping, debt, garbage, waste of resources, and pollution.
I started noticing this about possessions when my aunts started to die. Yes, we had some mementoes of them, which were meaningful to us, but not in an important way. What was important were our memories of how they were, and the things we did together. They lived, died, and their possessions remained behind. It's trite to say that you can't take your possessions with you, but it's true. You take what you EXPERIENCED in life with you, as do your friends and family. My mother just died last month. Although there are a few small items I would like to remember her by, I find myself caring less and less about them, and preferring to remember how sweet, loving, and enthusiastic she was about life instead of looking at her stuff.
So, this year I am going to promote economic and thereby cultural stress. I am not going to suffer at the mall. I am going to force the meaning of the holidays to detach itself from material objects.
I am going to send my mother's clothes to Pretty Bird Woman House. I am going to Florida to spend time with cousins I haven't seen in 10 years. We are going to host a needy family on that day as well.
Then I am going to come back and go out to the Standing Rock Reservation and observe how the staff from the shelter educates the community on domestic violence issues, and document that in a live blog here. I may have to contribute to the economy by buying a cheap camcorder for that purpose, but my purpose in buying it will not be so it can imbue me with some magical qualities, but so I can create something meaningful myself.
And I will do this without guilt.
If we worry too much about keeping people employed in the economic sectors that have created our current economic, social, and cultural dysfunction, we will never, ever be free of it.