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14 Mar 10 Consumerism is the opiate of the people
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. - Karl Marx
I am not a Marxist, far from it, I am a firm believer in free markets. But replace “Religion” in the above quote with “consumerism” and it is just as accurate now as it was almost 200 years ago.
I was walking in the City of London on Friday morning, the heart of London’s financial district, and couldn’t help but notice how miserable people looked. Here I saw people in expensive tailored suits, some driving fancy, expensive Italian and German sports cars, a lot of them definitely making hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds. Yet they didn’t look the least bit happy, most of them looked miserable and stressed. It occurred to me: the pursuit of money for the sake of money, gadgets for the sake of gadgets has made us lose touch with what really makes us happy.
Consumerism has become a drug administered to cover up the unhappiness and lack of fulfillment in peoples lives, buying new things has become a substitute for real happiness, real fulfillment. Consumerism is what numbs the pain of feeling that you are living a life that you didn’t chose for yourself, a life you didn’t want, and the sense of slowly wasting away your life.
The Cult of Consumption has become the modern day opiate of the people, the thing that keeps people docile and willing to do the bidding of their public- and corporate overlords, willing to keep feeding the machine while we sell away our own lives and happiness for a fistful of dollars and a plasma TV.
It’s funny how a movie about drug abuse, Trainspottin, was still so accurate in describing the other great drug in society, consumerism and the template lifestyle:
Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that?
