Кравченко Павел

Human Values in the Age of Consumption

1. Introitus

Consumption

1 a : a progressive wasting away of the body especially from pulmonary tuberculosis b : TUBERCULOSIS

3 : the utilization of economic goods in the satisfaction of wants or in the process of production resulting chiefly in their destruction, deterioration, or transformation

Value

1 : a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged

2 : the monetary worth of something : MARKET PRICE

Human

3 a : having human form or attributes b : susceptible to or representative of the sympathies and frailties of human nature

2. Shopping

I shop, therefore I am – Barbara Kruger, American conceptual artist.

My lifestyle determines my deathstyle – Me.

I’m growing my own beast. I grow it deep inside the darkest labyrinths of my soul. I feed it. I love it. I adore it. I worship it. It is hungry…

Our age has demons much more noteworthy that old Beelzebub and Lucifer. Ford, who made all people equal in their rights, gave birth to the most wonderful machine ever – the mass production, the mechanical paradise of Today, the omnipotent Mephistopheles who can SATISFY the needs of any modern Faust. Still the bargain that presupposed that he stole your soul is certainly an anachronism. Now you give it away yourself.

Now when the universal truth (actually found in the preface to any book on Economics) that it’s all about making limited abilities meet unlimited demands seems something out-of-this world and famine megadeaths somewhere in Africa are a usual everyday talk, we are ready to meet new days’ virtues as well as new day-villains. In Japan children commit mass-suicides with the help of the Internet. In Germany a cannibal meets its victim via Internet – and, according to the modern development of the reality-shows we’re soon to see their meeting shown in real time on some of the state channels. WHY?

3. Eating out

I think, therefore IBM – IBM ad.

Read only left-hand pages – Marshall McLuhan.

Ancient Romans used to enjoy the process of eating. They ate. They tasted. They got delighted. They induced vomit. The process continued.

This is very much what we do today. The motto of the day is definitely “Ask for more!” – that is actually “Stay hungry!”. So we eat. But we’ve lost the wisdom of the Romans. We do not induce vomit. We overeat. Then we die.

The XX century has raised the problem of abundance of information. It will take a man a hundred and twenty years to read all today’s newspapers, issued around the world. On every corner you see “fast-reading” ads that promise to help you consume faster, more and in less time. The one thing everyone seems to miss – after consuming food one needs some time to DIGEST it.

4. Beanz mean Heinz.

Learn thoroughly one thing to understand 10 000 things – a Japanese proverb.

Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle – Aldous Huxley, “A Brave New World”.

In the times of the queen Ann one usually had to follow the dull routine of digestion quite thoroughly. You had to read the Bible. By small pieces, chewing it thoroughly. You had to feel the taste. Then you had to digest it for some time (sometimes for years). Then you grew something inside you – something of VALUE. Now, in the age of Consumption, this process is left for good. You don’t need your mouth, throat and intestines anymore, man. It’s old hat.

Moral values, fostered individually in every child, became a ready-made ultimate software pack, ready for installation into your mind. Why take years and learn ancient manuscripts to learn some “faith” and “wisdom” that is supposedly there? You needn’t read the Bible anymore. You go to church.

The other day I asked several people who said they were “real true” Christians whether they read the whole Bible. There were 20 people. None did.

There is a slight difference between THINKING what you are and BEING it. We lost the idea. Today we are just like a mad computer-freak that goes to work on a computer in a post-nuclear world. There is no electricity. God is dead. Viva Fast Food!

Today we don’t use our digestion system anymore. We just consume – right inside, without digesting. Overfilled with information, we lose the ability to actually UNDERSTAND what we’re eating. We live in a made-up world. We believe in made-up gods. We listen to easy-listening music. We have “good” friends. We buy Pepsi. We need a new fringe – not because the old one is out of service. We just want to keep up with the Joneses. We watch the old woman, trying to carry a heavy bag. We don’t have time to help her.

We live in Isolation. You are a good citizen. You have your “private life”. You have you social security number. You don’t care about dangerous things like politics. You just want to… exist?

We consume not because we’re hungry – we consume because everyone around does and it’s too hard for most of the people to start living his own mind. Seneca once said: “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult”. So we just need more…

5. Time

It takes a hundred years to grow an oak. No longer. No less. – Zen wisdom.

Actually the key is TIME. When we say we don’t have time to live, we must ask a question (as Heideger did): who is in control of MY time? The answer is quite obvious. What one needs to do to escape the never-ending wheel of thoughtless consumption is to take his time. We need time to SEE what we eat, to be able to pick and choose – and digest for as long as it takes.

Pascal, one of the most prominent figures of the XVII century once wrote: “A wise man must spend one third of his life, speaking with the dead mind (books), another third – speaking with the living ones (other people) and the last third – speaking with himself…