A sharp jarring sound interrupts a pleasant dream, in which I was laying on the warm sand somewhere on the Canary Isles. I look out of the window – winter. Thermometer shows 14.00°F. Lucky I am, cause the central heating is working (77.00°F inside – do you feel the difference?). Plastic window – my faithful dream’s guard: try to feel the arms of Morpheus, when construction (right there, beneath your window) is under way even at 4 a.m. I understand: they have their terms, deadlines. And I have my modern soundproof system. Toast – out of the toaster, jam – out of the fridge, hot water – out of the kettle. Toothbrush, make-up, hairdryer, iron…

My cell phone rings.

-Good morning.

-…

-I’m almost on my way to the university.

-…

-Yes, thank you. It’s really interesting. I’ll look them through in the evening.

My supervisor. She has e-mailed me papers on the essay competition “Human Values in the Age of Consumerism”. Great! It’s the topic of the day! But I should hurry up: the lecture starts in 15 minutes.

I start the engine. I’m driving. Holden Caulfield’s little sister was excited that they had a radio in their car, but Mrs. Caulfield never allowed to turn it on if it was busy on the road. Well, it’s always busy nowadays. And I turn the radio on to be able hear about traffic jams in the city.

O.K. I’m caught. I’m stuck near a bus station. Dear guests of our city, turn to the right, turn to the left… Oh! That’s a pity my roommate is not here now. She is fond of taking pictures. This one could become a pearl of her collection: an old woman waiting for a bus under a glossy image in a cosmetic advertisement.

Poor woman! But the angle for a camera is perfect. How long has she been staying there? And the light is good. It’s cold. And I won’t even think about giving her a ride. She has her own life, I have mine. I’m driving further.

…

At long last I’m at home. I turn on my computer, get mail. Here are the papers on the competition. I skim them, catching the main points: human values, age of consumption, culture, desires. Perhaps, it’ll be better to start my essay with a quotation. A couple from my literary diary could fit: “In order to use plenty of things, a man should be <…> to the last degree a cultured man…” [K. Marks]. Or this one: “In a philistine personality is hidden or unseeing, because it’s not the most important: important – commodity, business, goods, important – property” [A. Gercen]. I’ll choose the proper one later. So:

World Literature about the Age of Consumption

Different Ages are parceled out by the sciences: Golden Age, Silver, Bronze, Stone… These terms reflect peculiarities of development of human society in different stages. It’s claimed that we are living in the Age of computer technologies. But in last decades of the 20th century literature is warning us louder and louder about the danger of the advent of a new Age – the Age of Consumption. Take, for example, Huxley’s motto for the ethics and philosophy of consumption in “Brave New World”: ”Ending is better than mending. The more stitches, the less riches”. In Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye” we can read: “You ought to go to a boys' school sometime. Try it sometime. <…> It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques”.

And teenagers, laughing, can describe the life of a modern man using only world known brands. A couple of days ago I found such a masterpiece on the internet:

7.00 a.m. Casio

7.00-7.30 a.m. Colgate – Oral-b – Gillette – Old Spice

7.30-7.50 a.m. Nescafe – Hochland – Orbit

8.00-8.30 a.m. Toyota

8.30-13.00 p.m. Pentium4 – Epson – Nokia

13.00-14.00 p.m. McDonald’s – Coca-Cola – Orbit

14.00-17.00 p.m. Pentium4 – Epson – Nokia

17.00-17.30 p.m. Toyota

17.30-20.00 p.m. Tuborg Beer – Tuborg Beer – Tuborg Beer

20.00-20.05 p.m. Colgate – Oral-b

22.10-23.00 p.m. Durex – Durex – Durex

True realism: typical non-personality in typical circumstances! And only yesterday I was a witness of a striking scene on the street: a brother and a sister. He’s six, she’s four. The boy gives her a cell-phone, recommending a new game. “Where should I push?” – “Here, on the fiver!” – “Really? It’s a fiver?”. Six and four. He is already a sterling consumer of our society. Give her a couple of years, and she’ll also become one.

I reread what I’ve just typed. Salinger’s quotation is perhaps too long. I’ll cut it, but “goddam Cadillac” should remain… I was driving today too. That woman. She was freezing. Caulfield was afraid he would freeze to death in the park and thousands of pretenders would come to his burial. It seems to me, nobody will come to HER burial. Everybody will pass by, will “live by”, the same way I drove away this morning.

When did I change so much, become so hard-boiled? I can’t believe my possessions now possess me. But I read classical literature, I talk about morality. The Age of Consumption has flattened my soul, trivialized the categories of my mind… And inspired by this sharp and fresh thought, I rush back to my essay. “Nothing can inspirit you better but a true realization of your hopeless position” A. Camus.