Consumerism

The silent teacher

(Adapted from this article posted Mar 13th, 2023)

Since the Post-WWII era, consumerism has silently changed our understanding of who we are and why we exist. That great migration from farms to cities and suburbs represented a turning away from our understanding of people as producers toward a new calling: people as consumers. It promised less work, more play, more pleasure. It delivered. Consumerism led the masses through a cultural liturgy of shorter work days and longer weekends, paid vacation and planned retirement, in which recreation and amusement became the goal for which all of life happened.

Work, the thing which once provided the gravitational center of familial and communal life, became the great dissolver of society. Dad went to work here, mom there, each child to his or her own class and grade or perhaps a different school altogether. Churches and civic organizations fell apart as each day became indistinguishable. “Family time” came to mean “play time.” As time progressed the types of “play” have become highly individualistic, in which humans only connect virtually, if at all. 

The family now serves no purpose that the state cannot fulfill. Civic organizations and churches, which once thrived, are faint shadows of their former selves. They produce neither profit nor pleasure, the only products treasured in the consumerist ethic. Increasingly there is only the individual and the state. The individual is lost in an impossible pursuit of self-definition in which it is potentially anything, thus actually nothing.

Changing the Game

Sounds depressing, eh? Here’s the good news. There is a way out of it. I don’t say a way back, because history provides us with no golden ages, nor does anything here on earth offer a future one. But we can find ourselves again. We can restore certain timeless institutions, foremost the family and the church. It will begin with restoring our understanding of the purpose God created us for.

Genesis 2:15 “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” 

This is the original mandate given to mankind. “Work and keep” can be otherwise stated as “produce and protect.” In an unfallen state, people would have turned wilderness into garden with fulfilling and unhindered labor.

Then a thing happened.

Now our work is less than fulfilling and definitely hindered. 

“Cursed in the ground because of you;

In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;

And you shall eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread,

Till you return to the ground.” Gen 3:17-19

Ever since, men have been devising ways to get around God’s curse for sin. They have enslaved, pillaged, and subjugated, attempting to receive the reward without the work. 

Modernity has brought unprecedented advances in labor efficiency. For the first time in history, the majority of people alive have expendable time and income. They can choose to work less, or even not at all. Solomon has words for us.

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.

Marx would say this was simply manipulation of the proletariat by a ruler. It wasn’t. It’s true. From trust fund babies to welfare dropouts, man without work is in a state of unhealth. We must take Solomon’s words to heart. We must orient our lives around them. The apostle Paul worked off the same understanding (1 Thessalonians 4:9–12; 5:14, Ephesians 4:28). 

Families that embrace the calling to be productive together, especially early on, will exist as God intended. Children will be taught by parents, valuing their advice and help. They will gain confidence and self-worth because they actually become competent in productive skills. Hierarchy ceases to be oppressive because it serves the mission (to work and keep that which is given to us) instead of merely the self-interest. Sabbath keeping becomes sweet as rest and worship break up the week exactly as they should. The “fast” of work prepares the persons to enjoy the “feast” of recreation. When the allotted boundaries of familial domain are cultivated and cared for, excess time and money can be unreservedly poured into church and civic organizations which better the greater local community.

Let’s take work back.