Byzantine Catholic Family Matters

Consumerism, Time, and the Human Person, Part I

If there is a mantra in our highly consumerist society, it seems to go something like this: "I want it; and I want as much as I want of it, whenever I want it. And don’t get in my way." In this day when banks seem to drool at the prospect of offering you a credit card, if you haven’t got the cash you can just as easily put it on the card. In my suburban New Jersey supermarket I can buy a "fresh" tomato pretty much any day of the year. If out of season in New Jersey the tomato may have arrived on a plane from Israel or on a truck from Florida. No need to wait for the next growing season. I can have my "fresh" relatively tasteless variety of tomato developed to withstand shipping pretty much anytime I want it - and my local supermarket is open eighteen hours per day seven days per week. Some readers have supermarkets that are open 24/7. Then there’s the Internet, a virtual mall open 24/7; and if I purchase something via the internet, I will no doubt be offered next day delivery in the menu of delivery options. We are wowed and even seduced by advertisements in all of the media informing us of the plethora of choices we have for each of a seemingly endless list of products and services. New products and services are introduced all the time. In our frenetic quest to obtain these products and services now, something very important is sacrificed: our relationships with those persons we love and our God. Ironically, too often we attempt to substitute real relationship with a product or service.

My wife recently pointed out to me that at our local library and adjacent playground, it has become less common to find young children with one of their parents. Rather, an au pair or nanny accompanies them. What is most remarkable to my wife is the indifference most of these caretakers have toward their young charges. Most of these children live in two parent families where mom and dad both work full time. The parents are obviously able to afford a one on one caretaker for their young children and believe this to be superior to a less costly day care center; and they are able to afford an affluent lifestyle. Yet there is truly no such thing as a free lunch, and the more products and services we "need" to purchase, the more we need to generate income or, in the short term, borrow. The result is more stress and less time for those we love. We can find ourselves slaves of a consumerist culture that has us believing that we cannot live without this service or that product, that has us believing that we need this service or that product now, and that has us believing that we are somehow less successful or less "with it" if we do not purchase this service or that product now. Most of us have probably said or thought at one time or another in our lives, "But everybody else has one!" or "I need one!" Therein lies the problem: we believe we are entitled or we believe that we need. An iPOD becomes something we believe we cannot live without. We need global positioning systems in our cars. The great deception is that we believe that our affluence gives us the freedom to purchase, while in reality we can fall into enslavement by things and the desire to obtain them. If enslavement seems too strong a term, think again: consider the current mortgage crisis as well as the high level of consumer debt in our country.

What we need to do is step back, take a closer look at the effect of rampant consumerism on our children and us, and learn how to loosen the grip of the consumer mentality. These subjects will begin to be addressed in the next part in this series.