The Gospel of Consumption vs. The Gospel of the Kingdom

“Advertising creates a worldview that is based upon cynicism, dissatisfaction, and craving. The advertisers aren’t evil. They are just doing their job, which is to sell a product, but the consequences, usually unintended, are often destructive to individuals, to cultures, and to the planet. In the history of the world, there has never been a propaganda effort to match that of advertising in the twentieth century. More thought, more effort, and more money go into advertising than has gone in to any other campaign to change social consciousness. The story that advertising tells is that the way to be happy, to find satisfaction—and the path to political freedom, as well—is through the consumption of material objects. And the major motivating force for social change throughout the world today is this belief that happiness comes from the market.

Advertising has a greater impact on all of us than we generally realize. The primary purpose of the mass media is to deliver us to advertisers. Much of the information that we need from the media in order to make informed choices in our lives is distorted or deleted on behalf of corporate sponsors. Advertising is an increasingly ubiquitous presence in our lives, and it sells much more than products. We delude ourselves when we say we are not influenced by advertising. And we trivialize and ignore its growing significance at our peril.”

--Jean Kilbourne, Deadly Persuasion

“It is important to realize that the very nature of our economic system provides a faith challenge for those who wish to live the Christian life. In an economic world that is based upon continually expanded consumption, in a society that already has a superabundance of goods and services, in a society that makes consumption, marketing, and producing such absolute values, there are questions that must be raised. What kind of person is most suitable for such an economic system? What kind of persons, what kind of behavior is least desirable?

When people, at least on a per capita basis, have most of their needs fulfilled, how are you going to get them to continually want and buy more? Is it possible that it would be more financially rewarding if people were conditioned to be dissatisfied cravers rather than appreciators of the goods of the earth? Does one buy more if one appreciates and relishes things, or if one is continually dissatisfied and distressed and craving? Is it profitable that dissatisfaction be induced into the life-consciousness of a people? Will the stimulation of anxiety and tension (closely associated with the experience of need) be economically desirable? Will persons buy and consume more if they have been taught to be unhappy, to be distressed, to be unsure about personal identity, sexuality, and relationships?

Another way of putting this problem of the commodity formation of self-consciousness is to suggest what kinds of behavior are not ‘good for business.’ Let us suppose that you are a married person with children. If you are relatively happy with your life, if you enjoy spending time with your children, playing with them and talking with them; if you like nature, if you enjoy sitting in your yard or on your front steps, if your sexual life is relatively happy, if you have a peaceful sense of who you are and are stabilized in your relationships, if you like to pray in solitude, if you just like talking to people, visiting them, spending time in conversation with them, if you enjoy living simply, if you sense no need to compete with your friends or neighbors—what good are you economically in terms of our system? You haven’t spent a nickel yet.

However, if you are unhappy and distressed, if you are living in anxiety and confusion, if you are unsure of yourself and your relationships, if you find no happiness in your family or sex life, if you can’t bear being alone or living simply—you will crave much. You will want more. You will have the behaviors most suitable to a social system that is based upon continual economic growth.”

--John Kavanaugh, Following Christ in a Consumer Society