The Consumer Society

We believe the current relative-materialist, corporate Consumer Society is a modern construct barely 40 years old (although it is widely assumed to have been with us forever), whereas the notion of Citizenship, doing good for one’s fellow as well as oneself, has much deeper roots. As we examine later, it is only relatively recently that relative-materialist Consumerism has become our god.

Citizenship began with the city-states, Athens and Sparta and flourished, again, in Europe in the late Middle Ages. The values of a small society. Not perfect (far from universal suffrage) but clear, defined. Even when things got bigger – the Roman Empire, the British Empire – civic pride was high and, though social inequality reigned and materialism was firmly on the agenda for those who could aspire to it, conspicuous consumption was limited to the wealthy few. In Victorian times, Quaker families such as the Cadburys and the Frys built their businesses on Citizen-orientated foundations. Yes, it was patriarchal (no drinking in Bourneville, lads) and perhaps a product of enlightened self-interest but it was essentially borne out of good intent.

Consumer Society is a modern construct barely 40 years old.

After the War years and rationing came the “white heat of technology”, the blossoming of a more general wealth creation and the rapidly accelerating rise of a materialistic world where SUVs and designer labels are becoming globally de rigueur. The urgent question right now is whether we have gone beyond the Tipping Point. Why should we expect emerging economies to deny themselves the luxuries we enjoyed ourselves, often at their expense? Can we pull ourselves back or do we live in a society where the buying frenzy can never stop and Climate Change becomes irreversible? Evidence suggests that societal values are shifting away from relative materialism.

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