move that bus!

After a few hours of reading Benjamin Barber's Consumed, a book about the infantilist ethos in the current marketplace I decided to give my brain a rest and turned on the TV. 10,000 miles away from home I was able to turn on "Extreme Home Makeover" on Aussie TV and get a quick Yankee Fix via the fairly obnoxious Ty Pennington.

I've always been a bit suspicious of "Extreme Home Makeover." Watching it, viewers get a sense of satisfaction, distantly experiencing the gratification of philanthropy, living vicariously through the ABC design team.

Consumed considers the idea of two third worlds: the actual third world and the third world within the first world. The third world within the first world is able to experience the temptation of the marketplace without ever being able to participate in it. The third world has even less power because there is no real incentive for the consumer marketplace to consider it: it has very little disposable income. Third world children are some of the most marginalized and exploited citizens of the world because, unlike first world children who hugely influence the marketplace because of their ability to influence adult spending, third world children have absolutely no buying power.

Later, this thought was a light bulb above my head during "Extreme Home Makeover." Not only does the show allow people to satisfy their philanthropic urges through the personalities on television, but it is a terrific example of infantilization penetrating popular culture. A home makeover show that chooses American families that have experienced some sort of hardship and remodels their home into a veritable dreamland. It is essentially indulgent charity. (Sponsored by your friendly, hometown Sears!) Though the people chosen by ABC are certainly in a state of need, it is relative. Need for a working class family in America is drastically different than need in many parts of the rest of the world. It is charity for those in a lesser state of need: upgrading them from American struggle to American luxury. The lottery of charities.

The problem with this lottery mentality is that it further cements the childish notion of fantastic, almost magical luck and fortune. Furthermore, it implies that the goal in life is to attain riches. Instead of simply providing the crucial needs to as many people as possible and minimizing the actual weight of poverty, this show practices true indulgence. The families are given mansions, new cars, big checks, and all the little plasma and flat screen extras to boot. It engrains a cultural acceptance of self-indulgence by using it as a rewards to families as the ultimate act of charity, without really attacking major problems.

It subtly projects the message that poverty is easy to cure and as simple as a shot at a middle class living for one family.

It also successfully alienates the average American consumer (coincidentally the same person being appealed to by "Extreme Home Makeover") from the real problems and needs that exist in the world. This further promotes the consumer to stay young: cementing infantilization. By keeping the consumer focused on indulgence as a goal and to keep the consumer from ignoring and even disbelieving the reality of poverty in the world, the consumer will continue to do its job: consume. They will consume without conscience or fear of the consequences, as Barber further points out. The consumer climate today is of spending without consequence, what Barber describes as the ultimate "disempowerment" of the consumer. The consumer is insulated from the true depth of the problems and needs of the world and free from feeling the need to solve this problem or amend their buying habits to contribute less to an oppressive system. "Extreme Home Makeover" and its cultural colleague successfully insulate the American consumer from the reality of the links between consumption and world poverty.

It is easier for middle class America to live with their comforts and indulgences when it thinks donating canned goods to a homeless shelter and writing a few checks is the end of their responsibility to a suffering world. If ever there were a true lottery it was what I won when I was born a middle class American citizen. Being insulated cements infantilization because it helps us to neglect responsibility; the real treasure of childhood, after all is the lack of real responsibilities. We are rewriting history as it happens, choosing to believe enough to help us rationalize our indulgent, selfish lifestyles. After all, indulgence is the prize they're handing out to needy families on "Extreme Home Makeover."

Don't get me wrong, I don't have an easy solution. Perhaps you should read this book. Consider your own buying habits. Evaluate what your lifestyle says about how you view the world. How does it reflect your faith or your faith perspective? I did. And it is refreshing. And sometimes surprising. When I considered all the ways consumerism affected my life and then I thought about all the ways I could take it out of my life, I was surprised by how attached to it I was. I'm proud to say I've given up many forms of shopping and consuming, but there are parts I'm still working out of my system. The point is, evaluating your own lifestyle and the way you give of your time and your resources can be really eye-opening and challenging, and ultimately so rewarding. When you think about how your lifestyle can speak to your views about justice and responsibility in the world, it can be pretty compelling. And I bet you're up for the challenge.

Stay tuned. The consumpti-rants will soon continue.

This blog sponsored by Sears.
Because Sears gives poor people free stainless steel refrigerators.