'Checking out at the store,

[antigone382]

111. In a sense, but at the same time, that was specifically marketed to them.

Consumerism has unfolded and expanded correspondent with the industrial revolution itself, most intensely since around the late 1800's. You can't blame any one generation; the culture has changed gradually to accommodate an economic system based on endless growth--and ignoring the attendant endless resource depletion and waste that accompanies such growth. We have been profoundly enculturated for quite a long time to think positively about the acquisition of goods and technology to "make life better." The fact that these developments have made life worse for a majority of the world's population, and stand to make it worse for all future generations, is so foreign to our understanding of what is good and valuable that processing it is difficult.

This is kind of long winded and wandering. My main point is that I think both the old woman and the young woman in the story are located in an increasingly destructive and consumptive culture. Both of them must find their way out of it using that which is within their frame of reference. My suspicion is they would each have something to teach each other.