America’s True Religion: Shopping

[TygrBright]

1. Good post. I especially like this:

>> Imagine the political future of a candidate for public office who said: “There has been enough talk of economic growth and competition as the solutions to our problems. Our real challenges as Americans are to limit our consumption to what we genuinely need, to share with others who are less fortunate than we are, and to halt the plunder of our planet’s resources and the destruction of our environment.” <<

Imagine, indeed.

You know, when I was young, the "conservative" viewpoint was that we needed to rely less on buying stuff and nurture our families, our connection to our land and work, and traditional ways of enjoying ourselves, as in church suppers, community fairs, reading to the kids, etc. The darned "liberals" were the ones who saw trade and commerce and the freedom to move to cities and acquire endless stuff affordable to everyone as a desirable vision.

I'm over-simplifying and over-drawing the picture, of course, but there is some truth there.

What a long, strange trip it's been.

reminiscently,
Bright