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Introduction
Consumption, buying things we do not need to impress people we do not know with money and resources we do not have has become entrenched within every American life (Perner, 2010; Novotney, 2008). To the detriment of the planet, of the living and not yet, born, America depends upon this pattern of consumption (Shah, 2011; Bentley, 2012; Novotney, 2008). To this end, Bentley uses Benlow’s (2007) statement, “You know how opulently we lived, how we gorged ourselves daily, how we lived beyond the means of ourselves and of the following generations” as the focal point of the argument (p. 577).
The Paradox of American Consumption
Calling attention to America’s spending addiction, to the financial debts incurred outside of home ownership, Bentley (2012) shows how American consumerism, though fundamentally linked to American psyche, is not only harming the environment but also harming the American economy, it vitality and weakening the ties that bind American families (p. 345). After all, the average family indebtedness, reportedly $18,700, merely perpetuates the likelihood that both parents will need to work, and work more hours, in order to pay off this debt (p. 345). This in turn leads to less time spent with family members and children raised by strangers (p. 345, 346).
More importantly, perhaps, Bentley (2012) highlights America’s spending addiction by elucidating the choices Americans make. Caught within the illusory web of deceit, Americans not only falsely believe that consumption is good for the economy but also fall prey to the American image of success—wealth (Novotney, 2008; Shah, 2011). Mythically constructed as a symbol of economic independence, America’s spending addiction, its distinct brand of consumerism actually project to the world why this idea is like a mirage (Novotney, 2008). It most certainly draws the poor and hungry through the deserts of this world searching for the one thing or multiple things that will make the mirage cast within the desert a reality (Shah, 2011).
Yet, this separation from reality, the cost to generations of persons within American and beyond is evidenced by the consequences. It has become a throw-away society(Bentley, 2012, p. 347). Notably, this does not solely apply to the discards, the leftovers from products of convenience. Rather, it also applies to people. After all, Bentley (2012) articulates how many persons would still choose work and money over spending time with family (p. 346).
Accordingly, Americans live within some altered reality. Perhaps, they “live” within a virtual reality like the video games they consume. However, unlike the game, there is no reset button or magical intervention to restore the environment, refuel and recharge every aspect therein. Instead, the real world must absorb America’s annual waste, equivalent to (Bentley, 2012) “[…] a convoy of 10-ton garbage trucks 145,000 miles long” (New Road Map Foundation).
How than can American’s be awakened from their constructions of an alternate reality? How might they become motivated to change their ways? How might they possibly repay the debts they own to the numerous sectors of participation within the world? How might they at last become the environmentalists they consider themselves to be?
Conclusion
These are the questions, Bentley (2012) raises through her carefully constructed passages. Delicately yet strategically laying out the facts in ways that illuminate the American paradox, Bentley (2012) paints the irony of the self-constructed American identity and its “success.” Incrementally revealing how each desire merely leads to indebtedness, impoverishes each American, each generation, those living and those not yet born, Bentley (2012) uses facts, contrasts and comparisons in Zen-like fashion to awaken the readers from their own virtual realities. Hoping to break the ties of addiction, the dreamer entrapped within the mirage, Bentley’s (2012) article serves as an intervention.
References
Benlow, S. (2007). Apology to future generations in the Composition of everyday life. Ed. John
Mauk and John Metz. 2nd ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2007. 577-81
Bentley, J. (2012). American consumerism in the Composition of everyday life,Ed. Mauk, John,
& Metz, John. Boston: Wadsworth Pub Co.
Novotney, A. (2008 July). What’s behind American consumerism? American Psychological
Association. Retrieved from
Perner, L. (2010). Consumer behavior: The psychology of marketing. Retrieved from
Shah, A. (2011 Mar. 26). Consumption and consumerism. Global Issues. Retrieved from