At some point during the twentieth century, we switched from being citizens to consumers. When did we go from focusing on being part of a larger group, to caring only about our individual desires?
Internet articles and snazzy television exposes and traditional newspaper columns— they all talk about the juggernaut of consumerism and its effect on us. Our national waistlines are bulging as we snarf a day’s worth of calories in one fast food breakfast, or pile our shopping carts with foods so laden with fat and sugar that we ensure ourselves enough energy to run a marathon. We consume all this stuff, and then promptly park ourselves in front of our televisions and computers and game consoles.
Here’s what we tell ourselves: it’s fun to eat too much calorie-laden food. It’s fun to use little of our own energy, but lots of gasoline or diesel to drive big vehicles. It’s fun to sit and stare at stories about other people’s doing. It’s fun to take as much as we can, without worrying about the others around us, whether those others are living in the next house, the next neighborhood, the next town, or the next country. Here’s what we’ve told ourselves: gluttony is good. There’s only so much, and we’re going to get as much as we can.
Well, we have, and now we’re fat— literally and metaphorically.
Thanksgiving, like much of our culture, has moved from being a holiday built on citizenship, to a celebration centered on consumption. Are we gathering to bask in the companionship of family? Or are we stuffing ourselves into a torpor, just before preparing ourselves for the hardship of fighting Christmas crowds in order to purchase garbage with 50% mark-ups that have been discounted by 15%?
During the holidays— that month-long gobble between Thanksgiving and Christmas— we should break the habit of gluttony. The focus shouldn’t be on ourselves. Rather, we should focus on how we can help others, advertisements to the contrary. Maybe, in the process, our waste and our waists will shrink.
Robin Follet lives, writes, and cartoons in North Carolina.
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December 2nd, 2008 at 1:50 pm
This year I have decided to give heart felt letters and one-on-one time to my loved ones for Christmas instead of purchasing gifts. I am also looking for somewhere in my community to volunteer Christmas morning. Does anyone have an organization they recommend?
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:02 am
I’m partial to the Union Mission or God’s Love We Deliver.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:13 am
[…] of reproducing it as anybody else. Take, for instance, Robin Follet’s most recent post entitled Gobble Gobble Gobble. An otherwise generous writer intimately acquainted with the plight of marginalized lives and […]
December 16th, 2008 at 8:04 am
[…] I learned recently of your dismay at my column “Gobble Gobble Gobble.” […]