The Plight of the Consumer

From “Babbitt“ ; a novel by Sinclair Lewis

“Just as he was an Elk, a Booster, and a member of the Chamber of Commerce, just as the priests of the Presbyterian Church determined his every religious belief and the senators who controlled the Republican Party decided in little smoky rooms in Washington what he should think about disarmament, tariff, and Germany, so did the large national advertisers fix the surface of his life, fix what he believed to be his individuality. These standard advertised wares – toothpastes, socks, tires, cameras, instantaneous hot-water heaters – were his symbols and proofs of excellence; at first the signs, then the substitutes, for joy and passion and wisdom.”

Interesting that even as in 1922, when “Babbitt” was first published, we still so adamantly fixate ourselves upon things which are of so little practicality and use. We rely on biased opinions from uninformed pundits to formulate our own ideas about the state of our government and our economy. We generalize and tailor our individual styles to match those of the offerings of giant clothing conglomerates and rationalize our similarities with celebrity endorsed catch phrases and tweets. We watch others suffer at the hands of popular media as they interfere with and brutilize the system of justice we once fought so steadfastly and diligently to obtain. Our symbols of status, and often times, literally of our self-worth are derived from nothing more than a collection of objects – material goods and artifacts – which we rigorously long for and immediately forget amidst the pile of useless gems once toted proudly and justified by popular advertising, that quietly disappear into the lonely void of consumerism.

Am I a piece of paper?

Am I a piece of paper?

Or rather, a number? An encrypted data point in a mass storage facility somewhere beyond the reach of the tangible?

How much of our lives becomes reflected in the numbers and bits of information that organize us, categorize us, and for all practical purposes define us? Consider the vast amount of numbers that you have been associated with. Likely, you have a social security number which identifies you for all matters of state. If you are like most Americans, you own a car and utilize it nearly everyday. In connection to that vehicle, you have a driver’s license number, a plate number, and a vehicle VIN number which becomes associated with that vehicles registration in the state in which you live, and once again, to your name. If you do any sort of shopping online you have an account number and password associated with each website. You most likely have at least one phone number. The carrier which you choose to provide your service also has an account number which they use to compare your use of that service to your history of paying for it. How do you pay for it? You withdraw money from the bank account which you have set up to hold the funds you have earned. This bank account has two principal numbers of importance – the number that identifies it as belonging to you and a number that defines the amount of money you can withdraw. If you enjoy television or indoor climate control you are likely paying a utilities company for the electricity they provide – you are making payments to a specific account number.

Many of these numbers can be measured and compared. They can be researched – conclusions may be drawn about you based simply on the patterns these digits that have been associated with your name have adopted over time.

This is what is commonly referred to as “the rat race.” Or as I view it, your life as a number or point of comparable data. Your life as a piece of paper.

How do you compare? Are you winning? Losing? Somewhere in the middle? Have you ever wondered just exactly how the rat race came to be? Where did it start? For what purpose? Did the tools for quick comparison and judgment develop the vast desire among people to measure themselves against one another in nearly every possible way? Or did the desire create the tools?

The interplay between comparison and the necessity of comparison may best be answered with anthropology. The simple dynamics that existed between people during the days of the hunter-gatherer society may very well explain the practice of conscious comparison between members of the group. More specifically, the interpersonal relationship dynamics that began to change as the societies themselves began to evolve into something closer to what we would recognize as a society today.  Consider the inevitable daily occurrence of human interaction. Every human being on the face of the planet interacts with other human beings every day – or very nearly every day, with the exception of course being those who choose the life of a recluse (possible in today’s society only because of the vast technological advances that allow “today’s society” to exist in the first place). During the days of the hunter-gatherer society, the days in which the primitive forms of human interaction were developing, members of individual tribes interacted with the same individuals on a daily basis. Disagreement or dispute did not often become manifest in petty acts of anger such as theft or sabotage. Individuals were so closely bound to each other for survival that such matters were trivial. Emotions such as anger and jealousy best served the group when directed toward rival tribes. As you can imagine, because the resources they were competing over could determine whether or not they survived, these emotions were very strong. It is here that the act of comparison between one another could be very beneficial. Determining what other groups had, or did not have, could give members of the tribe clues as to climate changes, availability of food and water, the integrity of the land, and possible sicknesses and diseases.

The organized society of today looks very different. Does the act of comparison benefit the individual in a modern society? It can be easily argued that feelings of anger and resentment, feelings which once served as a protective mechanism and an aegis amidst the unknown, have little effect in a society where the greatest fear is the fear of poverty or unhappiness – not fear of death by starvation. So then, where does that leave comparative judgment? We certainly seem to partake of this activity regularly. Even those who conscientiously make an effort to avoid interpersonal comparison or judgment remain victims of statistical evaluation. Try as hard as you would like to escape it – if  you are in any way a member of modern society, you are subject to scrutiny.

The obvious argument for comparison is organization. The simple fact that the world in which we live is inhabited by so many people merits some level organizational control. If you could not define your life on paper as you do now, and for that matter, no one could, would modern society exist?

Only in a Utopia.

Your life is described on paper by necessity. Take money for example. The monetary system was developed to simplify the process of barter and trade. One good or service exchanged for another. Broken down to its simplest form, what is money really measuring? How valuable you are to the society which you inhabit. This is of course not always the case, as the monetary system, with its many flaws, can be corrupted and abused. However, if we look at only at the intent of the system, we can see that in essence it measures value – what contribution are you making for the benefit of not only you, but those around you as well? Today, it is possible to contribute nothing with little or no consequence. At a point early in human history, this was not the case. Contribution was necessary because your survival depended on it. The advent of technology made work more efficient – contribution became more powerful. An individual could accomplish what would have taken twenty individuals before. Today, a few of the individuals at the tail end of that equation choose to contribute nothing simply because they can. This is why we monitor money. This is why we assign value with numbers and associate these numbers with names.

We have created a system of number, letters, and assigned values not only to organize individuals but to protect them as well. What are we protecting from? Theft, greed, laziness, and dishonesty to name a few. How efficiently are we doing this? Opinions vary greatly.

Have we created a complex organizational system with which to monitor people, that is truly reflective of the individuals themselves? Is your life, as it is defined on paper, more important than your life as you see it through your own eyes? How greatly do these two viewpoints differ?