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Newspaper Article
The Curious Problem Of Having More Than You Need
2007
Overview
[Benjamin R. Barber]'s variation on the theme, in \"Consumed,\" is to decry consumerism's \"infantilization\" of the culture. Sounding like the grumpiest of social conservatives, Mr. Barber, a proud progressive, blasts the youth-obsessed self-indulgence of an \"infantilist ethos\" that values \"EASY over HARD, SIMPLE over COMPLEX, and FAST over SLOW.\" He even contrasts today's childishness with the good old days of the Protestant ethic, according to which \"work was truly a calling, and investment a mark of prudent altruism and democratic nation-building rather than mere selfishness.\" What an exceedingly strange sentiment for a man of the left: nostalgia for the bourgeoisie! To be sure, capitalism has both fed and profited from this increasing youth-centeredness. What Mr. Barber neglects to mention, however, is that hostility to capitalism and materialistic motivations has also played a major role in instigating the cultural shift he condemns. Has Mr. Barber forgotten the counterculture? \"Don't trust anybody over 30,\" \"if it feels good, do it,\" \"question authority\" -- the romantic rebels of the 1960s who mouthed these slogans had no use for either profits or Protestantism. What Mr. Barber now condemns as puerility they prized as spontaneity and authenticity. Such attitudes put an unmistakable stamp on the world that, for better and worse, we inhabit today.
Publisher
Dow Jones & Company Inc
Subject
