Twittchell's Report

While “Two Cheers for materialism” by James Twitchell explores the extent to which materialism has become an ample and important aspect of everyday life in our society, the text also highlights our tendency to disregard and question the moral appropriateness of this very integral aspect.

Humans are the most social creatures on earth and what better place to express that then Las Vegas. City where aesthetic satisfaction and quality of life is purely expressed with material behaviors and lines between personal value and choice between tangible and intangible life goals and crossed and at times simply arrested. Scholars view materialism as a type of personality trait that involves personal and societal value. This trait is consumption-based and involves human demand for materialistic items to represent personal and social happiness. Associated with western cultures and capitalism, studies about materialism date back to an industrial and post-industrial revolution of 19th century (e.g., Campbell, 1987; McCracken, 1988; McKendrick et al., 1985; Williams, 1982). Richins considered materialism as a system of personal values (e.g. Fournier and Richins, 1991; Richins and Dawson, 1992).

Zygmunt Bauman is the writer and author of consuming life and liquid modernity. He is among the pioneering founders of the post-modernism theory that is characteristic of most theories in sociology and philosophy. The concepts and positions posited by Baunam will be heavily relied upon in the composition of this essay – albeit subject to diverse opinions in analysis and with reliance of critique that is presented from various avenues such as contradictory theories to those of the author. In consuming life, Bauman asserts that consumerism has surpassed the mundane quality of consumption. This means that human advancement has led to the quintessential disorder where consumerism coerces humans into lukewarm and superficial meeting of needs and desires, as opposed to consumption which was individualistic in nature and self-gratifying. Individuality is the opposite of consumerism. Bauman attests that desires and life of worth can be attained only from egoistic search of satisfaction. However, individualistic system and egoism cannot push societies to prosperity and advancement. Insofar as consumerism contorts human culture and introduces dangers of ideology and religion, it is only through consumerism that advances in humanity and advancement that man can utilize ideologies such as capitalism, laissez faire conditions, international trade, diplomacy, and other diverse attributes in transforming human culture.

I have mentioned some positive things about consumerism above but those positive aspects cannot hide all the negative effects consumerism has on our society at large. We as a society have been accustomed to a practice, out goes the old and here comes the new. This has led to a social evil called materialism. Materialism is one of the major drawbacks of consumerism. When things are in demand, people and their needs also increase. It is actually because when we start making more money than our buying power increases and we want more. However things can only be achieved to a certain extent and when we cannot achieve or purchase the next thing we are then dissatisfied. In the essay “The Creation of Discontent” a very meaningful quote is referenced, “I never knew how poor I was until I had a little money (A Banker).This statement reveals the true fact that we individuals will never be happy with what we have and the more we gain

In this essay I will be outlining consumerism and claims that a consumer society is always a throw-away society. Consumption plays a big part in our lives and causes us to live in divided societies. It may make us feel like we fit in buying new gadgets and clothes and also give us that sense of belonging but we don’t take into account what happens to the old items and packaging. People do not want to look at the problems caused. I will use this essay with the evidence I have read

“The American dream has also changed. ‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ has become ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of stuff.’” In today’s world, happiness has disappeared and has since been replaced with the need to buy. Many people believe that having many material possessions will bring them happiness. Often times people confuse their wants with their needs, which results in overconsuming. Consumerism is often supported by manufacturers who persuade their customers to buy the products. They become obsessed with this need to consume, which can result in a number of problems down the line. Consumerism can have a number of negative effects on a person.

There are many different types of worldviews that that are held among the countless people of this world. Consumerism is one that is very prominent in this day in time. “Consumerism absolutizes consumption by believing that we can find fulfillment by accumulating wealth and everything that comes with it.” (Wilkins &Sanford, 2009). There are many different elements of consumerism I will discuss, along with how this worldview of consumerism compares with the Christian worldview, and lastly, I will express how knowing what the Bible says about consumerism affects my life personally.

Consumerism turned out to be a big part in modern human life, the modern form of consumption brings with it the promise of a good life and good feelings; that is probably why it became a type of entertainment rather than necessity, a luxurious and leisure activity exchanged for free time. The idea of exchanging your time for materialistic goods is part of the capital economy; it is said that consumer culture came to be because capitalism surfaced as an economy force, along with the beginning of modernity (Storken, 2009). Modernity is more understood here as the mass production, industrial revolution, and people moving to urban centers that happened during the

Materialism had ruined our society in many ways. People get more and more obsess with materialistic objects now because they are trapped in this fake world created by the society. Materialism had created this whole new type of false measurement for the society, which people starts considering possession are more important than values. Even though materialism acts as a “motivating” force in today’s world economy, it erodes the value system and had affected the

The term materialism is known as a philosophy, and also an issue in our society. By definition, “materialism is the theory or attitude that physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value in life” (Khan). This means that our society has a tendency to consider material items or money as more important than our spiritual values. Since youth, children have thought that having more stuff, or better stuff, is happiness. Everyone always wants to buy the latest device, or the newest trends, when they don’t really need it. According to DeAngelis, “Compared with Americans in 1957, today we own twice as many cars per person, eat out twice as often and enjoy endless other commodities

Study proposes that materialism is sensitive to the social acceptability. Recent literature shows that there is a relationship between interpersonal influence and consumer buying, consumer often buy products that they not so much like but they tend to buy that products due to interpersonal influence and interpersonal influence includes parent’s influence, peer influence or even class influence. Due to these influences consumer buy the

According to the authors, materialism can be commonly defined as a belief that material objects are crucial and valuable. Materialistic person is one who values material objects highly and from a sociological view, it is a culture which most people holds material as highly valuable subject. Nonetheless, the word has a secondary meaning as it is an implicit and usually negative-value judgement to the degree where people who are described as being materialistic commonly held to have a concern with only material things rather than important spiritual or intellectual fixation. However, the authors discussed the articles openly with the possibility of having both positive and negative consequences. They also using the term that merely denote the degree to which individuals or groups value material possessions.

Humans have a tendency to indulge in luxuries, standing in mile-long lines outside retail stores in search for bigger and better devices despite already possessing everything necessary to live. This facet that historically defines our species is traced back in author Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, which details the evolution of Homo Sapiens from being an ordinary link within the food chain to a dominating influence on the Earth’s ecosystem. Harari explores the patterns in history that have evolved our mental and physical state, asserting that this evolutionary past follows one of history’s few iron laws: “luxuries tend to become necessities and...spawn new obligations” (Harari 78 - 79). In other words, inessential yet desirable items can eventually become ordinary with prolonged exposure, leading to a dependency on such items and an obligation to sustain its presence in human life. By understanding how these tendencies evolved within history, we can learn to distinguish between our needs and desires in order to avoid becoming hostage to the luxuries that entice us.

In today’ society, one’s standard of success is grounded off one’s material possessions. The consumer state of mind is, “we want more, we need more’. The constant push of getting the newest, fastest, shiniest item, along with the mentality of bigger is better, is consistently being pushed as well as feed to every person on a daily basis. These items start to appear as needs in one’s life, when in reality it is a want, which the joy and satisfaction quickly dissipate and the need for more develops. “The process of moving ahead materially without any real gain in satisfaction is often called ‘the treadmill of consumption’” (Roberts 124). According to Robert, society is trapped on this consumer treadmill, but individuals can make the choice to get off the consumer treadmill through retraining ones thought process, gaining appreciation of the simple possessions along with educating the youth about financial responsibility. Behaviors and habits are taught and observed from our earliest years of life, thus shaping one’s perspective, thoughts, and experiences, which means one has the ability to change one’s views and perceptions, thus getting off the consumer treadmill.

The materialistic progress of the Western people has made human life more comfortable but at the same time they have proved equally disastrous to mankind. The acquisitive nature of man results in the merciless exploitation of the fellow beings. The weak and the defenseless find it hard to exist material progress, thus implies the loss of spiritual nature of Western man. The novelist observes the commercial and technological culture of the West: