The Jesuit Guide To (Almost) Everything - James Martin [83]
In my own discussions with parents and their children concerning the problem of family stress and fragmentation, I know of no other force so pervasive, so strong, and so seductive as the consumer ideology of capitalism and its fascination for endless accumulation, extended working hours, the drumming up of novel need fulfillments, the theologizing of the mall, the touting of economic comparison, the craving for legitimacy through money and possessions, and unrelieved competition at every level of life.
THE LADDER
One of the best short analyses of the consumerist world in which we live is an article by Dean Brackley, S.J., that appeared in the journal Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits in 1988. It was one of the first things I read in the novitiate. Father Brackley was uniquely qualified to write on the topic, having lived and worked with the poor in the South Bronx. A few years later he would move to El Salvador to replace one of the Jesuit priests assassinated as a result of their work with the poor in that country.
His article was called “Downward Mobility,” a phrase borrowed from the Dutch priest Henri Nouwen. Brackley compares the way of the world, which can be summarized as “upward mobility,” to the vision of Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises, which invites us to detachment and freedom.
This drive to acquire, this constant striving toward “upward mobility,” is at first driven by something healthy: our longings.
All of us have a natural longing for God. But, as Brackley notes, the consumer culture often tells us that we can satisfy this longing through money, status, and possessions. Sound crazy? Just think of the television commercials that promise happiness if you only buy one more thing.
How does the process work? Here is a summary of Brackley’s twelve steps, with some added comments of my own. See if any resonate with your own experiences.
The consumer culture is primarily individualistic, with people pursuing private goals over more communal ones. In a competitive environment, it’s everyone for himself or herself.
This does not mean that personal goals are negative per se. Individual pursuit is the basis of the capitalist system, arguably the most efficient economic system for the production and distribution of goods. The danger, however, is becoming interested solely in your own well-being, unconcerned with those outside of your family, friends, and local community.
People are tempted to alleviate feelings of insecurity by having or consuming. We try to fill our emptiness with things, rather than with God or with loving relationships. Without this impulse the advertising industry would probably collapse: it exists to manufacture the desire for things.
This individualism and consumerism leads to the ladder as the dominant model for the culture—with some people higher up than others. Some are on the top, others on the bottom.
Individuals show their status through certain social symbols— job titles, possessions, credentials, and so on. One’s personal worth depends on one’s wealth or job.
That’s why discussing salary is perhaps the biggest taboo in social settings: it’s the quickest way of ranking people and is society’s prime measure of our worth. Finding out someone else’s salary instantly makes you see the person in a certain light. If the other person makes less than you, you may see him as “less than.” If he makes more, you may be jealous and see yourself as “less than.” Most other conversational topics are welcomed among friends—family problems, illness, death—but, even there, salary is taboo, because of its inherent power.
Gradually, you interiorize these external measures. You judge yourself on your job, your salary, on what you “produce.”
Now, all of us are called to act, to do, to work. But when you judge yourself solely by these measures, you become a “human doing” rather than a “human being.”
Also, if you’re not higher on the ladder or moving up that ladder, you feel inferior to others.