Culture of Greed and Consumption: A Moderate Christian Viewpoint

“Its Not the Economy Stupid” : Culture of Greed and Consumption

We are currently experiencing a moral crisis. A failure of ethical principle and transparency (truthfulness and candor)–or rather a failure of individuals and corporate cultures to be guided by principles and purposes beyond “short term profits.”

A good friend Michael Hall recently posted an excellent examination of the current economic recession from Patrick Deneen:

Indeed, our self-delusion commits us to further self-destruction. The dominant “debate” in this country is about the best means of restoring our economic “health,” whether through tax cuts or government spending. Both major parties fundamentally agree that what is desired is the resumption of our “normal” economy, unwilling to face the fact of the matter that our economy is not, and has not, been “healthy.” Our economy – premised upon permanent growth within a closed system – is based on profound falsehood. The implicit belief that unleashed appetite and consumption represent “health” is a stunning faith commitment among our elders. The claims that we can square the values of social justice (among the Democrats) or family values (among the Republicans) and a rapacious and presentist economic order is deeply self-delusional. We still refuse to see the moral dimension of our crisis, and to that extent will only deepen and prolong it. The “stimulus package” continues the basic bad habits we have developed, premised upon the belief that deeper debt produces greater growth. If it weren’t so colossally tragic it would be risible.

Our deepest problem perhaps lies in our compartmentalization of the nature of this moment. In viewing it as “economic,” we obscure from ourselves the deeper connections between our economic collapse, the ravaging of the natural world, the lack of self-discipline of our “personal” moral behavior, the daily growing illegitimacy of our republican government. All of these phenomena – and many others, more wide to be expressed in one post or by one person – are deeply connected to, and ultimately derive from, the deepest presuppositions of our modern age – namely, the unleashing of the human appetite in the belief that it constitutes a positive good. Our incapacity and inability to exercise self-government lies most deeply across the spectrum of our current crises. All around us we face a denouement of our deepest philosophical convictions, a perfect storm of the logic of the age. To think for a moment we require the some perfect “fix” for the discrete problem in our economic system is a self-delusive luxury we can ill afford to believe and act upon any longer.

Michael is right to point out that this crisis is a microcosm of a larger issue of consumption (and a failure to define freedom in a new way and act thusly):

We live in a culture that defines freedom negatively–the absence of constraint. Massive personal and collective debt is only one manifestation of “unleashed appetite” in the name of freedom. One obvious corollary is the sexual revolution, where nearly any sexual appetite can be justified and (temporarily) satiated by appeal to personal freedom. Abortion on demand is no less a symptom of our consumptive mindset than the ocean of debt we’re trying to “stimulate” our way across.

Michael continues:

DirectTV is not going to tell you that spending 4 hours a night in front of the TV is part of the reason you have no relationship with your neighbors. Second, even when we do recognize a tradeoff and factor it into a decision, we’re encouraged to see the decision in economic terms. So, for example, even when I recognize that my Blackberry encourages me to take my work home, how do I weigh that cost against the benefit of being a more productive employee?

Hall points to an ethical challenging personal balancing act:

Regarding the tradeoffs between dutifully accepting my role as a consumer and living without my I-Pod, well, now you’re hitting me where it hurts. Seriously, I have no doubt that many of these choices would be difficult, bordering on unthinkable. I can hardly imagine living without my mobile phone, let most of the other luxuries I’ve come to think of as necessities. Even though some hard choices might be inevitable, I don’t think this is fundamentally about giving up specific technologies or starting an agrarian community in Montana. I think it’s mostly about whether our appetites are disciplined by the Creator and, by extension, our relationships with other members of His Body (this would include tradition), or by a system that reduces the glory of creation to units of economic exchange.

Reflections on Consumption

I further wonder if the rush to judgement on the stimulus package was moderately part and parcel of a consumption mindset that doesn’t allow wisdom and common sense to offer alternative courses of action. What can be done about the moral crisis or the economic crisis if greed and consumption are larger parts of the problem?

Feel free to check out this discussion on consumption and Christianity at Facebook (its really quite robust)

(I use the word moderate more as “independent” and one that sees both sides, not necessarily a perfect balancing of two viewpoints. And its not the economy stupid isn’t intended by me or I believe Patrick Daneen to be an insult)