Consumer Society Essay, Research Paper

“Reading the Life of the Consumer Society,” by Walter Percy is a wakeup call for people living in an increasingly capitalistic world. It shows how people replace relationships with objects. People can be hurt by the death or betrayal of a loved one but a material item will always be faithful. When materialism becomes to big the interior self is lost, along with relationships, admission to failure, and love. The best way to combat the over taking effects of materialism is to return to love either in relationships or to the love that Jesus showed us. More and more in today’s society people are judged by how much they posses, rather than who they are. People without money look up to those who do like they have everything. Money doesn’t always come with happiness and can often leave you alone. “The consuming self, unmasked, reveals a terrible absence.” What looks like a solution or desirable on the outside can be empty on the inside. Media (which is used to sell consumer items) is used to tell us what we need, what we should be, who we should be, and what we should look like. The consumer can never be filled because there will always be something bigger, better, or more faster to buy. The best way to solve the consumer disease is to open our eyes to the world and take a look at what is happening. We must “let go of the armor which has become our cage,” we must come out of Coto and look at the “wounded whose existence we deny.”