The Consumerist Lament

A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste, and such a society is a house built upon sand.[i]

In his 1960 follow-up to the best-selling The Hidden Persuaders, The Waste Makers, Vance Packard drew his reader’s attention to Dorothy L. Sayers’ lament over the hollowness of a life based on consumer choices.[ii] Although the concern of Sayers’ 1947 book, from which the above quote was drawn, centred on materialism’s negative impact on spiritual life, Packard shared Sayers’ distaste and dissatisfaction, deploring the pursuit of a high standard of living based on greed and waste.

By 1960, however, Packard observed a strengthening of a more strident pursuit of the consumerist agenda than had characterised preceding decades. Packard captured the mood of those concerned about the persuasive effect of modern marketing, the waste generated by mass production and consumption and the insatiable desire to keep up with the Joneses ultimately questioning the ability of the goods to deliver the good life.[iii]

It is common for writers concerned with consumer and other cultural issues to preface their work with a historical quote to remind readers of the choices they have but have perhaps chosen to ignore. This is my jumping off point.

---

[i] Dorothy L. Sayers, ‘Why Work?’ in Creed or Chaos and other essays in popular theology, London: Methuen, 1947, p. 47; also quoted in Packard, The Waste Makers, London: Longmans, 1960.

[ii] Vance Packard, The Hidden Persuaders, London: Longmans, 1957.

[iii] Vance Packard, The Status Seekers: an exploration of class behaviour in America, London: Longmans, 1960.