ABSTRACT
Look at our culture of consumption as a scientist would see bacteria growing in an immense Petri dish. We develop or get conditioned amidst an amorphous atmosphere of perpetual sales pitches as if human nature itself possesses some compulsion to lure us, like the biblical serpent with its glowing apple did to Eve. Instead of having a simple protein, our culture dish contains sophisticated inorganic material from advertisers who promise to bring daily and eternal satisfaction to “you,” the everneedy individual, around whom the world revolves. This “consumer” (who has replaced the citizen in popular commercial jargon) reacts emotionally as sales propagators desperately attempt to induce in him or her ever more shopping as the only acceptable universal behavior-one that will deal with material inadequacies and redeem the spirit as well.
