While Jefferson penned the
words, “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” in our Declaration of
Independence, the notion actually evolved from Locke’s “life, liberty, and the
pursuit of estate” and Adam Smith’s “life, liberty, and the pursuit of
property.” Smith’s version even found its way into The Declaration of Colonial
Rights, crafted by the First Continental Congress in 1774. We in the United
States act monstrously because in spite of Jefferson’s re-wording, we did not
divorce ourselves from Locke’s and Smith’s notions. We perceive an inextricable
link between our happiness and the degree of material success we achieve.
Forged within the context of capitalism, which has become savage beyond
comprehension as it rages against its inevitable self-destruction, our
relentless devotion to our “inalienable right” to “life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness” focuses primarily upon enhancing our own lives (others be
damned), filling our heavily-mortgaged homes to the rafters with as much “stuff”
as we can acquire, and satiating every hedonistic desire the law will allow, and
then some. We rarely pursue the spiritual form of happiness to which Jefferson
was probably alluding. In a nation where “I” rarely defers to “we” and property
rights trump humanity, we US Americans tend to be all about “me” and hell-bent
on dying a winner by possessing the “most toys.”
“About 24,000 people
die each day from hunger or hunger-related causes. Three-quarters of the deaths
are children under the age of 5.”
—-The Hunger Project, United Nations;
Fall 2003
“You can find your way across this country using burger joints
the way a navigator uses stars.”
—Charles Kuralt
Think about
that figure of 24,000 for a moment. Each day that passes, nearly three times as
many human beings succumb to malnutrition and hunger than the total number of
people we have lost in our illegal and murderous invasion of Iraq that began in
2003. Yet as Charles Kuralt pointed out, there is no shortage of victuals in the
United States. Fast food restaurants, the progenitors of numerous evils,
including factory farming, Mcjobs, the corporatization of culture, and the
“throw away” society, are nearly ubiquitous. We US Americans are “lovin’ it” and
having it “[our] way” so much that highway weigh stations stops may eventually
become mandatory for all motorists. 40 million of us are obese and 3 million
more are morbidly obese.
Ironically though, we are so selfish and
self-absorbed, that not only do we use our immense military and economic might
to extort and force the rest of the world to supply our tiny percentage of the
world’s population with a shockingly gluttonous one fourth of the Earth’s
resources, we allow hunger and homelessness to exist amongst our own people!
Television, which is both our grossly distorted window to the world and
a Siren’s call to viciously lacerate our souls upon the jagged coast of the Isle
of Avarice where we ultimately find ourselves spiritually devoured by the beast
called Consumerism, acts as a powerful catalyst for America’s pathological
fascination with shopping.
While our multi-national corporations rape
and exploit developing nations, our insanely over-funded death machine wages
wholesale terror with a vengeance, our power-brokers on Wall Street man the
bulwarks of predatory capitalism, our almost infinitely corrupt government
protects and advances the interests of a cynical plutocracy, and the corporate
media cover their collective asses, we US Americans disregard our consciences
(which have been rendered virtually impotent by the inculcation of the notion of
American Exceptionalism anyway) and pursue our “happiness” through serial
retailing. What better way to inject a dose of instant nirvana into our lives
without becoming another of the 300,000 non-violent drug offenders behind bars
in the US?
Aside from its legality, shopping’s beauty lies in the ease
with which one can attain the high it offers. We merely arm ourselves with a
fistful of readily obtainable credit cards (remaining oblivious to the usurious
interest to which we are obligating ourselves), jump in our SUVs that were
actually designed to be used for public transit but somehow became modes of
personal transportation, and head for the nearest leviathan, cookie-cutter
retail establishment. (Who knew the stairway to heaven had only three steps?)
Once one arrives, there is a high probability of having a profound
spiritual experience, like this for instance:
Entering the mall, you
find yourself captivated by a kiosk peddling expensive sunglasses. One pair in
particular demands your attention. Initiating a moment of narcissistic bliss,
you casually don the shades and catch a glimpse of yourself in one of the many
mirrors the vendor has generously provided. Smiling with self-satisfaction, you
tell yourself you look “killer” in those $300.00 Dolce and Gabbanas. Madison
Avenue’s indoctrination has convinced you that you deserve them and that you
need them to show people who you are. So of course, you make them yours. You, my
friend, have just been elevated to a higher plane of existence in retailing
paradise.
On a really good shopping day, we find ourselves in the midst
of an enchanted world where the line between reality and the American Dream
becomes an indistinct blur. An upscale mall in suburban America is THE place to
be on a weekend afternoon if you fancy yourself to be one of the “beautiful
people”—white, at least comfortable financially, attractive, and thus amongst
the only people who truly matter in this world.
Yet there is also plenty
of room for the rest of us—those who refuse to relax our death grip on the
losing lottery ticket that our magical thinking tells us is a guaranteed winner.
Why do we refuse to let go of a pipe dream? Because we see ourselves as a nation
brimming with Horatio Algers. “The good life” is just around the corner, if we
just work hard enough. So potent is this pernicious lie, they will have to pry
this metaphorical lottery ticket from our “cold, dead hands.”
Posturing,
preening, styling, profiling, seeing, being seen, and best of all, exercising
their patriotic duty to God, country, and retailer, the “beautiful people” set
the trend for the rest of us. It’s hard to conceive of something more
“inspiring” than the most spoiled and privileged human beings on the face of the
planet filling their Hummers with bags emblazoned with the likes of Abercrombie,
Neiman Marcus, the Limited, Nordstrom, and Saks so they can stay ahead of the
fashion curve, play with the latest electronic toys, best the neighbors, and to
have more contents to dampen the echoes reverberating throughout their
relatively empty McMansion domiciles, which are large enough to house fifty
people but often afford shelter to only a few.
Whether we are amongst
the “blessed elite” of humanity or not, as US Americans it is our patriotic duty
to shop. Shopping was our first “counter-terrorism measure” after 9/11,
remember? Our very way of life depends upon our wallets and our willingness to
open them.
If we falter in our sacred duty to over-indulge our desires
at the expense of humanity and the Earth, dear reader, our world as we know it
will be lost to the “Islamic hoards”, “Godless Communists”, and “Hispanic
invaders.”
As long as greed, self-absorption, selfishness, and
consumerism are so deeply woven into our sociocultural fabric, we who comprise
the collective in the United States will exist as a living testament to Victor
Hugo’s observation that, “Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.”
Jason Miller is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed
himself intellectually and spiritually. He is Cyrano’s Journal Online’s
associate editor ( http://www.bestcyrano.org/) and publishes
Thomas Paine’s Corner within Cyrano’s at http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/.
You can reach him at JMiller@bestcyrano.org
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