Reflection
Unless we view things critically and reflectively, our desire for spiritual depth and transcendence can flounder in false information. Consumerism encourages us to want something more than what we have whether we need it or not. Our happiness is connected to what we consume; out personal worth is linked to having the latest new product. Ourviews are clouded by propaganda which makes hype more attractive than truth and tries to bend facts and shape ideas. We need to practice serious discernment. Discernment helps us understand the motives for our actions and allows our real yearnings to surface. If we are out of touch with what we truly desire, we are easy prey for those who want to tell us what that is.
Prayer
Give me a discerning spirit.
Action
Listen to commercials critically. View TV news with an informed perspective. What are you being told about your needs and their fulfillment? Is it real?
Suggested Reading
Blessed are those who know their need for theirs is the grace of heaven.
Matthew 5:3
The encounter with the living Jesus fills the heart with joy, because it fills it with true life, a profound goodness that does not pass away or decay. But this experience must face the daily vanity, the poison of emptiness that insinuates itself into our society based on profit and having (things), that deludes young people with consumerism
Pope Francis.
Contemplation is an alternative consciousness that refuses to identify with or feed what are only passing shows. It is the absolute opposite of addiction, consumerism or any egoic consciousness.
Richard Rohr
The folly of endless consumerism sends us on a wild goose-chase for happiness through materialism.
Bryant H. McGill
If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly.
Thomas Sowell
Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
Eric Hoffer
All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.
Noam Chomsky
Propaganda is amazing. People can be led to believe anything.
Alice Walker
erican consumerism is about buying things we don’t need,
with money we don’t have, to impress friends we don’t have time for.
Leo Horrigan
It’s a measure of the depth of our consumer trance that the death of the planet is not sufficient to break it.
Kalle Lasn
It’s so easy for propaganda to work, and dissent to be mocked.
Harold Pinter