After battling traffic, snaking parking lots and standing in lines to buy two-by-three-inch gift cards, my soul feels sapped. I'm not sure what any of this has to do with the stable-born savior. As abominable as the consumerist co-opting of Christmas is, I realize that the heart of my protest transcends this season. The frenetic holiday marketplace simply reignites my concern for the victims of a culture smitten and shaped by conspicuous consumption -- particularly the injustice done to older people.
Consumerism tells one story of human worth, a version of reality widely accepted. Human worth is rooted in externals, in those things acquired, whether that be material objects or college degrees or job titles or Facebook friends. To be a fuller, better, happier human, one should always aim to increase acquisition, one way or the other. The enemy of consumerism is a satisfied and content person, because she does not need to acquire anything more.
In a consumerist framework, people who cannot or do not increase acquisition experience a decrease in societal worth. This is a major reason why retirement can be such a traumatic transition. If human worth is predicated on externals added to the self, then a person's worth plummets when she no longer keeps adding and, in fact, has downsized and subtracted. Precisely because older people often live on fixed incomes, no longer work income-generating jobs and may neither desire nor have the means to increase material consumption, this group experiences disenfranchisement as their real or perceived economic capacity for acquisition has flagged. Because the culture of consumerism ties human value to purchasing power, one's worth rises and falls on the capacity for consumption.
Consumerism also equates newer with better and older with inferior. If we did not buy this notion, then we would be satisfied wearing last year's clothes, talking on last year's cellphone, driving last decade's car. If we believed older were just as good as newer, then we would not feel the need to acquire at such a rapid pace -- an affront to a consumerist orientation. However unconsciously, this new-is-better logic spills over to our treatment of people: newer people are better than older. When is the last time you saw an old person on a perfume ad?
There is another, far preferable way to conceive of human worth -- instead of as external as intrinsic. As a person of faith, I conceive of this intrinsic value as rooted in God, who in creation deems creation (humans included) "very good" as an ontological reality. Our worth is a gift that does not increase or diminish with changing circumstances. A quadriplegic is just as human as a robust athlete, a day laborer just as valuable as a billionaire, an old person just as cherished as a youth. As inherently and irrevocably beloved, we cannot add to or subtract from our value.
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