And this:The middle-class non-identity usually finds its perfect expression on the outskirts of campus in rows of well-to-do houses with lawns and television sets in
each living room with everybody looking at the same thing and thinking the same
thing at the same time while the Japhies of the world go prowling in the wilderness
(Hence the coming "rucksack revolution" ...)Japhy has a vision of Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn’t really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, at least new
fancy cars, certain hair oils and deodorants and general junk you finally always see
a week later in the garbage anyway, all of them imprisoned in a system of work,
produce, consume, work, produce, consume.
What do you think of these statements? Though they were written almost 60 years ago, in some ways they seem fairly prescient to me, even beyond the obvious "paycheck slavery" aspect. The ongoing escalation of and identity-robbing assimilation into consumer culture is "creating wealth," but also massive amounts of debt, wild up-and-down swings in financial markets, corporate takeover of our "democracy," ever-accelerating extraction of resources to feed a voracious global capital machine that seemingly can't run on anything less than perpetual expansion (drawing from the Mothership's finite reservoir). I'm even tempted to say that oft-repeated sayings like "fighting (wars) to protect our way of life" are part of the fallout.
The counter-position(s) to all of this: something along the lines that the capitalized production-consumption cycle and expansion of so-called "free-markets" to all corners of the earth (even the moon if these corporations could figure out how to swing it), while it may have its drawbacks, is the best "answer" for humankind's fast-growing population, etc. etc.
Any thoughts on this?
I have a Darwin award for not reproducing, yet I watch the parents and children come into the Walmart where I work and I get an ache in my heart looking at the kids I never had. They say the trouble with kittens is they grow up to be cats, maybe the same is true for humans too. Sorry I can't say much about it, It seems it is our destiny to suck this planet dry and move on to another one maybe. It is not just Americans, it is true for any country. More jobs, more growth, more resources consumed. Beats the hell out of me. In the mean time I do my best to be a conscious consumer and only buy the stuff I really really need, like one of these. 
