September
28, 2006 at 8 p.m. in Eben Holden Hall
Spending Nation: Can Liberal Values Survive in the Age
of Consumerism?
Juliet Schor
American culture has become a consumer culture to an extent
previously unimagined. From the earliest ages, children are trained
to buy and shop, our economy is oriented around maximizing consumer
spending, and consumer choice has become the reigning paradigm
in numerous other realms of social life, from politics to romance,
religion and even education. The official ideology of consumer
capitalism holds that more is always better, choice is a paramount
value, and we are who we are because of what we buy. But the
consumer paradise also brings with it a host of troubling questions--where
did these products come from? What impact are they having on
the environment? Are they worth the sacrifice of time and money
required to procure them? The market thrives on creating a space
of enchantment, fantasy, and disregard for consequences, where
such questions do not arise. By contrast, liberalism, and
particularly the liberal arts higher education, demands that
we ask them. It is based on rationality, a critical, open stance,
and a passion for truth. Does consumerism undermine those goals?
Can a truly liberal university also be a consumerist one?
Juliet Schor, author of Born to Buy: The Commercialized
Child and the New Consumer Culture (Scribner 2004) has
been featured on the New York Times Bestseller
list. She has also been awarded the George Orwell Award for Distinquished
Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Writing for her
book The Overspent American. I believe you will all
find her to be an engaging speaker and a provocative thinker.
