By Charles Derber
Truthout | Op-Ed
Monday, 27 May 2013
A quiet revolutionary struggle is brewing in the minds of the US
"millennial" generation, those 80 million Americans between ages 16 and
34. They are wrestling with the fundamental edict of capitalism: Buy and
you shall be happy. The millennials have not rejected consumerism, but
they have also not embraced it fully. They experience its very real
downsides - that also afflict millions of older Americans and go to the
heart of capitalist sustainability and morality.
Recent polls by marketing firms and the respected Pew Research Center
show strong environmental concerns among millennials, but hint at a
broader issue: whether consumerism itself makes for a good life and
society. Americans, especially the young, love their computers and sleep
with their iPhones next to their pillows, but still worry about the
negative sides of consumerism.
Technology itself may be contributing to what commentators have
called the "death of ownership" culture, since the issue is not owning a
book or television set, but having access through the web. Technology
is changing the very idea of ownership. But broader factors - including
the very availability of so much "stuff" - are contributing to making
consumerism less new, exciting and "cool."
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