In 1954 J. B Priestley coined the word admass: “the creation of the mass mind, the mass man.” Admass man was blinded by the dazzling array of consumer goods offered by the consumer society, his senses dulled by the bland rapidity of modern communications and the pervasive pressure of advertising; he lived, Priestley thought, in a mechanical, superficial, conformist world, where people would cheerfully exchange their last glimpse of freedom for a new car, a refrigerator, and a TV Screen”.
Fifty seven years on, are we any better off?
I composed what i thought was a stinging comment about consumers being like turkeys who voted for their own demise at Thanksgiving. But then I thought this isn’t epicurean, and zapped it. Ataraxia, peace!
Insidious, this cultural phenomenon of “infinitely expandable material demands,” as one of my college profs called the affliction. Trouble is, although I draw lines in my own life (i.e. “I’ll NEVER get a Gizmo X,”) I still occasionaly succumb and fall into material sin.