Product Description

"Powerful and disturbing. No one who cares about the future of our public life can afford to ignore this book."—Jackson Lears

A powerful sequel to Benjamin R. Barber's best-selling Jihad vs. McWorld, Consumed offers a vivid portrait of an overproducing global economy that targets children as consumers in a market where there are never enough shoppers and where the primary goal is no longer to manufacture goods but needs. To explain how and why this has come about, Barber brings together extensive empirical research with an original theoretical framework for understanding our contemporary predicament. He asserts that in place of the Protestant ethic once associated with capitalism—encouraging self-restraint, preparing for the future, protecting and self-sacrificing for children and community, and other characteristics of adulthood—we are constantly being seduced into an "infantilist" ethic of consumption.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41402 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Barber returns to the clashing models of civilization of his earlier Jihad vs. McWorld, focusing this time on the expanding global culture of market forces he claims will destory not only democracy but even capitalism, if left unchecked. He warns of a totalitarian "ethos of induced childishness" that not only seeks to turn the young into aggressive consumers but to arrest the psychological development of adults as well, "freeing" them to indulge in puerile and narcissistic purchases based on "stupid" brand loyalties. The increasing drive toward privatization compounds the problem, generating a "civic schizophrenia" where everybody wants service but nobody wants to serve. His complaint is so broad that it occasionally edges into crankiness, as he blames infantilization for ruining everything from Hollywood movies to NBA basketball; even other liberal cultural commentators, especially Steven Johnson (Everything Bad Is Good for You), come in for much criticism. Barber recognizes that the "Jihadist" rejection of consumer culture is equally undemocratic, but still believes the system can be changed from within, citing the corporate responsibility movement and activist boycotts. His dense analysis can be a tough slog in spots, but the provocative attacks on capitalism's excesses will resonate with many. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Barber, the Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland, has devoted much of his life to the study of the effects of the consumer market on individuals and society as a whole. His hypothesis that consumer culture has turned adult citizens into children by catering to the lowest common denominator rings only too true, even if the sheer density and obsequiousness of this examination are likely to turn off much of the popular readership. Therein lies the conundrum of reviewing this impressive piece of work, wherein Barber proves his theory that the market imperative has conditioned us to lap up the easy offerings and reject hard, complicated works. This lifelong study of the effects of capitalism and privatization reveals a pervasiveness of branding and homogenization from which there is seemingly no turning back. With the call to arms of grassroots resistance, he does offer a glimmer of hope; despite the heavy weight, Barber's work deserves and surely will find its audience. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Internationally renowned political theorist Benjamin R. Barber is the Kekst Professor of Civil Society at the University of Maryland and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos in New York City, where he lives.

Customer Reviews

Great observations; Not so great solutions.
Barber is adept at observing and brilliantly describing the symptoms that face our society. But unlike a gifted medical doctor, he is not so competent at finding the source of the symptoms, let alone providing an effective cure. Yes, our society is a runaway train headed for destruction, but what can we do about it?

Having worked for years in the advertising industry, I can tell you that the manufacturing of envy, desire and wantonness is in full swing. Our culture cannot withstand much more of it. But the answer that eludes Mr. Barber is not found in the writings of philosophers or economic engineers, but on the hearts of our citizens.

Why do the messages of the advertisers work so effectively? I can tell you as a former copywriter paid to write radio, print and tv, we were never thinking about the products alone, supply and demand, or economic theories when we designed ads. We were concentrating upon the human beings to whom we were speaking. What were their fears? What were their struggles? What makes them feel better? What do they think in their daily routine? We would often spend hours listening to them in focus groups. We would write stream of consciousness monologues trying to connect with them and their needs.

The truth is, Mr. Barver's measurement of our culture and its ills, is razor sharp and accurate to the micrometer. But as he begins to discuss solutions to the situation, the heart of "Andy Consumer" is lost and he begins to pontificate upon the ideas of society and particular reactions of larger movements. Like many intellectuals, he misses the point that change doesn't begin with philosophers or kings. It begins when philosophers and kings begin to listen to the pulse of Andy Consumer and they then begin to speak to the heart-cry of the society. History tells us this is the case. Because when enough of the individuals feel the same way and yet do not believe that the philosophers and kings are not listening, they take matters into their own hands.

My point is this: Barber's solutions ring hollow because they are rooted in theories and economic history. But I believe that hyper-consumerism will be conquered when the hearts of our citizens are painfully empty after their futile attempts to force their wallets and gadgets to fill them. As those empty hearts peek behind the curtain and confront the wizard, they will make realizations that will make a difference.

While I didn't agree with the solutions in the book, I was transfixed by his observations of our current situation. This book should be read by anyone interested in the direction of our society. I used this book extensively in my weekly podcast, Christian With a Brain. It gave me bountiful material for a study called, How Much is Enough? I just hope that Mr. Barber will eventually realize that until the human heart is filled with hope, meaning and destiny, we will continue to try and fill it with the latest and greatest. And there will always be advertisers out there willing to exploit those empty hearts in order to make a buck.

So much for conservative values
Barber is to be commended for understanding how capitalism thrives at the expense of certain traditional values. In the early part of last century, the US Commerce Commission issued a report to the effect that industrialization had become so productive that the real worry was to have enough buyers out there to lap up all the stuff. What was needed, accordingly, was an undermining of traditional values of thrift and sacrifice. If those values continued, capitalism would fail.

Barber's book notes this attack and its radical overturn of such religious (Christian/Protestant) values, including the need to save money. (Today the same fight is happening in China where Chinese, inveterate savers, are being urged not to.) I also think Barber is very good in describing how this mania for acquisition of ever more stuff is linked to an advertizing culture that infantilizes people and turns citizens into consumers who experience freedom not as a political virtue but as an exercize in the commercial activity of choosing a product. Thus democratic practice evaporates into the shopping experience where we "decide" what to buy. Thus candidates are "sold" and a marketing vocabulary permeates so much of what we say, think, and do.

Sources of Democratic Decay
The title of my review would probably serve as a better title for the book. But alas...

Benjamin Barber's primary thesis in Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole is that marketing that reinforces adolescent behavior in adults and seeks to make children more usable consumers. This marketing is continually reinforced by a privatized capitalist system that undermines civil liberty and citizenship at the expense of consumer behaviors. It is, in the end, a system that causes people to become non-citizens of a commonwealth, but consumers who are at the whim of the corporate sector in society.

I share with many (who note errors that have clearly been corrected if they existed in the first printing) that Barber could have condensed his argument and made it more transparent this way. But that after a relatively quick read (it's not loaded with the scholarly aplomb and density that some reviewers have ruled in its disfavor) I was able to get the point and it remains a rather visceral and salient one. Starting with Weber's argument and then drawing lines to where the value foundations of capitalism have strayed is instructive and pragmatic.

What I like is that he finds common strands in much of the literature regarding consumerism and globalization that have been very popular, e.g. Friedman, Schor, Klein, Barry, Lasch, etc. But he does this by couching it in very important political terms in order to examine the effect of private capital on his notion of "strong democracy". to this degree, it reads almost like an updated "Culture of Narcissism".

He does have several errors he or at least his editor should have picked up before it went to paperback. He calls Terrell Owens a running back, Michael Stipe a producer, etc. But who cares about these points other than pedantic reviewers who would rather trivialize the argument. Moreover, the solution proposed at the end of a global society founded by global citizens does not seem plausible. He fails to account for the tribalistic tendencies that react against forces of globalization that authors such as Malcolm Waters have noted. So the end is as flat as Friedman's thesis of globalization which Barber largely argues against.

Much of the material is very well trodden in the literature. However, Barber's analytical skill is quite incisive and he is able to gather new syntheses of previous material to suggest that this is far more of an important issue for our social makeup than a diatribe against gluttony or material envy could muster. And to this end, I say well done and worth a read!

Be sure to check out Benjamin Barber's blog here. There you can find some of his thoughts in often nascent stages.