The Consumer Trap

Monday, November 15th, 2010

James Keye Rings the Bell

For anybody who’s been trying to follow my long-running attempt to get people, and especially those on the left, to stop using the biased and biasing “consumer” vocabulary, James Keye has just explained the point with greater clarity and generality than I’ve been able to muster:

One cannot discuss slavery with clarity using only the word slave for those in bondage; the word assumes a subservient position or worse…(click through to read Keye’s post)

Likewise, one cannot rationally discuss the corporate capitalist marketing juggernaut using only the word “consumer” for those on its receiving end; the word assumes a subservient position, and thereby goes far toward desensitizing its users to the very processes and conflicts and human relationships they seek to explain and redress.