Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole

This is a must read for anyone alarmed at the elevation of the plasma screen, the decline of the public square, and the bloating of consumerism. Sometimes caustic, sometimes ironic, Barber mercilessly puts American cultural values on the examination table. The diagnosis is nothing short of dreadful, but the prognosis, with the courage of the near damned, is hopeful.

When in the course of reading a book it becomes necessary to put aside a bad book in favor of a good book, I think that's the right choice. No questions asked. If the author of a book advocating for less control of the populace and their mind, less groupthink, and more freedom to make choices independently without conforming to a dominant culture points to the Puritans as his example of that ideal culture, you really have to ask yourself - did this guy do any research at all? Does he really think this is the exemplar of a society we should strive to emulate? If it's the first, you have to question all the other information in the book, because it might have been researched in the same lackadaisical, unprofessional manner. If the second, show more you have to question his sanity. Either way, finishing the book was beyond my capacity, as I could not accept his assumptions long enough to suspend my disbelief and enter into the meat of his argument (if his argument had any meat; by the third chapter, he had still just made groundless assumptions without putting forth too much to support them). Also, a man who presents the idea of sex without reproduction as a bad thing is hopelessly out of touch with problems of overpopulation, issues of personal autonomy, the findings of biology, and the realities of secular society. show less

This book suffers from many flaws, as amply started here in other critiques. Repetitiveness and verbosity, and an overblown distaste for modern entertainment bothered me quite a bit.

Overall, however, I found it a worthwhile and persuasive read; I part company with some critics there. I don't think e.g. videogames are quite the, ah, harbingers of doom that Mr. Barber does, but much else of the book is spot on.

This man seems to have done a lot of research on a very interesting topic: how capitalism needs children and "kidults" to grow and how this is not only insane at all levels but also damages citizens emancipation and real democracies. A complete essay recommended for people concerned about consumerism (special if you, like me, have small children and feel like scared about the time you will have to expose them to a world of advertising). Plenty of references to further articles, books, authors. Respect.

Prachtig, fascinerend en confronterend boek.

shelved in HT Green Library - by Reception - Monograph Library (R)

"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, show more protecting and self-sacrificing for children and community, and other characteristics of adulthood—we are constantly being seduced into an "infantilist" ethic of consumption. show less