European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 4, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday May 4, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary George f. Will contempt for consumerism a moral mistake Washington a i subscribe to Many Small journals and to the Small journal theory of history which is such Publica tons Are incubators of the Large ideas that Are history a propellant. The recent founding by some liberals of the american Prospect was politically significant As a sign that at least some of the Liberal remnant have noticed How important the Public interest has been in the vigor of conservatism. The new Issue of the american Prospect grapples with a subject that has helped to make liberalism unpalatable to Many americans in a delectable materialism a Michael Schudson a sociologist defends americans a a consumer culture from its critics most of whom Are liberals.-. A a a a a when Boris Yeltsin returned to Russia from America in 1989 he said that to understand America a at least 100 million soviets must pass through the american school of he exclaimed a their supermarkets have 30,000 food items. You can to imagine it. It makes people feel bulls Eye. Yeltsin seeing with the special clarity of a stronger saw the Connic Tion Between material and political Val ties. Possession of a a House that provides privacy a car that confers mobility clothes that express individuality travel that Broadens a is not a trivial thing. Consumption is not peripheral to the fulfilment that is the goal of life and David Webster hence of politics. However for As Long As a High level of consumption has been possible moralists have treated it As problematic. Schudson identifies five forms of disapproval. Two arc imports from Europe. The socialist criticism is that consumerism rests on exploitation of workers and if they Are allowed to participate in it it enervated them sapping their ardor for social transformation. The aristocratic criticism of consumerism is an aesthetic of snobbery mass tastes Are necessarily Low. Three other criticisms of consumerism Are Home grown. The Puritan version faults consumption As a distraction from spirituality. The Quaker version com demos the multiplication of commodities As an offence against simplicity. The Republican criticism is that the absorption of individuals in private satisfactions saps civic virtue. The hostility toward consumer culture that has seeped into contemporary liberalism is an amalgam. There is puritanism in Liberal Guise As when Jimmy Carter in his 1979 speech on americans malaise said Many americans a a worship consumption and do not know that a consuming things docs not satisfy our longing for there also is the vanity of intellectuals with Small cars and Large egos and the conviction that they Are the rightful auditors of the masses choices. Finally there is liberalism a variant of the socialist idea of exploitation advertising is villainous. Advertising Liberal critics say is today a ubiquitous instrument of social control. It is necessary to sustain capitalism once a a natural appetites Are sated. Absent advertising to manufacture Quot artificial consumer demand the system would Sag into stagnation. Actually the proliferation of doctrines attempting in vain to discourage consumerism Puritan Quaker Republican. Suggests that american Consumers need scant encouragement from advertisers. As Schudson says de Tocqueville found americans enterprising and acquisitive Long before advertising became very visible. ,. A a a a. A a. The political problem with the Liberal critique of consumer society which stresses the Power of advertising is that it portrays americans As manipulable dolts. The people get the message and Are not amused. The transformation of liberalism into a doctrine of condescension can be dated from the publication in 1958 of John Kenneth Galbraith so the affluent it suggested that most americans Are passive lumps manipulated by manufacturers who manufacture both products and appetites for them. It pictured the american people As by and Large a pathetic lot in need of Wise governors acting in Loco Parentis. Galbraith and like minded liberals volunteered for that role. The idea that today a Prosperity was brought into being by something bogus advertising and is bad in effect the a worship Quot of misplaced a meaning Quot that. Carter lamented produced not Only an unappealing Agenda but quite naturally an undemocratic political process for pursuing it. Litigation was preferred to legislation As courts rather than Congress became the liberals preferred instruments of. Social change. After All if the people arc debased in their tastes and barely rational in decision making then institutions that Are representative should for that very reason be avoided. Liberalism became a style of disdain soon describing America As not Only vulgar but sick racist sexist imperialist. A liberalism began telling americans that Many of their desires for big ears neighbourhood schools and lots a a More did not deserve respect. Schudson says it is time to go a Zhc Pond the snickering joking and invariably Hyp Merit real most criticism of consumer culture Quot and to recognize a a certain dignity and rationality in the desire for material contempt for. Consumer culture is generally an Aff Ceta Tion of comfortable people addicted to the pleasures of condescension. A generation late the Liberal readership of the american Prospect has been shown Why this politically off putting idea is also a moral mistake. C Tho Washington Post a. We better plan now for next world disaster there must be a simple explanation but i Haven to heard it yet. We had a Brilliant military Triumph the key to which was effective International diplomacy careful contingency planning and an extraordinary logistical feat. As it Hap evened there were few Allied casualties it we were prepared to Deal with thousands. Resistance was slight but we were prepared for a Long and bitter struggle. So what went wrong in the aftermath and in addition to and apart from political barriers and hesitations Why is dealing with the refugees such an International muddle a a a during the past few weeks we have All seen the tragic pictures of the kurd and shiite refugees who fled from the Wrath of Saddam Hussein. We have also seen the heroic but belated uncoordinated and inadequate attempts to help them. Why so belated uncoordinated and inadequate even if they were in an unlikely Jalace in unexpected numbers you can still plan for that. The Normal Assumption of warfare is that there will be postwar disruption and refugees. You can expect 10, or 100, or 100,000 or even a million. You can expect them in the North or in the South in the cities or in the Hills. By expecting them you should be Able to plan in Deal with the situation on a contingency basis and with allowance for Many variables just As we plan for waging warfare. You can do it As a nation As an Alliance or through the United nations. But is it done and if so by whom and is it done Well the United nations agencies seem to have been held up by internal arguments and bureaucracy. They had plans but they were inadequate. The Volunteer organizations do not have the resources to commit on such a scale and the american government initially was unwilling to get involved. While the americans French British and the United nations argued the. Kurd and the shiites were dying. Not Only Money but managerial skill was needed and needed immediately. Late in the Day this appears to be coming from the military. You hear Relief workers ask a where can i find half a million blankets a ought to be simple a Check the data base. The television reporters Tell us that hundreds of children Are dying with a Only a handful of doctors to but there Are plenty of doctors in the Allied armies and thousands of others who would be willing to help. The Western world is full of Semi retired doctors playing Golf. A when it comes to waging War we can aggregate the minds and the physical. Resources to address the Challenge. But when it comes to dealing with wars aftermath and human tragedy somehow the nations and the voluntary organizations. And the . Are unable get their act together. We should plan now for the next disaster. better we May not knew w Here or when it will happen on what scale it will arise whether it will be caused by War or natural convulsion or both but it surely Wil happen. The nations should face up now to the next disaster and plan the Washington post.,
