There hasn’t been a video posted here in a while, so I thought I’d share this one. I’m not a big fan of the Colbert Report, but in this interview Colbert refrains from interrupting Benjamin Barber enough to allow him to make some very provocative points about consumer capitalism:
So far I’ve gotten through the introduction to Consumed (the book he’s promoting in the video) and have been impressed with the way he punctures the myth that capitalism in the US today is the ideal environment to encourage innovation, hard work and entrepreneurship. If you can find a copy at your local library, I’d recommend picking it up. Here’s a good summary from Powell’s Books:
An apt sequel to Benjamin R. Barber’s best-selling Jihad vs. McWorld, Consumed offers a wrenching portrait of how adult consumers are infantilized in a global economy that overproduces goods and targets children as consumers in a market where there are never enough shoppers. Driven by a frantic imperative to sell, consumer capitalism specializes today in the manufacture not of goods but of needs.
For some reason, I feel compelled to go buy that book. It is almost like I need it. It just wouldn’t feel right to borrow it from the library when I could buy it.
good one, katie.