Are You a "Consumer?"

You know when I think about it, there are very few things that piss me off more than this little presumption. Virtually every day you will hear this phrase, on the news, in magazines, but have you ever really thought about it?

When you are labeled with the tag "Consumer" you are relinquished of your humanity. You are consigned by TPTB to be nothing more than a Pac Man going about a path and gobbling up whatever it is that they choose to feed you. You are mindless, thoughtless, nothings, that can not only be completely disregarded, but be completely disrespected as human beings because not only do you accept this label, you don't even question it.

It is no wonder that TPTB think of us as nothing more than commodities when we actually allow them to label us with a term like this without protest. Without even a hint or justified indignation.

I am NOT a consumer, I am a human being, and you will not consider me such any longer!




[edit on 20-1-2010 by factbeforefiction]

I used to be affected by that dis - ease called "Affluenza". Until I got into a car wreck which made me unable to work for a year, which made me homeless with my 3 Cats for nine months.
In a strange kind of way it was a freeing experience - I saw that I didn't need all of the crap that I was buying anyway.
Yes, I too hate that label 'Consumer'...because I don't really feel much like one anymore, although I do still like to have the odd piece of blingy stuff every once in a while...

reply to post by factbeforefiction


I think you're way too hung up over a word. Do you work? You are a worker. Do you game? You are a gamer? Do you play? You are a player. These labels are simply a way of summarizing a group of people and they are perfectly valid. Its perfectly valid to call a group who is playing a game "players". Its perfectly valid to call a group who is consuming "consumers".

By my estimation it does not take away my personhood to be a gamer playing a game, and by my estimation it does not take away my personhood to be a consumer eating food. Its just a fact of life... I need to consume in order to survive. Is it then so wrong to consume?

You can use any word at all as a term of belittlement and if that is what you are doing it isn't right. But hey, that doesn't mean the term cannot be any longer used to mean what it is meant to mean without the negative connotations.

There is probably some group out there who uses "human" as a term of belittlement but the heck if I'm going to stop using the term just because of that.

[edit on 20-1-2010 by truthquest]

Do you eat? Do you buy food? Do you use light and heat etc etc.... ?
If you can get away without any of these things, please let me know as I would very much like 'in' on the secret!
I'm unemployed. I can't remember the last time I had a holiday or bought clothes that didn't come from a charity shop. I'm an expert in budget cooking. But I am still a consumer.


[edit on 20-1-2010 by unicorn1]