Globalisation, Consumerism, and Education

1. Globalisation, Consumerism, and Education Michael Goheen Trinity Western University Langley, B.C.

2. In this talk . . . • Deepen and expand on keynote in three areas: • Religious choices of Enlightenment • Making of consumer society • Injustice of global market • Open discussion on how it has shaped education

3. Argument of the Keynote • Conversion of West to new vision of life: Progress by science and technology to better world • One version of that story was Adam Smith’s economic vision • Given social and economic shape in the Industrial Revolution • Dominant worldview in West in 20th c. • Produced consumer society • Now major unifying power in globalisation

4. Deepen and broaden keynote • Religious choices of Enlightenment

5. The Making of Economic Society . . . at the time of the Enlightenment “we begin to see the separation of economic from social life. The processes of production and distribution were no longer indistinguishably melded into the prevailing religious, social, and political customs and practices, but now began to form a sharply distinct area of life in themselves” - Robert Heilbroner

6. Adam Smith’s vision • Progress toward material prosperity • Scientific and technological organisation of production • Free market coordinates all forces • Economic growth: end of society

7. Every style of culture is in turn related to the religious question of how people view the ultimate meaning of their life and society. - Bob Goudzwaard

8. Ultimate meaning of post-Enlightenment West • End: Economic growth, material prosperity, consumption of goods and experiences • Means: Market, economic processes, technology

9. Economic organisation of society • Illustration of queen bee in beehive • Queen bee’s task to produce eggs • Whole hive functionalised and directed toward that task

10. Romans 1.18-32 and Our Story • “Worshiped and served created things”: Western culture more and more focusses on economic sphere of life • “God gave them over”: Creation of wealth, consumer society, accompanying joys and ills

11. Classical Economics and Deism • Deism separates laws from God’s presence and authority There “was no longer a divine law-giver whose commands are to be obeyed because they are God’s Laws but are necessary relationships which spring from the nature of things (Montesquieu). As such they are available for discovery by human reason.” (Newbigin)

12. Classical Economics and Deism • Deism separates laws from God’s presence and authority • Mechanistic economic laws—analogy with physics ‘Equilibrium theory in economics is based on a false analogy with physics’ (Soros). ‘ . . . analytical and mathematical reason is not content to deal with physics or astronomy; it must extend its operation into [economic realm]’ (Newbigin).

13. Science of economics The modern science of economics was born. . . . It became the science of the working of the market as a self-operating mechanism modelled on the Newtonian universe. The difference was that the fundamental law governing its movements, corresponding to the law of gravitation in Newton, is the law of covetousness assumed as the basic drive of human nature (Newbigin).

14. Abdication of Responsibility The idea that if economic life is detached from all moral considerations and left to operate by its own laws all will be well is simply an abdication of human responsibility. It is the handing over of human life to the pagan goddess of fortune. If Christ’s sovereignty is not recognized in the world of economics, then demonic powers take control (Newbigin).

15. Margaret Thatcher • TINA: There is no alternative • You can’t buck the market

16. Classical Economics and Deism • Deism separates laws from God’s presence and authority • Mechanistic economic laws—analogy with physics • Adam Smith’s invisible hand Self-interested individuals acting according to self-interest harmony of conflicting interests material prosperity trickle down to prosper poor

17. Three Summarising Comments • Free market is good but twisted by natural law theory • Economic life is one part of social fabric but twisted by totalitarian influence • Market and economic processes are creational but twisted by ‘messianic’ expectations “. . . free markets are the best way of continuously balancing supply and demand,” but in the “contemporary ideology of the free market . . . we have an example of something good being corrupted.” Newbigin

18. Religious Choices of Enlightenment Vision • End of human life: Material prosperity • Trust in market and technological innovation to guide us to better future • Mechanistic understanding of law

19. Deepen and broaden keynote • Religious choices of Enlightenment • Making of consumer society

20. Consumerism: Pervasive and foundational reality of our day Consumer capitalism, both for good and for ill, is a pervasive and foundational reality of our day. - Rodney Clapp

21. Making of consumer society • “. . . manufacturing, production, and consumption . . .” (Wells) • “So, how did this happen? Well, it didn’t just happen. It was designed.” (The Story of Stuff) • Growing gap between production and consumption

22. Consumption as a way of life There was a huge gap . . . between production and consumption. How to close it? Industrial production’s momentum had already built up, so cutting production was not feasible. Manufacturers decided instead to pump up consumption, to increase demand to meet supply. But they realized consumption was a way of life that had to be taught and learned. - Rodney Clapp

23. Making Consumption a Way of Life • Planned obsolescence: Designing stuff to break down or be unusable quickly • Perceived obsolescence: Instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary.

24. Advertising • Average North American exposed to 3000 ads per day • Creating new desires “Advertising aims to teach people that they have wants, which they did not recognise before, and where such wants can best be supplied.” (Thompsons Red Book on Advertising, 1901)

25. Advertising and the Gospel of Consumption • Average North American exposed to 3000 ads per day • Creating new desires • Creating dissatisfaction

26. Creating dissatisfaction The early part of the 20th century was the advent of the consumer economy. [B]usiness leaders realized that in order to make people “want” things they had never previously desired, they had to create “the dissatisfied customer.” Charles Kettering of General Motors was among the first to preach the new gospel of consumption. GM had already begun to introduce annual model changes in its automobiles and launched a vigorous advertising campaign designed to make consumers discontent with the car they already owned. “The key to economic prosperity,” Kettering said, “is the organized creation of dissatisfaction.” (Jeremy Rifkin)

27. Advertising • Average North American exposed to 3000 ads per day • Creating new desires • Creating dissatisfaction • Selling the good life Advertising and related media have served and still serve as important shapers of an ethos that the good life is attained through acquisition and consumption, and that would have its inhabitants constantly yearning for new products and new experiences (Rodney Clapp).

28. Why sociologists study consumerism • Inequality of consumption (1/5 population accounts for ½ of consumption) • Commodification of many areas of life • Critique of injustices of economic globalisation that feeds consumerism • Heavy cost of consumerism on the environment - Douglas Holt and Juliet Schor

29. Deepen and broaden keynote • Religious choices of Enlightenment • Making of consumer society • Injustice of global market

30. Economic Globalization • Economic Enlightenment vision • Global market • Unjustly created market

31. Unjust global market • Market is created: • Response to God’s ordering word • vs. deistic, mechanistic view of economic laws • Unjust market: Third World exclusion • Excluded from capital

32. Exclusion from Capital • Growth of financial industry • 17% annually (vs. 3% in real market) • 10% of economic transactions to 95%! • Repercussions for Third World • Excluded from capital needed • Investment concentrated in wealthier countries • Decisions made not basis of need but on fastest and biggest profit

33. Unjust global market • Market is created • Unjust market: Third World exclusion • Excluded from capital • Excluded from currency • Excluded from decision-making power • Excluded from markets

34. “The United States and Europe have perfected the art of arguing for free trade while simultaneously working for trade agreements that protect themselves against imports from developing countries.” - Joseph Stiglitz

35. Asymmetric globalisation . . . free trade has not worked because we have not tried it: trade agreements of the past have been neither free nor fair. They have been asymmetric, opening up markets in the developing countries to goods from advanced industrial countries without full reciprocation. A host of subtle but effective trade barriers have been kept in place. This asymmetric globalization has put developing countries at a disadvantage. It has left them worse off than they would be with a truly free and fair trade regime. - Joseph Stiglitz

36. Unjust global market • ‘Asymmetric globalization’ (Stiglitz) • Market is created • Unjust market: Third World exclusion • Excluded from capital • Excluded from currency • Excluded from decision-making power • Excluded from markets • Excluded from resources

37. Trickle down? The response of our industrial machine is to expand its markets by creating new wants and new appetites amongst the people who can afford them. We are thus caught in a paradox in which we have created an industrial system capable of meeting the basic needs of all the world’s people but are in fact using it largely to foster further growth in the demand by the wealthy minority for goods and services well beyond what we need or is good for us. - Maurice Strong

38. Unjust global market • Market is created • Unjust market: Third World exclusion • Excluded from capital • Excluded from currency • Excluded from decision-making power • Excluded from markets • Excluded from scarcities • Excluded from own resources • Crippling third world debt

39. Number One Moral Issue of Day? The “massive economic imbalance of the world” is “the major task that faces us in our generation” and “the number one moral issue of our day. . . . The present system of global debt is the real immoral scandal, the dirty little secret—or rather the dirty enormous secret—of glitzy, glossy Western capitalism. Whatever it takes, we must change this situation or stand condemned by subsequent history alongside those who supported slavery two centuries ago and those who supported the Nazis seventy years ago. It is that serious. - N.T. Wright

41. Impact of Economic Idolatry • We are often blind to economic and consumer powers at work in culture • Fish in water • Myth of Christian society • Myth of secular, neutral culture • We often underestimate power of entrenched educational practices and structures (leadership, testing, curriculum) that support an economic and consumer worldview

42. Impact of Economic Idolatry • We face parental expectations arising from consumer society that bring economic pressure • We are sometimes hostage to state funding and testing along with a corresponding vision of academic excellence that is deeply indebted to consumer society • We sometimes measure our success almost exclusively by state testing and the universities our kids get into

43. Impact of economic idolatry • Consumer society can often marginalise continuing education for teachers (lack of time, priority, and funding that arise from economic pressure, disinterest and pragmatism of teachers) • We marginalise subjects in the curriculum that don’t raise test scores and academic profile of school • We devote disproportionate energy and space to economic issues in planning, meetings and literature