Why has advertising and materialism basically become a culture and its scripture?
Because that’s where the money is. You can’t make money by (say) promoting simple living and mindfulness, except for some small amounts to be made writing books about it and maybe teaching meditation. Therefore, anyone who wants to make money has to sell commodities. This in turn becomes a self-reinforcing mechanism. The more people sell commodities, the more money they make, and the more money they make, the more they are able to sell commodities. (In this regard, check out Jack Manno’s book “Privileged Goods.” It’s a little hard to read in places — he’s an academic — but it is a good analysis of the “commoditization” of society.) At a lower level of consumption, when we are talking about getting enough to eat and improving access to basic needs, this isn’t a bad thing; you want to encourage people to produce commodities because these meet basic needs. But at our level of consumption, it has gone beyond what we need or even what makes us happy; it’s a vicious cycle. Studies on happi
