Anyone know of a good counselor?
I was inspired by a comments exchange with Bradley last week, and here's my thought:
Consumerism is not a sort of cultural plague with a mind of its own. It's an inhospitable skirmish between two real people - the marketer and the customer.
It's easy to place these two so far apart in our minds that they cease to be neighbors. All we see is the grand problem they create in the middle. Yet they are neighbors, no doubt, despite their rather manipulative and co-dependent relationship.
It does something to my perspective when I picture this as an unhealthy relationship, but I'm open to disagreement.
4 comments:
Yes, because with a plague, one side must be totally eliminated so the other can survive. A skirmish between neighbors can be fixed and redeemed (Needs to be redeemed) so that both sides can start anew in a healthier relationship.
Good point about plagues, Mike. Neither side can be totally eliminated.
Unfortunately, I don't think the general anti-consumerism public even sees two sides. They just see it as a monster that broke out of the dungeon lab and now runs free from the mad-scientist's control.
A relationship model seems more manageable, and that gives me hope.
Thanks for commenting.
On my blog, a friend asked how I defined sin. I couldn't explain it with commandments and such like many followers of Jesus. I could only use relationship examples, namely that of marriage and parents. (Think of the unfaithful spouse or the rebellious child)
If we understand human error as a breakdown of relationships on a cosmic and earthly scale, we might see where the restoration needs to come.
Good word, M.Joshua.
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