As I’ve mentioned It seems that some sort of awareness about your environment (that small planet, called earth we inhabit) is needed in order to have a feeling of citizenship. Or to care about the people you share your society and future with. I wonder whether the same holds true for people that haven’t reached the top of Maslov’s pyramid yet?
The schizophrenia between a citizen and a consumer seems to emerge only when we have fulfilled all our basic needs. And when the stuff we want is no longer similar to the stuff we really need. Barber calls this the ‘crisis of capitalism’. So in developing countries most people first long to be the consumers that we are.
I don’t know whether to see that as a threat or an opportunity. Do we have a chance to get people at the bottom of the pyramid more in balance with their citizenship and consumerism? Or can you only find such a balance after you’ve gone to through a period of ‘hyperconsumerism’?
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perhaps it is not the hyperconsumerism itself but the consequence of the products and services consumed. in our western society we both have the ability and time to consume information from a global perspective. we see opposing views and some powerful figures are using media to make us worry about our planet by showing the way we are heading (al gore’s an inconvenient truth, is an example.) very hard not to feel addressed.
we have enough, we know we have enough, and we becoming aware that ‘more’ has it’s price.
if developing worlds have earlier access to these sources this awareness might emerge before ‘hyperconsumerism’ is reached. (i have no idea when consumerism transforms to hyperconsumerism.) or not? but in a grassroots way, because from a corporate citizens perspective it has a totally different dynamic.
a corporation is traditionally compelled to be very competitive. (to paraphrase noam chomsky: corporations are legally obliged to make profits, only held in check by what is legal not was is ethical or moral.) in a global world this competition is even worse because the investments come from all over the world. the interests (and incentives) of corporations backed with international money are not altruistic.
if these two scenarios play out we might observe barber’s schizophrenia with different endpoints, not citizen/consumer but citizen/employee. ‘consumers’ wanting to be responsible while the corporations they work for and buy from don’t care (yet.) this might become the cause for a similar schizophrenia we can observe the western world: more and more individualistic citizen taking part in an industrialized industry. the industry demands creativity from the consumer while enforcing rigid obedience when they step into the office.