Buy, Buy, More American Pie

Cruising the internet not long ago I come across a post something like this: America is the only country in the world where you give thanks for your bounty one day and trample shoppers the next in a quest for more things.  I paraphrase, but the sentiment stands. ‘Tis the season of stuff.
It starts with turkey stuffing, feeling stuffed and moving on to buying stuff. All kinds of stuff: electronic stuff, plastic stuff, overpriced stuff, cheap stuff, artsy stuff, mass-produced stuff, one-of-a-kind stuff, stuff for adornment, stuff to read, stuff carrying a plethora of promises, (most dealing with youth, health, a wealth of indulgences, status or sex appeal) it’s all stuff.
As the stuff season begins, and as it finally exhausts itself in a collective exhale from Beijing to Wall Street, a running analysis on the relative success or failure of the season is delivered in appropriately solemn or upbeat tones from “media outlets.” The degree of solemnity or cheer depends on whether the buying craze proves either disappointing or exhilarating to retailers.
When considering that economies across the planet are increasingly based on consumption, one might toss out the eggnog in favor of the rum, but doing so only results in a more desperate consumption. Not to mention potentially disastrous vehicular impacts, fisticuffs, soaring blood sugar levels and/or projectile vomiting. Oh, wait, come to think of it, around this time of year those events occur with just short of the same degree of certainty as the sun rising in the east. Surely not what is meant by “the spirit of the season.”
There is an old “Adbusters” magazine from fall 2002 on my table. The cover is black and white. A by now clichéd image of a “revolutionary” is tossing an indistinguishable something off the page. S/he is masked and the body language is determined, or angry, or both. The text reads, “I want you to curb your consumption.”
The admonition waits to be taken to heart, though there may be little room left in its chambers filled with desire.