(Conspiracy Nation, 10/18/01) -- The October 15, 2001 issue of Time magazine carried an amazing pro-shopping appeal to patriotism.
In "Patriotic Splurging," authoress Margaret Carlson managed to link World War II "Victory Gardens" and the consumption frugality of that era with a World War III shopping endorsement. Ironically, it is now our duty as loyal Americans to consume more than ever, argues Ms. Carlson.
Sometimes Conspiracy Nation uses satire to make a point, but this is no satire. Ms. Carlson, in Time magazine, writes "to help the war effort... buying becomes our patriotic duty."
"The Greatest Generation got to save old tires, dig a Victory Garden and forgo sugar. The Richest Generation is being asked to shop," she writes.
Again, this is not a satire by Conspiracy Nation; this article really appeared in the October 15th issue of Time magazine.
That issue of Time magazine contained 68 pages devoted to full-page pro-shopping advertisements out of a total of 112 pages. But with Time magazine it's not easy to tell where their advertisements end and their news articles begin. Case in point: Ms. Carlson's amazing impromptu patriotic hymn to Yuppie consumption.
The patriotic rationale behind Ms. Carlson's plea to consume is based on the current economic situation where the American consumer is the last remaining bulwark propping up the doddering 1990s-era New Economy. Not so long ago, mainstream financial writers were proclaiming a miraculous departure from centuries of bedrock economic certainties; a miracle had happened, they argued, and economies could no longer go into recession. Since after all these recent Hallelujahs from, among others, Time magazine, the New Economy is now on life-support, it would be a disaster for it to crash right in the middle of World War III. Hence, Ms. Carlson's plea that it is patriotic to go shopping.
Most amazing of all is that millions of Americans dutifully read Time magazine.
Despite economic band-aids offered by the Federal Reserve, which has been desperately lowering the rent on money this past year, the economy is scarier than an envelope filled with baking soda.
Surely the Federal Reserve must know that wealth is not created by a printing press but by productive labor: farmers and factory workers. Wealth is not created by gold, since the importation of gold into Europe in the 1600s merely decreased the value of gold. (The more gold there is, the less that gold is worth.) Wealth is not created by shopping, though the retailer facilitates wealth creation by providing a market for productive labor, the farmers and the factory workers.
Can the shoppers, though, exhausted, over-extended, and satiated, crawl to the mall one more time? It makes sense to appeal to their patriotism as a last-straw means of salvaging the Christmas shopping season. It makes sense for Time magazine also, to please their advertisers. And it makes sense for retailers to have a conspicuous American flag displayed at the entrances of their stores. God bless America, and Merry Christmas.
------- Conspiracy Nation. Think outside the box. http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html