Robert Reich’s ‘Divided Mind’
Robert Reich was the guest on NPR’s All Things Considered a few days ago. The occasion was the release of his new book, “Supercapitalism”. His point, about the divided mind of the consumer and citizen really caught my attention. We are all two people, according to him. A consumer at the mercy of capitalism, and a citizen at the service of democracy. The consumer has taken over, and the citizen is no longer doing its job. We need to reevaluate our priorities and work on strengthening our democracy.
The challenges of being a good green citizen
This whole business of consumer versus citizen takes a special significance in the current environmental battle. Robert Reich made the following argument. You may be willing to take all the steps to become a good green citizen, but how do you know that you are not going to be just one amongst a small minority? In which case, you run the risk of making all these sacrifices for nothing. In the absence of a federated effort amongst citizens, that lets you know that we are all in it together, nothing is going to change, you have very little incentive to take action. Point well taken, Mr Reich.
The power of green networks
Not too long ago, I wrote a post about the power of small acts and individual action. I even called Rosa Parks to the rescue. I was trying to convince myself that whatever I do, no matter how small, does matter. Robert Reich called my bluff. The real truth is, I am a consumer first, and something is going to have to happen at the collective level, in order for the green citizen in me to spring into real action. Maybe Karel Baloun‘s got something going after all? ‘I am Green’, his new application on Facebook is an attempt at using the power of social networks to bring together green minded folks, and inspire them to help each other become green citizens.
This isn’t shameless self-promotion because I’m promoting an NGO — which happens to be featuring Robert Reich as its guest blogger today. Why Democracy is a global documentary film broadcast that will screen 10 new docs via 45 broadcasters to hundreds of millions of people. In concert with this we’ve got three weeks of blogging by writers and thinkers from around the world. So, Robert Reich is blogging today, and responding to comments, etc. It’s at http://www.whydemocracy.net/house/news/
[…] times, I have written about the consumer needing to step aside, to make room for the citizen. What we are seeing is the […]
“We are all two people, according to him. A consumer at the mercy of capitalism, and a citizen at the service of democracy. The consumer has taken over, and the citizen is no longer doing its job. We need to reevaluate our priorities and work on strengthening our democracy.”
Actually, we are all two people that act as one. Citizen to our Democracy and allegiance to consumer are one and the same. We live in a democracy by the people for the people so why can’t the people change the terms of their citizenship? Instead of voting with ballots, we are voting with dollars. The people spend money where they want, at the places they support. What need do we have a a government to change this? A free market is true capitalism, and a free market is people acting as citizens by spending their money. After the 9/11 attacks what were people urged to do? Not take to the streets, not enlist, but Buy. So in short my point is that we are consumers and citizens with little difference between, other than the form of voting we choose, and the freedom consumers have.
Also, I am a modest person. I don’t think mass production will last as long as people like me live. I buy what I need, and fix what is broken no matter when its planned break date is. I don’t really need much but the internet and questions to challenge my mind.
As a side note, what Rosa Parks did was not small.
She did something all else would never consider, she could have been beaten arrested or lynched, I see no such comparison with living green.
I am posting in order to simply challenge some of your claims, respectfully and with admiration to the thought into this article. Beginning with this quote: “The consumer has taken over, and the citizen is no longer doing its job. We need to reevaluate our priorities and work on strengthening our democracy.” I would like to present to you as a suggestion only that perhaps we are citizens second and always have been. I will say I agree with this curious ‘Milton Friedman’ (Not the real economist, obviously) in that he states that we vote with our dollars. The consumer defines the citizen, I would argue, because of the fact that what we buy determines society.
President-elect Obama was very smart with his money, amongst other things, and this was arguably helpful to his campaign and success in the election. Citizens, which can loosely be defined as a legal resident of the United States who responsibly takes part in their government, community, etc (for the purposes of my following argument) determine what is popular by what they spend their money on. Where the money goes is most likely going to be where the next big movement happens, and politicians like to follow the popular movement, with slight variations. The Green Movement takes a lot of money to run, as other movements do as well. Nothing is free, and that is why I would like to argue to you that we are consumers before citizens, as Milton Friedman may say.
I would say that we are citizens as consumers and we are these two identities, but I would also say more strongly, perhaps, that we define ourselves as citizens by what we do as consumers. By buying the ‘green’ products out there today or perhaps donating to a charity, I am supporting the Green Movement and perhaps a Leukemia Charity, for example.
As you can see, my humble point is simply that I think that while we are now consumers before citizens (as you said) we are defined as citizens by being a consumer, which has been the way the economy has worked in the United States for quite some time. We are more importantly consumers because it allows us to be citizens, as nothing is free.
I also agree that we vote with out dollars. I agree with Reich when he says that we must do something as a mass group. With consumerism many, many people need to decide how to vote with their dollars. If one person starts buying all organic food, that isn’t going to shut down a lot of fast food joints. However, get many people to buy all organic, or mostly organic, and you will se less fast food chains. One person cannot do this alone. Society needs to make a choice on whether it wants to continute down the self-destructive path it is going or make a new, healthier, more earth friendly path that needs to be taken. Society AS A WHOLE must do this.
So I guess what I’m saying is that we a re a consumer first, citizen second. But we need to change that, and quickly.
Milton Friedman seems very fond of greed. who wouldn’t be when it has many good side effects on the economy. if we constantly buy things we dont need because a commercial told us then the economy would be great but the side effecs on us would outweigh the benefits.
Greed IS what makes the world go round. The companies use the media, mainly TV, to “inform” us that the things we have are out of date and need replacing. If we dont buy these things WE are out of date and are inadequate. We want to be better than our other people so we rush out and greed-up.
The problem with this method is the way we see other who cant go out and buy these wonderful thing. we are constantly trying to 1up our friends and family with our shiny new toys. also, the problem with this is because todays economy isnt stable enough to support our greedy buying of goods. not to mention the fact that people dont buy a waverunner when they’re struggling to put food in their children’s mouths.
I must disrespectfully disagree with some of your points. You seem to be saying that we need to get back to our jobs of being citizens in order to accomplish things, such as “going green.”
As a consumer, you have a far more power, and a far more powerful public identity, than as a citizen. As a consumer, you “vote” far more often than you vote as a citizen. Everytime you buy something, use a search engine, rate a product, or watch TV, you “vote”. You only get to vote every 2 years, at the most, as a citizen.
Now as far as “voting” for things like “green” energy, you have far more power as a consumer. You can vote all you want for the government to pay money for new energy sources, but if you do not do anything personally as consumer, your vote means nothing. But if you buy those alternate energy sources, or invest in upstart alternate energy companies, you have done far more than just voting for “green” legislation.