The genius of contemporary capitalism

is not simply that it gives consumers what they want

but that it makes them want what it has to give

It's that core logic of ever-expanding desires

that is unsustainable on a global scale

Sustainability may be a grey and boring word,

but it is the biggest single

challenge to global capitalism today.

Somewhere down the line this is going to mean

richer consumers settling for less rather than more

Are we prepared to abandon our rampant consumerism?

We may be happy to insulate our lofts,

recycle our newspapers and cycle to work,

but are we ready to settle for less so others

can have more? Am I? Are you?

The Pursuit of Personal Gratification

The beauty of shopping lies in the ease with which one can attain the high it offers.

We merely arm ourselves with a fistful of readily obtainable credit cards (remaining oblivious to the usurious interest to which we are obligating ourselves).

Then jump in our SUVs that were actually designed to be used for public transit but somehow became modes of personal transportation, and head for the nearest leviathan, cookie-cutter retail establishment.

Once we arrive, there is a high probability of having a profound spiritual experience, like this for instance:

Entering the mall, you find yourself captivated by a kiosk peddling expensive sunglasses. One pair in particular demands your attention.

Initiating a moment of narcissistic bliss, you casually don the shades and catch a glimpse of yourself in one of the many mirrors the vendor has generously provided.

Smiling with self-satisfaction, you tell yourself you look "killer" in those $300.00 Dolce and Gabbanas.

Madison Avenue's indoctrination has convinced you that you deserve them and that you need them to show people who you are.

So of course, you make them yours. You, my friend, have just been elevated to a higher plane of existence in retailing paradise.

On a really good shopping day, we find ourselves in the midst of an enchanted world where the line between reality and the American Dream becomes an indistinct blur.

An upscale mall in suburban America is THE place to be on a weekend afternoon if you fancy yourself to be one of the "beautiful people" - white, at least comfortable financially, attractive, and thus amongst the only people who truly matter in this world.

Posturing, preening, styling, profiling, seeing, being seen, and best of all, exercising their patriotic duty to God, country, and retailer, the "beautiful people" set the trend for the rest of us.

It's hard to conceive of something more "inspiring" than the most spoiled and privileged human beings on the face of the planet filling their Hummers with bags emblazoned with the likes of Abercrombie, Neiman Marcus, the Limited, Nordstrom, and Saks.

All this so they can stay ahead of the fashion curve, play with the latest electronic toys, best the neighbors, and to have more contents to dampen the echoes reverberating throughout their relatively empty McMansion domiciles, which are large enough to house fifty people but often afford shelter to only a few.

Whether we are amongst the "blessed elite" of humanity or not, as US Americans it is our patriotic duty to shop.

Shopping was our first "counter-terrorism measure" after 9/11, remember? Our very way of life depends upon our wallets and our willingness to open them.

If we falter in our sacred duty to over-indulge our desires at the expense of humanity and the Earth, dear reader, our world as we know it will be lost to the "Islamic hoards", "Godless Communists", and "Hispanic invaders." Jason MIller

Everyone Does Capitalism

What is the elephant in all our rooms? It is the global triumph of capitalism. Democracy is fiercely disputed. Freedom is under threat even in old-established democracies such as Britain. Western supremacy is on the skids. But everyone does capitalism.

Americans and Europeans do it. Indians do it. Russian oligarchs and Saudi princes do it. Even Chinese communists do it. And now the members of Israel's oldest kibbutz, that last best hope of egalitarian socialism, have voted to introduce variable salaries based on individual performance.

Karl Marx would be turning in his grave. Or perhaps not, since some of his writings eerily foreshadowed our era of global capitalism. His prescription failed but his description was prescient.

Does this lack of any clear ideological alternative mean that capitalism is secure for years to come?

Far from it. With the unprecedented triumph of global capitalism over the last two decades come new threats to its own future.

They are not precisely the famous "contradictions" that Marx identified, but they may be even bigger.

There is the inescapable dilemma that this planet cannot sustain six-and-a-half billion people living like today's middle-class consumers in its rich north.

In just a few decades, we would use up the fossil fuels that took some 400 million years to accrete - and change the earth's climate as a result.

Sustainability may be a grey and boring word, but it is the biggest single challenge to global capitalism today.

However ingenious modern capitalists are at finding alternative technologies - and they will be very ingenious - somewhere down the line this is going to mean richer consumers settling for less rather than more.

Marx thought capitalism would have a problem finding consumers for the goods that improving techniques of production enabled it to churn out. Instead, it has become expert in a new branch of manufacturing: the manufacture of desires.

The genius of contemporary capitalism is not simply that it gives consumers what they want but that it makes them want what it has to give. It's that core logic of ever-expanding desires that is unsustainable on a global scale.

But are we prepared to abandon it? We may be happy to insulate our lofts, recycle our newspapers and cycle to work, but are we ready to settle for less so others can have more? Am I? Are you? Timothy Garton Ash @ Guardian