This is an excellently researched and thought-provoking book that looks at America’s capitalistic, consumerist society as sickness not salvation. The authors cite story and statistic ad nauseam to make their point — our excessive consumption of every sort of good is not filling the void in our hearts or satisfying the hunger in our soul. The richer we are the more we spend, and the more miserable we seem to be.
Like all books that seek to diagnose a diease of the culture, they at times over sell the sickness. There is a sense to this book that we are currently living in the worst age in the history of the planet — that we are the most depraved, self-absorbed, greedy and down-right debased individuals ever. I disagree. I think things are much more nuanced than that, and the atrocities of other cultures and times may far outstrip ours in different regards.
The takeaway point for me is that one of the primary ways that our culture is expressing its broken and fallen nature is through consumerism and individualism. Over the next few posts, I’ll highlight some statistics and stories from the book that make this point.