Today a friend of mine said, “I can’t believe how politically disengaged young people are today.”
I said, “That’s because we’re consumers instead of citizens.”
I don’t know where that came from, it just flew out of my mouth as soon as I opened it. I don’t know if it’s right, but it certainly felt right when I said it.
Also, I don’t think it’s necessarily just young people. But anyway. I’m sure there’s a way to be both consumer and citizen, but it seems the traits of capitalism define us more these days than the traits of democracy. I’m not sure why, but whenever I hear reporters talk about “us” as consumers instead of as, well, people, I just get really unnerved for a couple of moments, and then try to carry on.