An insatiable, aching need to buy things. All kinds of things. That is how Kennedy described modern day America's materialism.
Aren't we all afflicted with wanting? Immanuel Kant says that we are slaves to our appetites and desires. Bentham further asserts thats pleasure and pain are our sovereign masters. All of us seek to increase pleasure and reduce pain, and one way to do this through satisfying our desires. How do we satisfy most desires? We buy things. Materialism is nothing but one manifestation of humanity as desire-slaves.
Materialism is kind-of-sort-of, like slavery. We are acting for causes that are determined outside of us, causes that we have not chosen for ourselves. When I choose Coke over Root Beer, F21 over Zara, prima facie I had freedom to pick a drink or a dress. However, I did not choose to be thirsty nor did I choose to want to be fashionable. These are causes imposed on me by nature and circumstance. Working to satisfy them makes me a slave.
To be truly "free" I think citizens need to create their own causes worth pursuing, and brave the media's dictatorship on desire creation.
