Benjamin Barber's primary thesis in Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole is that marketing that reinforces adolescent behavior in adults and seeks to make children more usable consumers. This marketing is continually reinforced by a privatized capitalist system that undermines civil liberty and citizenship at the expense of consumer behaviors. It is, in the end, a system that causes people to become non-citizens of a commonwealth, but consumers who are at the whim of the corporate sector in society.
I share with many (who note errors that have clearly been corrected if they existed in the first printing) that Barber could have condensed his argument and made it more transparent. He certainly lacks concision where it would be helpful in many spots. But that after a relatively quick read over 10 days (it's not loaded with the scholarly aplomb and density that some reviewers have ruled in its disfavor) I was able to get the point and it remains a rather visceral and salient one. Starting with Weber's argument and then drawing lines to where the value foundations of capitalism have strayed is instructive and pragmatic.
What I like is that he finds common strands in much of the literature regarding consumerism and globalization that have been very popular, e.g. Friedman, Schor, Klein, Barry, Lasch, etc. But he does this by couching it in very important political terms in order to examine the effect of private capital on his notion of "strong democracy". to this degree, it reads almost like an updated "Culture of Narcissism".
He does have several errors he or at least his editor should have picked up before it went to paperback. He calls Terrell Owens a running back, Michael Stipe a producer, etc. But who cares about these points other than pedantic reviewers who would rather trivialize the argument. Moreover, the solution proposed at the end of a global society founded by global citizens does not seem plausible. He fails to account for the tribalistic tendencies that react against forces of globalization that authors such as Malcolm Waters have noted. So the end is as flat as Friedman's thesis of globalization which Barber largely argues against.
Much of the material is very well trodden in the literature. However, Barber's analytical skill is quite incisive and he is able to gather new syntheses of previous material to suggest that this is far more of an important issue for our social makeup than a diatribe against gluttony or material envy could muster. And to this end, I say well done and worth a read!
Be sure to check out Benjamin Barber's blog here. There you can find some of his thoughts in often nascent stages.
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