Shopomania
Our Obsession with Possession
Paul Berton
- 320 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Shopomania
Our Obsession with Possession
Paul Berton
About This Book
A thought-provoking and provocative challenge to consumerism (with plenty of name-dropping and celebrity antics).
Sassy and satirical, Shopomania is an economic, environmental and social study. This light-hearted, dark-souled dictionary of coined words, or "shoponyms, " takes readers on a roller-coaster ride of avaricious antics and outrageous profligacy.
Shopping in one form or another has existed for millennia but, aside from a few slumps, each generation has outdone the previous one. In the past fifty years, shoppingâand its associated carbon footprintâhas grown exponentially.
Berton argues that if we invented today's consumer culture, then we can invent something to replace it. We can do a better job of making the cycle of stuff truly circular rather than linear. We can be more environmentally, socially and politically conscious of what we buy and how it comes to usâand where it will go after we are finished with it. A species that has made shopping ubiquitous can figure all these things out with little more than co-operation and creativity, and by asking if it is really necessary to "own it now" as we have been toldâendlesslyâsince childhood. Must we possess a thing to enjoy it? Do we really need all that stuff?