Malcom Muggeridge on modern consumerism

Hello everyone. I've been gone for awhile, but have been feeling the need for several days to post something new. I just got a new/used Malcolm Muggeridge book in the mail (Vintage Muggeridge ed. by Geoffrey Barlow) and was reading the first essay from it, "Am I A Christian?" and found this great summation of contemporary consumerism. This is taken from an address Muggeridge gave in 1967, almost 40 years ago, when many Christians hadn't even begun to seriously think about such issues. It's still as relevant as ever. Here it is:

You have in a small area of the world an economic system which only works in so far as it constantly increases its gross national product. This is our golden calf, and year by year it must get bigger. In order that its getting bigger shouldn't create chaos, people must constantly consume more and want more, so that we must dedicate some of our most brilliant talents and a huge proportion of our wealth to making them want what they don't want. It's the most extraordinary state of affairs. At the same time, while this is going on in one part of the world, in another part of the world people are getting poorer and poorer and hungrier and hungrier.

I'll be back

To anyone who checks this blog, sorry there hasn't been anything new for a couple of weeks now. I've been spending time doing other things (some worthwhile, some probably not), and haven't had the time, energy, or motivation to write anything here. I will be writing more stuff in the (hopefully not too distant) future though so stay tuned.

Thanks,
Gordon