Now I feel like shopping.

So DH and I were chatting about the parallels between the Roman Empire and the 'Empire' of today.  DH came to the conclusion that the empire of today is the Empire of Consumerism.  And on Monday night we had a great illustration of the way our children are groomed to become part of that 'Empire'.

The television in our house is hooked up to a DVD and that's all we watch on it...and that's enough.  We do have the luxury of grandparents on the main floor who have a fantastic cable package that we can avail ourselves of on occasion.  But I make serious attempts to limit that so that we are not a couch potato family!  One of the things that I find particularly assaulting when watching television programs is the advertising campaigns.  You could be watching a fairly innocuous home reno show and then have your confidence crushed by advertising that is intended to make you feel insecure so that you will find yourself needing the product being peddled.

So little girls had received a couple of DVDs that came with these very sweet little fairy dolls.  In the DVDs go and on goes the promotional campaign for these little dolls.  I didn't watch the stories but apparently they did their job.  Once the video was finished and turned off little P turned to her daddy and announced, "...now I feel like shopping..."  Marketing geared to children...effective and insidious. 

It brings us to the question of how can we live not under the Empire of Consumerism?  Can we change how we buy to reflect the 'subversive' ethics of our faith?  Is the luxury of choice only available to the wealthy?  Is it possible to make just choices that will become agents of change?