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The Absurdity Of Consumerism

In his 2004 book Cloud Atlas, novelist David Mitchell imagines Nea So Copros, a dystopian future version of Seoul, Korea, in which consumer culture has become its own form of totalitarianism. It's a world where brands and logos become their own form of political power.

The reduction of citizens in a democratic state to consumers in a society defined by their purchases has been explored many times in science fiction. The pull of this idea springs from the ever-growing sophistication and pervasiveness of advertising in shaping all aspects of our culture. The advent of big data — with its ability to identify patterns in oceans of information — has taken customized marketing to new levels, with no end to this trend in sight.

But knowledge is power and resistance can be as simple as a good line of reasoning or a clever song. In that spirit I give you "Sold," a video that came across my desk by accident. It's by Buffalo-based producer Bill Boulden and Laura Grace. As the song says:

I bought a bigger TV

So they could show me the ad

for the smaller PC

than what I already had


You can keep up with more of what Adam Frank is thinking on Facebook and on Twitter: @AdamFrank4

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Adam Frank
Adam Frank was a contributor to the NPR blog 13.7: Cosmos & Culture. A professor at the University of Rochester, Frank is a theoretical/computational astrophysicist and currently heads a research group developing supercomputer code to study the formation and death of stars. Frank's research has also explored the evolution of newly born planets and the structure of clouds in the interstellar medium. Recently, he has begun work in the fields of astrobiology and network theory/data science. Frank also holds a joint appointment at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, a Department of Energy fusion lab.