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“I’m also thankful to the people of St. Joan of Arc, a radical Catholic community in Minneapolis that continually raises my consciousness and engages my conscience. The services at St. Joan are inspiring—in every sense of the word. St. Joan of Arc challenges members to think continually about the moral ecology of everyday life and to do something about it—changing the world in small ways and large, with our own wild and precious lives.” - Jim Farrell in "One Nation Under Goods: Malls and the Seductions of American Shopping"

 

Jim Farrell in his days as Dr. America

I doubt that many academic studies of an economic entity—in this case, shopping malls—include such a tribute to an author’s parish but as the reader discovers, it’s totally appropriate for Jim Farrell.

Jim Farrell is a parishioner and professor at St. Olaf College. Jim also regularily appeared on public radio offering his commentary as Dr. America. This past year Jim wrote a book, One Nation under Goods: Malls and the Seductions of American Shopping that I had the opportunity to read. The early chapters include scholarly concerns: for instance, the history of American shopping from the self-sufficiency of an agrarian society to the super-abundance of mammoth malls. There is the architecture of malls, adapting cultural symbols like the marble and skylights of cathedrals. Malls appropriate the appearance of gardens of the past that served as refuges for reflection—but the designers are also researching the mundane, like methods of turning “destination shoppers” who come to the mall in search of a specific item to “impulse shoppers” enticed by the specialty stores between well-selected anchors. As an anthropologist said, “If we went into stores only when we needed to buy something and if once there we bought only what we needed, the economy would collapse.”  

There are the statistics: In the United States, we have more shopping centers than high schools. In 2000, student credit card debt averaged $2,748. Without the “deadbeats” (industry term for those who avoid interest penalties by paying their charges monthly), that average rises to $11,575. More people visit the Mall of America annually than all the national parks and national monuments combined. Each American consumes more than 100 pounds of materials daily.  

And our consumer culture is spreading globally. Even several years ago, there were 750 million television sets in China and Amway, Mary Kay and Tupperware have established beachheads there. In Singapore, window-shopping is the #1 outside-the-home leisure-time activity.

Another statistic that leads Farrell into the meat of his message is that in the United States, the average American family spends $800 for Christmas. “Malls serve as official sponsors of the American family Christmas. . . by connecting consumption to family and religion, they legitimize a consuming culture.”

For us, as consumers both influenced by malls and with influence to shape the malls of the future, Farrell has suggestions of ten post-materialist values to develop including:

• “voluntary simplicity, elegant and conspicuous frugality” achieved through spending more time than money on fun, maybe even looking at the Amish for ideas.
• “a celebration of the body, both as a beautiful organic form and as a productive tool in the work of creation,” ignoring ads that stress need for special cosmetics, Botox, and plastic surgery.
• “a delight in self-expression, in word and deed, in music and dance, in painting and poetry, in arts and crafts and cooking, in relationships and child-rearing,” rather than buying that which others have produced.
• participating in community work rather than trying to be a “somebody” fitting an advertisement model.
• “whole-systems thinking, ” going beyond seeing the shirt we’re buying as a bargain. What are the economic systems, the laborers’ working conditions, the ecological consequences involved in our purchase?

• “Put our money where our values are.” Boycott merchants who don’t have our values; “buycott” (purchase from) those who do.
• Insist that pricing include human and ecological costs.
• Use taxation to encourage “behavior that is socially and environmentally beneficial.” Publicize the injustice to the poor of a sales tax and the value of everyone’s taxes used for infrastructure that benefits malls and other businesses. (Farrell has a colorful one-word comment on Republicans’ belief that the only good tax policy is a tax cut.)
• Spread the word that not only “enough is enough” but that we should think about how to provide enough for everyone not only here but throughout the world.

  Pat Ryan Greene a mother of six, retired writer/editor and a member of St. Joan's almost since she and her family moved to Minneapolis in 1968. Pat can be reached at patgreene01@msn.com.

• Work to have malls become more democratic by including space for voting, community meetings, charity drives and government information booths.