Lead Us Into Temptation @ richardeward.com

Lead Us Into Temptation
by James B. Twitchell
from Columbia University Press

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

• Finally: an intellectual page-turner
  Had to read this one as an undergrad... & I still read it regularly for fun! How many books can you say this of?
  Twitchell really cuts to the core of material psychology, branding, and then comparing these cultural phenomena to past Human indentifications: tribal, family, religious, etc. Result? Putting meaning in things is SO much more fun!
  In one terrific section (and my favorite) Twitchell attacks the idea of "zombie TV watching" with a simple observation: When he watches TV he finds it to... more info

• Just Dreadful
  As an academic who loves to shop, I was hoping this would provide a more balanced account of the rise and impact of mass consumerism. He is certainly right that academics and other relatively privileged strata have something of a knee-jerk animus to mass pleasure. But the book is a complete failure. It amounts to little more than a defense brief for mass consumerism--and like a good defense lawyer, he ignores evidence that doesn't fit his case, distorts the arguments of his foes, and offers a rosy, unreal... more info

• Pragmatic view point on consumerism and advertising
  An interesting read about the invasive consumerism of the 20th century. His basic take is we buy what we want, it isn't foisted on us by advertsing. All that you see on TV is an ad, including the "news", the sitcom set, ie house, clothes, pots, pans, lamps and has been since the beginning of TV. And that "Democracy" is the freedom to buy what you want when you want it.

  He makes a good case that this has been what people "really" want since time imortal. And that no amount of whining about how it isn't... more info

• Pretentious twaddle disguised as scholarship
  First, it was quite obvious that the author has some sort of animus against non-materialism, since he seems to glory in taking gratuitous chops at environmentalists, the voluntary simplicity movement, and pretty much anyone who doesn't agree with him. I was thoroughly sick of it by the end of the first chapter.

  Second, he does not back up many of his assertions, despite a plethora of footnotes. For instance, he asserts that kitchens have gotten smaller in the last few decades (seemingly as a way of... more info

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