Are you old enough to remember when the news used to refer to people as citizens? Did you notice when the language began to change and people started to become consumers?

The concept of citizenship is as old as democracy, a proto-form of citizenship having been instituted by the ancient Greeks as a safeguard against the tyranny of enslavement which was widespread at the time.

While the forms of citizenship changed dramatically over the years and locations the concepts of citizenship and nationalism reached a zenith during the mid-twentieth century, examples of which can be seen clearly in documents from the time in the U.S. and elsewhere across the west and USSR.

The core principle of citizenship is a banding together of a community, each member of that community having equal rights and societal obligations under communally agreed-upon law. In fact it can be argued that the development and cultivation of citizenship allowed ancient man to successfully form larger communities than was possible at a time when familial relation was the most important consideration to foster ‘in-group’ thinking. Citizenship allowed people to extend their in-group from family to tribe to village to town and onward, allowing us to form large, diverse communities not necessarily populated by our trust-worthy relatives. The protection of law extended from citizens of a community to citizens of that community provided a framework for successful large-group interactions.

From the ancient conception of citizenship onward, to be a citizen of a community (be that community a town, city-state, or nation) was a tremendous boon and was highly valued as it may mean the difference between an enjoyable life of freedom or a future of slavery for you and your descendants. It is important to outline the fact that in most societies during this time ‘class’ (citizen vs slave) was hereditary. You inherited your class from your parents and only exceptional circumstances could move you from one class to the other.

Today we forget that society, the concept of the nation, these grow out as extensions of the foundation concept of citizenship, essentially communal consensus of all citizens as to the shape of that community. When the news refers to the population of a country as a ‘consumer’ it is a reminder that our ancient and invaluable concepts of republic, citizenship, and democracy are being usurped by the concept of capital. Every time the word ‘consumer’ is used it is an assertion that the value of a person derives from how much the purchase, or that the primary purpose of a person is not civic responsibility, creation of art, or community development but what or how many resources they consume.

That our western environment (primarily the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.) has transformed towards the concept of the all-important consumer is deeply troubling to me personally, which is why I am bringing it to your attention as well. The way I see it there are two possible causes of this transition towards consumer-concept awareness, either the communal consensus of the population desires this focus on consumerism (in which case the structure of citizenship is intact, merely transfixed) OR there is another force applying pressure to erode the concepts of citizenship and equal law in favor of a different system where communal rights and obligations of and to the society are less important than economic frenzy and consumption.

The evidence for this transition from citizen to consumer is everywhere and not just on the nightly news. It can also be seen in products and services that sell things people don’t want or need. It is visible in planned obsolescence where products are made cheaply and to purposefully fail in order to incite repeat purchases from consumers, while we have incredible technology and processes that could produce useful tools and toys of lifelong quality and usability. Given the choice few people would prefer the environment where the products they buy are flimsy and disposable, yet the consumer-concept is so strong in society presently that the importance of economic activity is preferred to craftsmanship, quality, and value.

I implore you to keep in mind the reduction in use of the idea of citizenship in favor of consumerism. When you watch the news or read an article, consider every time they refer to people as one or the other, and what message that sends. I encourage you to do your own reading as history is rich with lessons on this topic. With the extremism of consumer-culture coming to dominate society it is more imperative than ever to critically examine it, as we must remember that the laws and concepts that govern us are by communal consent, not divine mandate of rulers.