Mall Post

As I entered the mall from one of the several Macy's entrances it was hard not to see the vast area of perfumes and make-up products permeating every display case and beyond even that, every square inch of available space. Sales people scurried around from customer to customer trying to pander each product to seem like a perfect fit to the individual. People wanted to look better than ever before, an exemplification of a narcissistic self-perpetuating cycle created by the consumer for the consumer. It must be nice, many of us would say, to create and take a part in such a culture that has an exponentially rising ease of access and a diverse line of products. This would be entirely true insofar as much as we created only a culture, however, we have created for ourselves a religion that we choose to be a part of.

We love to consume the newest, the latest, and the trendiest. We must acknowledge that we all do, not just them or they but I in collusion with everyone else around me chose this path and continue to daily. So often we "impartially" remove ourselves from our culture by saying "I don't really do that," or, "I am not nearly as bad as everyone else." However this is arrantly hypocritical, because when the tables turn and now it is better to go with the flow, we turn on a dime. The truth is that we love to consume so much that it is one of the premier driving factors. Consider it like a shift in homeostasis, we no longer seek the basic necessities, our homeostatic drive is to consume.

Walking out of Macys, it is easy to see the open, inviting hallway lined on both sides and in the middle with shops of every sort. It is a race to stand out, some use ads and logos like Nike and others like Apple use elegantly designed storefronts and interiors that are aesthetically pleasing. Every square inch is scrutinized and allocated for efficient use.  Billboards line shop windows and along walls, even shopping bags are branded to be recognized by other consumers that happen to walk by. People crowd, moving in a deliberate way, flowing from store to store. A fluidity is established and maintained by the structural lay out of the mall to guide and move about shoppers in the easiest way possible. Consumers find comfort in this ease, the seamless integration of the purchase of "necessary" commodities and staples laced with the plethora of cookies, pretzels, smoothies, and drinks. In fact the very center of the mall is crowned with a large Starbucks, prominent from a distance for it's eager customers.

It is easy to see how such a place would garner the trust and hearts of consumers. We find such pleasure in the malls that many of us use them as a path to happiness. We have created an idolatrous relationship with malls, creating a religion based in our consumerism and it's ever growing demands. The principle of this new idolatrous relationship is greed, a malevolent noxious agent which damages our hearts and minds. We seek salvation not from God, but through the acquisition of goods and services which are provided in ubiquity at the mall, our new place of worship.

Walking through the mall we see only brand names, only things designed to cater to a people consumed with our own reflection. Stores like Macys cater to women especially as I could see as I walked in. However men and children are under the influence of our economic culture, there are stores for hats, belt buckles, jewelers, shoes, and every type of clothing imaginable.

Consumption is not inherently bad or noxious, however, the way that our society has demanded more, more, more, has created a religion. This religion is planted in idolatry and is narcissistic throughout. There is a predication on egocentricity that only the market can sustain. It is up to each person as an individual to return the religion back to God and away from us, dispel the idolatrous nature of consumerism, to delineate want from need, and to return the sacred place of worship to the church not the mall.