I. Thou shall have no God before The Market
II. Thou shall not make thine own products
III. Thou shall not repair nor recycle
IV. Thou shall keep Black Friday Holy
V. Honour thy upgrade cycle
VI. Thou shall not save
VII. Thou shall remain loyal to thine own brands
VIII. Thou shall not steal
IX. Thou shall always accept the Special Offer
X. Thou shall covet thy neighbour’s house, his Porsche, his yacht and everything other he possesses you do not
The First Consumement
The First Consumement dictates the supremacy of The Market and the “hidden hand” of Market Forces as being above all else in consideration. This Consumement can be derived from an examination of first principles thus:
Even though a market (or The Market, for all markets are merely subsets of the One Market) is comprised of thousands of (theoretically) rational and independent individuals, each possessed of their own agency, each of these is too small (again, theoretically) to have too great an undue influence over the performance of the market, under true market conditions.
If one chooses to ignore or disregard the competing pressures (market forces), then one is left behind – either with unsold stock or goods or a lack of sufficient funds to continue participation.
Therefore, respecting and adhering to the strictures and dictates of the market (or The Market) is self-evidently the key to a successful existence within it. The emergent forces at play are too large and powerful for any one individual to resist, leading to the conclusion that its rules (unwritten or not) should be obeyed at all times, leading to the supremacy of The Market over all else.
Due to this irreducibility, the First Consumement also serves to reinforce subsequent Consumements, and as such is placed First above all others.
The Second Consumement
Fundamental to being a good consumer unit is the act and behaviour of consumption. This might seem an obvious tautology but exploring it a little more deeply reveals the Second Consumement – if one creates one’s own goods and/or grows one’s own food then one is not participating as fully as one could in the true consumer Market.
One might argue that one’s own produced goods require materials unavailable to the individual, which therefore must be purchased – an act of consumption – and which are produced by others. This is true, but hides a subtle, deeper truth which leads to the essence of the Second Consumement.
Own produced goods also make use of resources that sit wholly outwith The Market, and are to all intents and purposes free – the very anathema of a market force. These resources are of course the time and effort of the individual creating the goods. These material inputs (and they are material, regardless of how an individual may view them personally) would have to be made in any production, commercial or otherwise, therefore it is fundamentally against the strictures of the Market, where everything has a price. As a result, any and all “freely” given resources leeches from the Market, effectively stealing (See the Eighth Consumement) from others by doing something for “nothing”.
The Second Consumement also applies to other, more nebulous, less tangible products, such as entertainment – music, games, theatre/drama. Many paid professionals exist to manufacture these items, and denying them their share (royalties, percentages etcetera) is no different to the theft perpetrated by individual manufacture.
The Third Consumement
Following directly on from the Second Consumement, is the Third Consumement. If it is forbidden to craft or grow one’s own goods in favour of prefabricated, manufactured alternatives, then it also follows that once a good or product is damaged and no longer performing its intended task, then NO effort should be made to remedy the malfunction, as this artificially prolongs the functional duration of the item(s).
If they have succumb to error, malfunction or simple break, then a replacement should be secured.
Additionally, any effort at reclaiming or retrieving materials from the goods once they are to be disposed of should also not be undertaken. Re-use, or recycling, of materials directly opposes the basic tenet of consumerism – that is the one-time single consumption by an individual of a resource.
The Fourth Consumement
No other day in the calendar is more reverent than Black Friday, when the Sixth and Ninth Consumements are to be observed at their most devout. Other feast days during the calendar, such as Blue Cross Sale days should be observed, but none more holier than Black Friday. Strict adherence to the Fourth Consumement, and observation of other feast days during the Market cycle will aid in ensuring adherence to the Sixth Consumement.
The Fifth Consumement
A corollary of the Third Consumement is the Consumement to always honour a product or service’s iterative or significant increase in offering, be it a major shift in use or technology, such as the migration from vinyl to compact disk, Betamax to VHS, DVD to Blu-Ray etcetera, with the concomitant replacement of now obsolete media, or a point upgrade such as offered in the mobile telephony space. Whatever the upgrade path offered, it should be taken, and the former discarded.
Alongside this, and following on from the Third Consumement also is the honouring of the built-in obsolescence of white goods and their inevitable fall into disrepair / malfunction. In this way the devout consumer is always able to take fullest advantage of the Market, and is found observing the First, Second, Third and sometimes Fourth Consumements by following this simple rule.
The Sixth Consumement
If material goods are not to be re-used or utilised beyond their initial malfunction; that is they are intended to be disposable, [and not saved], then the same reasoning should be applied to the means of goods acquisition in the first instance – namely money.
Removing money from the Market via saving of any kind diminishes the entirety of the Market, forcing it to operate at below optimum efficiency, by however a small amount. This is in direct conflict with the First Consumement.
The Seventh Consumement
The logical extension of the Fifth Consumement leads to the Seventh; that of fealty and loyalty to one’s chosen brand or brands. An informed Market individual will have settled on a manufacturer or supplier for each good, product, service or consumer need. Once this relationship is entered into, sometimes formally in the form of a contract or agreement of some sort, or more usually merely by repetitive purchase, sometimes itself yielding a “loyalty card” of some kind, then it shall be kept sacrosanct, forsaking all others.
How can a provider assiduously meet the Market’s needs if they are compelled to expend effort (and therefore cost) on consumer acquisition – it is an unnecessary burden which can be wholly avoided if consumers of their goods ensure the continuance of their relationship with them, thereby providing certainty to both sides.
The Eighth Consumement
If, from the Second Consumement that even the most removed version of theft (that of indirect theft from other producers by the wickedness of the free giving of time and effort) is a sin, then it must be many orders of magnitude greater for the act of robbery of actual, tangible products. The conscious, wilful removal, without commensurate remuneration or compensation of goods or services stands against the most basic of Market tenets, and as such is not to be tolerated under any circumstances.
There is a subtle extension to this Consumement sometimes overlooked or forgotten, that of haggling, or any form of negotiation on price with the vendor. The payment, fee, expense or sum requested for the goods under transaction are set by the very Market forces a good consumer aspires to live by. Price is determined by what “the Market will bear”.
Too little and the vendor will (while appearing to be successful in the short term) actually suffer a loss of livelihood, by eventually being unable to cover his own costs at volume; too great and he will also eventually fail as consumers, themselves wilful agents in the Market, fail to seek him out.
Note, that while it appears that this “desertion from high price” puts this at odds with the Seventh Consumement, it in fact does not. Any overcharging will result in NEW consumers choosing not to avail themselves of the merchant’s goods, rather than existing customers attempting to negotiate on existing agreements. In this way, existing consumers also remain within the bounds of the Seventh Consumement.
The Ninth Consumement
Taking its instruction from the Eighth Consumement, the Ninth allows both new, and perhaps more importantly for existing customers, the opportunity to take advantage of any time limited offers or reductions on price. As the merchant is the one proffering the “special offer” there is no negotiation, and therefore the Eighth Consumement remains inviolate.
The Tenth Consumement
Satisfaction with one’s lot is a dangerous and subtle sin. Humility without envy of what is possessed by others is no driver of the Market. Aspiration for betterment is driven from many sources; one of the most potent being the coveting (and therefore jealousy) of other’s material wealth and goods.
It is the duty of those with material worth to actively flaunt their wealth and inculcate in others a sense of sparseness at their own lives.
This feeling of emptiness of possessions and status obtained through them is to be nurtured and fostered within oneself, and allowed to dictate other concerns. Other, lesser needs can and are expected to be sacrificed if it assists in the acquisition of items held conspicuously by others. This behaviour sets up positive feedback loops which serve only to grow the Market – as greater numbers obtain bigger and better possessions, with the attendant display of them, then others will come to see this and so too desire them, sacrificing to obtain then display and so on.
Beckbridge - sometime scribbler 