Nicely expressed. It's odd (to me) how deeply American culture has ingrained in its subjects the notion that they are first and foremost consumers. For me, th

Nicely expressed. It's odd (to me) how deeply American culture has ingrained in its subjects the notion that they are first and foremost consumers. For me, the cognitive dissonance first surfaced when I thought about television: The TV networks are the producers, the advertisers are the consumers, and the viewers are the product. TV is not primarily a means of delivering entertainment to viewers-- it is a means of delivering viewers to advertisers. It seems natural to think of ourselves as the end, but sometimes we're just the means....