Consumerism is the word that has repeatedly crossed my mind in the past months of travel, especially the past few weeks. It is a sensation that has been sweeping the world, spreading through a phenomenon now characterized by the word globalization. At the end of the 20th century it was hailed as "the end of [economic] history," free-market capitalism seemed to be the predominate political-economical theory. At the center of capitalism is consumerism. As a country that has had great historical and economic ties with the western world, especially the United States, the heart of the South Korean culture today seems to be consumerism. It has been the primary factor of Korean society, and all of the other countries that I have traveled to, that I personally have felt most at home with. But I ask myself, am I comfortable that I identify myself in this way? Is this who I want to be or where my values lay? Consumerism, the one concept that has surpassed boundaries and homogenized everywhere I have been. There are times where I have sat in a coffee shop, a McDonalds, a department store, a market, or a large shining mall and have forgotten where I was. I could have been basically anywhere: home, a major US city, Europe. I would not have been able to tell the difference. How can I identify these places now? Should I think of a coffee shop (Caribou, I guiltily eat breakfast there most mornings...) in South Korea as a western experience? Or is it now defined as a global experience? On a similar thread, if I went to Caribou in the states, am I just going to Caribou, or becoming a part of a global experience?
In order to try to understand some of these concepts can you define these terms? Consumerism, capitalism, socialism, globalization, homogenization.
