Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Stevenson questions whether consumer culture can provide a meaningful vision for America's global role.
In plain terms
If we worship shopping and ads, can we inspire the world with a better way of life?
What can you take from it?
Consumerism may not offer a compelling global vision.

Where it applies

  • foreign policy speeches
  • cultural critique
  • economic debates

Putting it to work

  • critiquing consumer culture
  • articulating national values

Questions to consider

  • What vision should America project?
  • Does consumerism distract from purpose?

Another view

It simplifies complex economic motivations.

More from Adlai Stevenson

  1. Today we are plunged into a battle that is familiar to us. the enemies and the problems are the same. But the terrain is different. The world around us has cha…

    Permalink to quote #62
  2. The elephant has a thick skin, a head full of ivory, and as everyone who has seen a circus parade knows, proceeds best by grasping the tail of its predecessor.

    Permalink to quote #64
  3. Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than freedom to stagnate, to live without dreams, to have no greater aim than a …

    Permalink to quote #61

Related quotes

  1. Ah! American cigarettes are like the American soul - sweet and light.

    Hans FrankHans Frank quote #9
  2. I made the decision that I couldn't not run. I had to run. This country is in great danger. It's in great difficulty. It's being taken the wrong way by a leade…

    Wesley ClarkWesley Clark quote #11
  3. In America you can ease into middle age with the accoutrements of adolescence still prominent and suffer relatively minor embarrassment: okay, so the guy's sti…

    Lester BangsLester Bangs quote #15