Buying Our Identity - Part 3

This continues from yesterday, bringing David Burns words to emphasize how individuals can "buy" their identities:

Constructing one's identity through consumption activities affords individuals considerable freedom of self - freedom not typically available when the self is conferred by family, community, and religion. As opposed to a self based on external bases, a self based on consumption activities can be relatively easily adapted or changed at will. Indeed, an individual can often choose between a number or different possible selves. In order to change one's self, an individual need only add to or subtract from their accumulation of material goods and/or change their shopping activities. Individuals today, therefore, are faced with a heretofore unimaginable amount of freedom to select and construct what they would like their selves to be. Such freedom, however, is not without cost.

We'll finish this tomorrow.