Thanks to the finance sector's ideological dominance and the pervasiveness of money-backed values in contemporary capitalism, western consumerist societies continue to sleepwalk through malls of debt-financed consumption. A lethal combination of institutions, values, the built environment and pervasive advertising feeds an obsession with shopping, with material accumulation and the glitter of celebrity. The cycle of relentless consumption inflicts tremendous damage both on the foundations of sustainable life on the planet and on public life:

* it fuels the emission of greenhouse gases that exacerbates dangerous climate change, necessitating the collective global action being discussed at th...

Thanks to the finance sector's ideological dominance and the pervasiveness of money-backed values in contemporary capitalism, western consumerist societies continue to sleepwalk through malls of debt-financed consumption. A lethal combination of institutions, values, the built environment and pervasive advertising feeds an obsession with shopping, with material accumulation and the glitter of celebrity. The cycle of relentless consumption inflicts tremendous damage both on the foundations of sustainable life on the planet and on public life:

* it fuels the emission of greenhouse gases that exacerbates dangerous climate change, necessitating the collective global action being discussed at the Bali summit in December 2007 (see David Steven's Global Deal blog on openDemocracy / E3G)

* it disarms the political will to challenge both the finance sector and the mystifications of its placemen in political parties, economics departments, financial institutions and the media.