All these individually wrapped products beget something even more precious to us. Choice. As synonym for control. In a world without boxes lit with insignias, colors, and slogans, there is little need for a consumer to touch anything. It’s all the same. But suddenly, with cardboard boxes flying off the factory line, the greedy tentacles of customer demand are excited; they head to the general store and request particular products. They grow suspicious of the clerk behind the counter: Is he substituting, swindling, or otherwise shortchanging us? This suspicion is then weaponized by
...more
