The Abundant Community By John Mcknight And Peter Block

Way Of Life When I was younger, I never gave much thought to how we lived our day to day lives. I would just go about my day going to school, playing with friends outside, and eating dinner at the table. However, after reading The Abundant Community, by John McKnight and Peter Block, I have discovered that there is a consumer way of life and a citizen way of life. The consumer way was described as, “promise of a consumer society is that satisfaction can be purchased.”(McKnigh and Block 9) What that means is that in the consumer way we rely on others to do things for us, such as (teachers, coaches, and counselors). Additionally, we rely on technology like, (television, computers, and cell phones) excessively. We feel the need to buy things
Consumers indulge and never have a feeling of satisfaction because they always want to have bigger and better things. McKnigh and Block describe consumers thirst for the newest things as, “consumption is like an addictive drug, one cultivated not in foreign poppy fields but in a brainstorming session on Madison Avenue” (27). That said, in the citizen way one is happy with what they have. McKnigh and Block wrote, “When we stop looking to the marketplace for what matters to us, we find ways that neighborhood and community can provide much of what we require,"(116) and by doing this one can start to enjoy what one