Consuming Interest Who was it the other month who was
ad- vocating the substitution of the word 'user' for 'consumer'? I'm altogether in favour of this, *Hutchinson, 30s. having grown quite sick of the image of our society as a voracious maggot with a monstrous gob forever masticating frozen fillets, transis- tor radios, ready-made steak-and-kidney pies, washing machines, detergents, and all manner of breakfast foods. When I think of 'society' I think first of myself, since I'm the bit of society I know best. There's something in the continued use of the word 'consumer' that gives me a nasty passive feeling, however much I'm helped to discriminate either by my colleague at the back of the paper or by the associations which have followed Leslie Adrian's example. But if I think of myself as a 'user,' a fine eupeptic active feeling comes over me. I was going on about this last week to an economist, urging him to adopt the change even in his technical jargon, and he said: 'Well, yes, I see your point, but look here: how else can I use corn-flakes except by consuming them?' He thought that he had made a joke, but I ignored that. When I pointed out that there was a perfectly acceptable usage (e.g., 'I certainly could use a cup of coffee) he objected on the ground that this was to do damage to the tongue of Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, etc. This from an economist, but lee it pass. As you see, I feel pretty strongly about the whole business, and you might say that the refusal to be a mere consumer has become my consuming interest.
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