The reason why the 'western' consumerist culture does so flipping well, is because, it's not just a product of western society. After about a generation and some of being indoctrinated in that the west was bad, once glasnost started, and people starting getting western consumer products thrown at them in the formally communist countries, were they all "Oh no, this is bad, it is not part of our culture."? No, they WANTED the stuff. The only reason the west is 'consumerist' is because it is affluent enough to GET pretty much anything. There is no Rousseau's noble savages out there, un-'tainted' by western society, we are ALL greedy son-of-a-guns. It's just in the west, and in other cultures like japan, and to the upper strata, china and other parts of the world,WHERE WE CAN GET WHAT WE WANT.
That is not to say this is a good thing, just saying it ain't exclusively a western thing.

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