The entirety of British artist Michael Landy’s material possessions are cataloged and on exhibit in an old London department store. Over 7000 items, including a $30,000 Gary Hume painting and his red Saab, will be powdered into sand, which Landy hopes to have buried under a shopping mall. When it’s over, he will have only the clothes on his body and the shoes on his feet. Speaking as a born-and-raised American consumer, is this guy nuts? Destroying one’s belongings has little appeal to me. I like all my stuff, from my cute little car to my berry-flavored Game Boy color. I suppose that several of the inanimate objects that populate my dorm room are in ways superfluous to living a healthy, fulfilled life. Still, that doesn’t mean I’m going to destroy them. There are things I could do without, but some things I honestly do need.Let’s start with my car. Yes, it was an expensive purchase (thanks Dad!), and it’s CD player is really icing on the cake, but this machine really does a lot to make my life better. I work in Des Moines. Without my car, I couldn’t work there, or anywhere off-campus. Also, it will take me to my girlfriend’s apartment in 7 minutes. So, my car’s definitely a keeper.And what would my CD player be without my trusty Matsushita 7503 CD burner? Not much. I need my burner to make custom mixes to groove to on the way to work. Switching CDs while driving is a distraction my CD burner spares me from. My CD burner is a life saver.I also need a computer to operate my burner, and that’s where my Power Mac G4 comes in. Of course, it’s much more than a CD-burning utensil. I also use it for constructive things, like reading online newspapers, committing Eminem-esque acts against my girlfriend in Quake 3 Tournament (Q3T), spinning MP3s, writing these columns, and digital multi-track music recording. Speaking of which, my modest studio in my parents’ basement wouldn’t be anything without a killer drum set to record with. To that end, I have a 6-piece Pearl Masters Custom Extra drum set. It’s easily the most expensive thing purchased with my own money. The bass drum alone was $600, and my Zildjian K. Custom hi-hats were around $250. That might sound like a lot of cash for a 7.5 mm, 22″ by 16″ maple cylinder and two 14″ diameter circular sheets of bronze, but I think they’re totally awesome and worth every penny.What would Mr. Landy think of my lifestyle? Would he get bug-eyed and run away screaming at the terror of it all, burn his clothes and shower in near-boiling water, vigorously scrubbing off the residual consumerism with a wadful of off-brand steel wool and a bar of generic soap? Not quite. Unlike some of his contemporaries, he does on occasion frequent the real world. When interviewed by the Associated Press, he said, “I’m not pretending that I can escape consumerism. That would be ridiculous. I’m not doing this to cleanse myself. I don’t feel like it at all. I am an artist.”Consumerism, especially in this great country of ours, is an integral part of life; it is deeply ingrained as part of our cultural identity as Americans. People who are much smarter than I have defined our culture as one obsessed with consuming and discarding. They liken our lifestyle to a McDonald’s restaurant, where people consume bland, excessively unhealthy and under-nourishing manufactured products, leaving only garbage bins full of ketchup-stained wrappers, half-full cups of Coca-Cola, and salt-caked fries boxes. This image is not particularly flattering.I’ve wondered for a long time whether McDonald’s was a natural service to serve American’s need for inexpensive, convenient fast food or a colossal Panzer of American cultural imperialism, bent on crushing the world under its tracks.My verdict, after eating at McDonald’s restaurants all across America, Canada, Malaysia and France, is that it’s really both. In France, McDonald’s were essentially miniature American embassies for my family where we could get a quick bite and use clean restrooms. We went to the same McDonald’s where angry farmers once dumped livestock excrement on its steps in protest. So I can see how the restaurant is culture-killing American imperialism in that sense.However, there are positive aspects about the place. For example, after eating there in the morning a few times, I realized that McDonald’s is a clean and well-lit environment for senior citizens to eat breakfast, read the paper and socialize for about $2. That reason alone is enough for me to justify the restaurant chain’s existence.American consumerism is more than a culture of depravity. We shouldn’t be proud of our excesses, but we should realize that many of the things we own are of necessity. Instead of looking at our shortcomings as a something to be shameful of, we should pride ourselves on the things we do get right. I may have to spend a small fortune on my drum set, but I’m sure that once Michael Landy gets on his feet again, he’ll purchase only the finest materials to create his art. There’s nothing wrong with that.Sam Wong is a sophomore in electrical engineering.