After the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, politicians sent the masses back out into the public with a purpose: to shop. Consumer culture was redefined to include much larger political and global implications, and Americans were earnestly prompted to go ahead and buy that new car or refrigerator, because if they didn't the terrorists were winning. In efforts to stir the economy back to growth, shoppers unwittingly did their best to play dual roles as patriots and perpetrators of a cycle of massive over-consumption and reliance on foreign resources, awash in the glow of modernity.

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