I am a citizen, not a consumer.

Consumer: (noun) a person or thing that consumes.

Citizen: (noun) a native or naturalized member of a state or nation who owes allegiance to its government and is entitled to its protection.

This new Occupy Wall Street movement has me wondering if we have lost our identity as Americans. Thousands of people from different walks of life are speaking together, and asking for the same thing. But what is it?

The criticism I hear is that these people don’t have a leader. I hear they don’t have a manifesto. I hear that they don’t know what they want or who they are, but can only state what they don’t want and who they are not. I think this is a symptom of our lost identity as a nation.

Our loss of identity stems from many places, but can possibly be boiled down to the difference between two ideas. Are we citizens or are we consumers?

What is the difference?

I thought of a few.

A consumer thinks about what he will buy with his next paycheck.

A citizen thinks about how he can provide for his family.

A consumer commutes to work in a smoke bellowing SUV all by herself.

A citizen finds a more economical way in order to save resources for future generations.

A consumer complains when taxes go up and worms his way out of paying them.

A citizen pays his taxes because he sees the value of schools, defense, infrastructure, and so on.

A consumer marks the ballot all the way down the left or the right, if she bothers to vote at all.

A citizen votes her conscience and expects her elected officials to do the same.

A consumer is bound by debt, advertising, fear, bigotry, jingoism, addiction, and does not see the ties that bind.

A citizen sees the binding ties and struggles to loosen them in order achieve true freedom.

A consumer shakes his fist in anger, she places the blame on her neighbor, he hates the alien, she craves the larger house and car.

A citizen knows that we have a government of the people, for the people, and by the people and acknowledges the power therein.

Yes, I am a citizen who consumes. But if I am only a consumer, then I am a fool, and have sold myself into slavery.

I am a citizen, not a consumer.