(4 of 4)
Moreover, eBay has exposed America as a nation of collectors. Matchbook covers, cast-iron witches' cauldrons, Pez dispensers, pneumatic grease pumps from the 1920s, Three Stooges memorabilia--you name it, some American somewhere collects it. "We define ourselves by our stuff," says Robert Thompson, president of the Popular Culture Association and a Syracuse University professor who specializes in the study of collectibles. In a democracy, with everyone theoretically equal, people want to be different. We don't have a caste system; we've never had a blood-line aristocracy. We've distinguished ourselves by our cars, by the clothes we wear, by the stuff we buy and sell. "I suppose you can lament all the consumerist tendencies in this, the materialism," say Thompson. "But it gives so much joy to so many people. It's an innocent way of providing a lot of fun."
And fun, of course, is at the heart of the matter. Surely the Internet could be put to darker purposes. We may not live at the end of history, but we live in a country, and increasingly a world, where the large preoccupations of earlier generations have been resolved. We need no longer worry about subsistence, about food and shelter. For centuries philosophers have contemplated just this moment and wondered what would come next. For a very large number of people, it appears the answer is, eBay comes next.
We could do worse.
--Reported by Sally B. Donnelly/Washington and Mitch Frank/New York