publisher the gospel according to larry
Anti - consumerism is a sociopolitical ideology that is opposed to consumerism , the continual buying and consuming of material possessions . Anti - consumerism is concerned with the private actions of business corporations in pursuit of financial and economic goals at the expense of the public welfare , especially in matters of environmental protection , social stratification , and ethics in the governing of a society . In politics , anti - consumerism overlaps with environmental activism , anti - globalization , and animal - rights activism ; moreover , a conceptual variation of anti - consumerism is " post - consumerism ", living in a material way that transcends consumerism . Consumerism is a social and economic order and ideology that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever - increasing amounts . Early criticism of consumerism was in the works of Thorstein Veblen in 1899 , which examined the middle class emerging at the turn of the 20th ___MASK97___ , which came to fruition by the end of the 20th ___MASK97___ through the process of globalization . Post - consumerism is often suggesting that there is a growing willingness to assert that well - being , as distinct from material ___MASK91___ , is the aim of life . Post - consumerism can also be viewed as moving beyond the current model of addictive consumerism . This personal and societal strategy utilizes each individual ' s core values to identify the " satisfaction of enough for today ." The intent and outcome of this basic strategy to date has " reached people where they are rather than simply where we are ." Janet Tashjian is a novelist living in Los Angeles . Her middle grade and young adult fiction is published by ___MASK8___ . Her novels often incorporate different formats and play with the line between fiction and non - fiction . She is the mother of Jake Tashjian , who provided illustrations for eight of her novels . ___MASK8___ is an American book publishing company , in New York City . One of the oldest publishers in the United States , it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt . Currently , the company publishes in the fields of American and international fiction , biography , history and politics , science , psychology , and health , as well as books for children ' s literature . In the US , it operates under Macmillan Publishers . The Gospel According to Larry is a `` coming of age '' political , romantic teen novel by Janet Tashjian that explores anti - consumerism . The introduction of the book is written from a point of view that makes it seem as though Josh Swensen is real and Janet Tashjian is simply the one who edited and published it . This quality gives the book a non - fiction feel .