Irony 1: Hyperindividualism results in many of the more socially needy of us having less autonomy.  This is because we need people (hey we’re social animals) but the way society is set up less and less (and sometimes no) people are willing to befriend us.  What this results in is when someone does decide to befriend us they have an inordinate amount of power over us.

Irony 2: Consumeristic society just consolidates power at the top away from the actors it’s acting upon.  “Finding and expressing one self” is just a ruse to cajole people into conformity.  The church might have told us to do things directly but Madison Avenue, mediated by our peers, does the exact same thing, it just takes a more circuitous route so it seems like we’re the ones actually making the decisions.  And while pastors, teachers, and parents were local and thus power took into account locale, the gods of consumerism come from the power centers, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and San Francisco.