Simplicity part 1

While dropping the kids off at school this morning we were listening to the radio. The superfluous topic on the phone-in-show was the discovery of the talking baby doll that subliminally says 'Islam is the light'. It seems that consumerism, a bane and bedfellow of Christianity in North America, has hit the Muslim faith.
Apparently there is a game our minds play in which we can hear what we want to hear in otherwise unintelligible gibberish. But the profound thing to hear out of this is the way consumerism accommodates itself to our beliefs, trivializes and uses them to accomplish its objectives. (Muslims have big families, can we sell more dolls?)
So how do we respond, how do we counteract consumerism's gravitational pull? I've been considering the discipline of simplicity - the act of ceasing stuff for the sake of readjusting what/who rules in life. It's more than just buying and spending less or owning less things; I suspect it's about time too. In a sense, I will be less efficient - do less and spend less, to say no to 'getting and spending' (stuff and ideas)every once in a while and take back my brain and life. For me, it might mean doing less at work and school - to be able to respond to God's leading and pulling. Simplicity in effect strips down the excess to make room for God.
Now the danger is that simplicity for myself can become stinginess - my very own Scrooge! There has to be something more to simplicity and I sense that it's the most valuable spiritual gift of this century...