Citizen vs. Consumer

In chapter 5 of Dryzek's Politics, he mentions Mark Sagoff, and his theory on the individual and the consumer. Dryzek states that “Sagoff believes that every individual has two kinds of preferences: as a consumer and as a citizen. These preferences may point in quite different directions for the same individual.”
This idea was like a slap in the face, because it made so much sense. It seems to encompass all of a person’s actions: there is what our conscience feels, and what we usually do, what we want, and what we are frequently told we want. Unfortunately, this consumer seems to have taken over our lifestyles, and the citizen is left to shrivel up and emerge only in the form of a reusable grocery bag.
Although this example is used in terms of Democratic Pragmatism, I think that it would work in any environmental theory. Green-washing is but one example of this natural disposition to do good, even if that is only because it looks cool. Could we use this green-washing movement to its full potential? It would be amazing to have teenagers recycling, reducing their water usage, or giving money to an environmental organization because it’s cool.
I think that making environmental concern a cool social movement could be as longstanding as blue jeans: it began as the movement to rebel, and is now completely mainstream, with its unique fabric permeating not only every type of clothing but anything that could possibly be made of cloth. So, too, should the fabric of environmentalism define us as a culture, or even as a people, or as a population.
But blue jeans have become a timeless icon because it is the consumer that wanted them. Why is it that the citizen is so much harder to harness than the consumer? If Gundersen’s “Latent positive dispositions” towards environmentalism are indeed there, wouldn’t environmentalism catch on like wildfire? Perhaps bringing people to discuss environmental issues could bring power to this natural disposition as it did in his studies. It’s better to argue about how to save the earth than whether or not to.
It seems to me that this dichotomy between conscience and actions is destructive. If there were a way to combine these two distinct personas into one conscientious consumer, this would be ideal. And the only way I see this happening is education.