(Jody Gray) this Blog Post is part of my personal research -Origins -understanding how what exists today came to exist; and, Why are you my enemy? This topic, relates to human behavior as a result of Socialization and Indoctrination (Ideology)...
*Consumer [https://en.wikipedia.] is a social and economic order and ideology that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. With the industrial revolution, but particularly in the 20th century, mass production led to an economic crisis: there was overproduction -the supply of goods would grow beyond consumer demand, and so manufacturers turned to planned obsolescence and advertising to increase consumer spending. Early criticism of consumerism (1899) examined the middle class emerging at the turn of the 20th century, which came to fruition by the end of the 20th century through the process of globalization.
In economics, “consumerism” may refer to economic policies which emphasise consumption. In an abstract sense, it is the consideration that the free choice of consumers should strongly orient the choice by manufacturers of what is produced and how, and therefor orient the economic organization of a society… In this sense, consumerism expresses the idea not of “one man, one voice”, but of “one dollar, one voice”, which may or may not reflect the contribution of people to society. “In the almost complete absence of other sustained macro-political and social narrative - concern about global climate change notwithstanding - the pursuit of the ‘good life’ through practices of what is known as ‘consumerism’ has become one of the dominant global social forces, cutting across differences of religion, class, gender, ethnicity and nationality. It is the other side of the dominant ideology of market globalism and is central to what Manfred Steger calls the ‘global imaginary’.
Overview. Since consumerism began, various individuals and groups have consciously sought an alternative lifestyle… In many critical contexts, consumerism is used to describe the tendency of people to identify strongly with products or services they consume, especially those with commercial brand names and perceived status symbolism appeal, e.g. a luxury car, designer clothing, or expensive jewelry. Consumerism can take extreme forms such that consumers sacrifice significant time and income not only to purchase but also to actively support a certain firm or brand.
In 1955, economist Victor Lebow stated: “Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate.”
…(2009, New Scientist magazine) human beings, despite considering themselves civilized thinkers, are “subconsciously still driven by an impulse for survival, domination and expansion… an impulse which now finds expression in the idea that inexorable economic growth is the answer to everything, and, given time, will redress all the world’s existing inequalities.” ...Ecological Society of America, human society is in a “global overshoot”, consuming 30% more material than is sustainable from the world’s resources… 85 countries are exceeding their domestic “bio-capacities”, and compensate for their lack of local material by depleting the stocks of other countries, which have a material surplus due to their lower consumption.
Furthermore, some theorists are concerned with the place commodity takes in the definition of one’s self… the term “commodity self” to describe an identity built by the goods we consume. For example, people often identify as PC or Mac users, or define themselves as a Coke drinker rather than Pepsi. The ability to choose one product out of an apparent mass of others allows a person to build a sense of “unique” individuality, despite the prevalence of Mac users or the nearly identical tastes of Coke and Pepsi. By owning a product from a certain brand, one’s ownership becomes a vehicle of presenting an identity that is associated with the attitude of the brand. The idea of individual choice is exploited by corporations that claim to sell “uniqueness” and the building blocks of an identity. The invention of the commodity self is a driving force of consumerist societies, preying upon the deep human need to build a sense of self.
…(anti-consumerists) argue against increasing the consumption of resources beyond what is environmentally sustainable… consumers are often unaware of the negative environmental impacts of producing many modern goods and services, and that the extensive advertising industry only serves to reinforce increasing consumption…
Consumerism as cultural ideology.
In the 21st century’s globalized economy, consumerism has become a noticeable part of the culture… “First, capitalism entered a qualitatively new globalizing phase in the 1950s. As the electronic revolution got underway, significant changes began to occur in the productivity of capitalist factories, systems of extraction and processing or raw materials, product design, marketing and distribution of goods and services… Second, the technical and social relations that structured the mass media all over the world made it very easy for new consumerist lifestyles to become the dominant motif for these media, which became in time extraordinarily effective vehicles for the broadcasting of the culture-ideology of consumerism globally.”
The success of the consumerist cultural ideology can be witnessed all around the world. People rush to the mall to buy products and end up spending money with their credit cards, thus locking themselves into the financial system of capitalist globalization.
See also.
- Horace Kallen philosopher
- Post-materialism (economics)
- The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
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*Anthropological theories of value.
*Anthropological theories of value [https://en.wikipedia.] attempt to expand on the traditional theories of value used by economists or ethicists… The basic premise is that economic activities can only be fully understood in the context of the society that creates them. The concept of “value” is a social construct, and as such is defined by the culture using the concept. Yet we can gain some insights into modern patterns of exchange, value, and wealth by examining previous societies. An anthropological approach to economic processes allows us to critically examine the cultural biases inherent in the principles of modern economics. Anthropological linguistics is a related field that looks at the terms we use to describe economic relations and the ecologies they are set within. Many anthropological economists are reacting against what they see as the portrayal of modern society as an economic machine that merely produces and consumes.
Mauss and Malinowski wrote about objects that circulate in society without being consumed. Bataille wrote about objects that are destroyed, but not consumed. Owens talks about objects of value that are neither circulating nor consumed (e.g. gold reserves, warehoused paintings, family heirlooms).
Human activities that are not consumption, in the narrow sense of simply purchasing something, and are not production, in the sense of creating or modifying something intended for sale or exchange, namely: cooking a meal (necessary nutrition) playing in a band (instrument doesn’t need perpetual replenishing), watching television, falling in love, reading (if using libraries, purchasing used), listing to music, going to a museum or gallery, taking a photograph, gardening (necessary nutrition), writing, exercising, acting, teaching, playing games, sex, attending religious service, looking at old photos...
(Jody Gray) I disagree with some examples, that are related to consuming (purchasing the product you are using) dressing and undressing (within the concept of not being seen in the same thing and purchasing trend items), applying makeup…
Criticisms. Economists typically use the term consumption in a way that is far broader than merely purchasing something. It is quite common to talk about the consumption of time. Many of the items on this list can still be considered either production or consumption, or to involve production or consumption at some stage to be accomplished.
See also.
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