Understanding the Modern Consumer Culture
In The Rise of Consumer Society in Britain, John Benson identifies consumer societies as those "in which choice and credit are readily available, in which social value is defined in terms of purchasing power and material possessions, and in which there is a desire, above all, for that which is new, modern, exciting and fashionable." For decades research on the history of consumerism had been winding the clock up to the nineteenth century as the starting point of a culture of consumption that fits Benson’s description. For societies like these to exist, there needed to be a fair portion of the population with enough money to purchase goods beyond daily necessities; there needed to be powerful productive forces to make enough goods available and allow for new strategies of marketing and selling; there also needed to be a tendency among people to start investing social meanings and emotions in the acquisition of goods. Industrialization, these histories tell us, prepared the ground for a consumer culture to develop thanks to malleable markets, large production lines, rise of shopping, advertising, marketing, etc.
In Consumer Culture and Modernity, Don Slater argues against a "productivist bias" which misleads into believing that production is the "engine and essence of modernization" (p. 16). Through a brilliant overview of the literature of revisionist historians, he traces the development of consumer culture from the present day to the early modern period. A consumer revolution, with the characteristics Benson suggested, was emerging as early as the sixteenth century. A new ‘world of goods’ deriving from colonial exploitation led to a wide penetration of consumer goods into the lives and homes of more social classes. Towards the eighteenth century a growing consuming public bred a desire for the new and created new demands and new styles.
Contemporary features of consumer culture existed in the early modern mind, but they were recognizable in different forms. Under the disguise of commerce and trade, not production or consumption, the early modern man came to contact with a new ideology of free exchange, not only of goods and services, but of ideas, opinions, and meanings as well. Consumer culture, according to Slater, is not a reference to a recent phenomenon: it is rather part of a new terminology that came to replace the notion of civil society, which itself is born to modernity. The ideal of autonomous individuals rationally pursuing their interests in a free market – a notion so much cherished within consumer culture – stands at the heart of the project of modernity in the eighteenth century.
The chosen article is Two Cheers for Consumerism by James Twitchell. In this article he talks about consumerism, commercialism, and materialism. He argues the stand point of consumers and the role they live by every day. In other hands the critics, Academy, gives the consumers and overview description to their consumers.
Thomas Frank’s book entitled The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism takes a poignant look at the advertising world of the 1950’s and 1960’s, exploring how advertising played a role in shaping the next generation of consumers. Frank points out that he believes many misunderstand how important the key industries of fashion and advertising were to the shaping of our consumer culture, especially in getting Americans to rethink who they were. The industry of advertising was not conforming to the upcoming generation, instead the new consumer generation was conforming to the ideals of the advertising industry. Frank believes that the advertising and fashion industries were changing, but not to conform to the new generation, instead to shape a new generation of consumers.
...l his people to not fear death and actually to not even care about it at all.
America’s current standard of living is going to cause our demise. Consumerism is a problem throughout Americans culture since mass production began in the late nineteenth century. The obsession with consumerism has led to mindless wastes of resources, a diseased society and economic instability. Rick Wolff, a professor of economics at University of Massachusetts, states “economics of capitalism spread consumerism—now uncontrolled, ecologically harmful, and fiscally disastrous—throughout the United States”. Wolff’s viewpoint on consumerism aligns with mine. Believing that an economy based on promoting endless consumption is volatile and unsustainable. Consumerism can be analyzed and seen to be embedded by corporations and politicians.
‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley is a science-fiction book in which people live in a futuristic society and a place called the World State. In ‘Brave New World’, Aldous Huxley used the idea of consumerism to describe the behaviors and lives of the citizens of the World State. The practice of consumerism by the people of the World State fulfilled their satisfactory and happiness. However, it also blinded purity and truth among its people. Different classes and different genders of people practiced different acts of consumerism such as consuming soma, technology and bodies. They sought happiness from them and eventually these acts became a social norm. However, these practices of consumerism also had side effects. It blinded truth such as
... numerous herbal ingredients which are beneficial to human health; still, it is not directly because of on shark fins.
The Iliad, an epic poem written by Homer during the 8th century, introduces the idea of an individual’s morals and ethics in a war. Throughout the book, many battles take place, where both the Trojans and the Greeks try to show their pride and glory through bloodshed, where Homer starts to discuss the ideas of war and its effects on an individual. Homer displays the idea of how war can dehumanize a person through their actions.
Sharks and humans have interacted with each other for many centuries. Great stories have come from these interactions; in these stories, sharks are usually portrayed as the antagonist. However, in all of actuality, humans are the antagonists. We are lead to believe that sharks are highly dangerous, but humans pose more of a threat to sharks than sharks do to humans. In the asian culture, sharks are finned to make shark fin soup and then they are thrown back into the ocean, alive, finless, and helpless. Shark finning should be banned globally, it is a cruel practice that is causing a decline in the shark population as well as a negative impact to their ecosystem. Recently, there have been organizations and laws that are trying to prevent this
Many theorists suggest that consumption is correlated to the identity of an individual, that by purchasing goods from the mass market, it enables us to visibly establish our position within society. This differs from previous times in which a range of factors such as family histories, character and personal achievements played a significant role (Gabriel and Lang, 2006). Instead, there is the idea that the consumer has the ability to gain pleasure over objects, not just solely by the manipulation of objects, but through the degree of control over their meaning. The degree of control is developed and achieved through imagination and provides greater possibilities of pleasure experiences. This suggests that modern consumption can be seen as device that enables individuals to ‘dream’ about the desires they wish to fulfill. (Campbell, 1989: 79) (Cited in Gabirel & Lang, 2006)
There are many ways we, as humans, slaughter sharks. One of them, and by far the worst one, is by finning the shark. Huge fishing corporations are catching sharks and hacking off their fins. The shark, still alive, is then thrown overboard to die a slow, painful death by either starving, being eaten alive by other fish, or even drowning (Finding… End It). Over 95% of many other species of sharks have been decimated since 1970. Despite the fact that shark finning is illegal in many parts of the world; many other countries still allow the finning of sharks. Shark fins have been on high demand in Asian countries and are being used in soups and medical remedies (Why Are Sharks Endangered). Hong Kong handles 50-80 percent of the world trade in shark fin. United states being one of the biggest suppliers in shark fin (Andrews Why We Need Sharks).
Sassatelli, R. (2007). Consumer Culture: History, Theory and Politics, London: Sage, Page 30, Page 126, Page 132, Page 133
James, Fredric. 1988. "Postmodernism and Consumer Society." In Studies in Culture: An Introductory Reader, ed. Ann Gray and Jim McGuigan. London: Arnold, 1997, pp. 192-205.
Shark fin soup is a popular dish in the Chinese culture and it is mainly served in special events, it consists of a shark fin and chicken. It is mainly consumed by a wealthy minority. Although many people in the chinese culture seem to enjoy this popular delicacy, the shark population is declining, through the process of shark finning. Shark finning begins with the removal of the shark’s fins, once all of the fins are cut out, anything remaining left from the shark is thrown back into the ocean, and the shark is sometimes still left alive. Shark finning should be banned, because it is inhumane, sharks play a major role in the ecosystem, and it is declining the shark population.
Stearns, Peter N. Consumerism in World History : The Global Transformation of Desire. Themes in World History. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2006.
...ting the advancement of others. Racism, caste systems, and patriarchy are additional examples of structural sins that West proposes in his article. Furthermore, West reveals the presence of structural sin in the Bible, specifically seen through Marks gospel. West claims how Jesus addressed a lone scribe, who was “an active part of the temple system” – a system that “oppresses” and “exploits.” It is not until Jesus reminds the lone scribe that there is no distinction between loving of a neighbor and God that he suddenly realizes “the structural dimensions of the temple” “of burnt offerings and sacrifices” (New International Version, Mark 12:32-33). West interpreted this as a realization of “mechanisms of religious control and economic exploitation” in the Temple. Even then did such systems influence and even blind society from seeing what was/is morally acceptable.