Consumerism - how do you stop it ?

[CHE with an AK]

Like the plague, it can 'consume' a culture quickly and preys on our worst impulses ...

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[Astarte]

Corporations are like monasteries of the Church of Capitalism, and the products are like the catechisms and dogmas. How can one stand against the one-dimensional society?

[Ocean Seal]

You can't do it really. But it stops itself. When wages fall and people become wary of credit they begin to realize that they don't need the random crap that they are constantly told to buy. Consumerism also stops when people have a strong ideological agenda to boycott something (ie: boycott Israel campaigns). . Get people to start to relate and learn that people are more important than objects and you will get rid of the consumerist culture.However, remember that it is not consumerism that is the main enemy, but capitalism. Consumerism is merely a side effect of capitalism.

[Snacsnoc]

I think being a communist, in a way, leads you away from the materialism that capitalism promotes.

[ZeroNowhere]

Oh, hey, 'The Age of Stupid'! I remember reviewing that movie for a publication once. It lived up to its name.

In any case, I generally couldn't care less about 'consumerism'. I'll leave that to the morally enlightened.

[Thirsty Crow]

Oh, hey, 'The Age of Stupid'! I remember reviewing that movie for a publication once. It lived up to its name.

In any case, I generally couldn't care less about 'consumerism'. I'll leave that to the morally enlightened.

Well, I don't think that consumerism should be viewd solely in these terms (moral ones) since, at least in my opinion, the phenomenon itself functions as a cultural aspect of the general hegemony of capital.

That being said, I do not advocate ascetism in any of its forms.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Worried about consumerism? I would love an iPod or a car - gimme all your stuff if you are against consumerism then :D

Why is consumerism a concern of people in a society where people starve at the same time that food is thrown away or farmers are paid not to grow crops to keep the market profitable?

The problem with consumerism isn't consumption by people - personally I want more people to have more access and to be able to consume more food, better clothes, more books and film and music and so on. The problem is the way capitalism PRODUCES, not how people in capitalism consume. Wasteful shit is made because the capitalists are seeking to invest in things and open new markets, it had little to do with real demand or real use by consumers.

If production were run on the basis of real "popular consumerism" by the working class in a democratic way rather than in the interests of profit, people would probably want to produce things that were useful. So while capitalists create product obsolescence by changing the standard format of movie or audio recordings, changing software and not allowing people to easily upgrade, changing video game consoles every few years, creating fashion trends etc, worker-run production would probably want to make products that could last a long time without being replaced - technology could be more integrated so that any phone or TV or computer system could communicate and read eachothers programming and new updates could be added to existing hardware. Also without the profit motive, more products could be shared - why should every house on the block have an individual lawn-mower when they each use it once a month, for example?

Anyway, "consumerism" doesn't mean much to me, people should and can have access to the best quality things that society can produce - capitalism actually prevents this more than it enables or encourages it.

[SacRedMan]

Consumerism is a drug.

[bailey_187]

i guess we could create a sort of society of scarcity. But then thats not really what communists want tho, unless you're of the Barack variety

[Stranger Than Paradise]

Why are there so many anti-consumerism liberals knocking about?

The desire to consume is healthy and doesn't conflict with communism in any way.

[Babylon the Bright]

Well I think "consumerism" can be looked at in several ways. If your just talking about people wanting to have stuff, there's nothing to stop. If you think of consumerism as market relations being the primary form of social relations, that's a consequence of the logic of capitalism. I think what most people mean by consumerism is the latter, though they usually don't realize it. So they put the problem down to advertising or greed or something like that.

[Mr. Natural]

Inmates of advanced capitalist societies have lost their relations with each other and the natural world and, at capitalism's profitmongering urging, attempt to replace them with commodities. I know; I'm fat.

Hyper consumerism is stopped by stopping capitalism. I'm ready to go on a revolutionary diet.

Marx: "Capitalism not only provides the objects that satisfy needs, but the needs that objects satisfy."

[ZeroNowhere]

Marx: "Capitalism not only provides the objects that satisfy needs, but the needs that objects satisfy."I don't recall if he said that, but it seems somewhat similar to this:


"Production not only provides the material to satisfy a need, but it also provides the need for the material. When consumption emerges from its original primitive crudeness and immediacy – and its remaining in that state would be due to the fact that production was still primitively crude – then it is itself as a desire brought about by the object. The need felt for the object is induced by the perception of the object. An objet d'art creates a public that has artistic taste and is able to enjoy beauty – and the same can be said of any other product. Production accordingly produces not only an object for the subject, but also a subject for the object."

[Wanted Man]

Just like the "average day..." thread: a friendly warning for users not to spam up the Theory forum. It's not required to be all uptight and serious at all times, but completely unsubstantial posts don't belong here.

[Commie73]

I think a problem with anti-consumerism to an extent is that it doesnt wholy understand the concept of need, but also sees the problems of capitalism primarily in consumption and distribution of resources, and not in production. This is why, compared to marxism, the critique of capitalism presented by anti-consumerists is superficial. We have to look at capitalism not simply on its externalities, but analyse capitalism as a class process.

Anti-consumerist ideology in its various forms presents alternatives to the over consumption of modern capitalism - most notably an ethical consumerism, or if anti-consumerism is taken to its extreme, a form of primitivism. The Ethical consumerist alternative is probably the most important to critique now, because it is advocated by a wide range of people, from Supermarkets and International Coffee chains, to activists within many social movements (Fair Trade Coffee is aparently something "anarchists like" if people have seen that blog.) Zizek critiques fair trade, by making the point that it is immoral to try and solve the evils that capitalism creates by using capitalism. However i think serious marxists can make a critique of ethical consumerism through the economic rather than moral lens - here we can mention the relationship of exploitation inherent to capitalism, that surplus value created by the working class is appropriated by the capitalist class in the form of profit, and that this relationship is the same internationaly whether in a shop in the UK or in a factory in china. Instead of focusing on consumption and distribution, we need to look for new ways of organizing production - instead of production for profit, we need production for need, and this need isnt a return to less technologically developed times, need reflects the material conditions of the historical era, I think it is safe to say that in the current era where there is potential to fulfil basic needs, the need for luxury is an acceptable need. I personally like the UK affiliate of Junge Linke - gegen kapital und nation's line of "we need a society with wine and cheese for all."

[Tim Cornelis]

A theory:

Why is there such consumerism?

People, by which I mean the workers, are not in control of their own life. There is consumerism because consuming gives people the idea of self-control as if they are in charge to compensate for the actuality that they are not on control at all. Perhaps?

[Luís Henrique]

You stop consumerism by stopping capitalism.

And trying to stop consumerism without uprooting capitalism can only add more unhappiness to our lives.

Luís Henrique

[Vanguard1917]

What an irritating video. If that's anti-capitalism, it's the anti-capitalism of fools. So poor countries should stay poor (and should not even aspire to the - at best - modest standards of living of the average American), 'cos otherwise we would need "three planets"? Using a childish voice does not make such eco-bullshit any less reactionary.

[Arlekino]

I think if we stop consuming capitalist take the guns on us.

[-marx-]

I see over consumption in the same way as what religion is to the theist. It is their opium for a shitty existence under capitalism. The capitalists promote over consumption, in fact they push it like hell... we are flooded with advertisements 24/7 to buy shit we don't need and to continually "upgrade" when our existing stuff is still fine.
Sure, the capitalists main gaol is to make money from our consumption but at the same time if they don't promote consumption they don't make as much money. They have a definite agenda and over consumption is part of it.

When people own far more stuff than they can practically ever use, like 100 pairs of shoes or 5 PCs, or 200 guitars (I know of one guy with this many) etc, it seems to me it acts like the theists opium in keeping the individual dull, numb and devoid of any revolutionary thought/tendencies whatsoever.

We all need to consume and it is healthy to do so, however excess in anything and pre-occupation of thought with non productive actions can be damaging.