Nowadays, it became very fashionable, on the part of beret-wearing, whale-protecting, and tree-hugging neo-Liberals, to blame consumerism for just about all the evils in the world. However, it cannot escape our attention that they prefer doing it, while drinking organic coffee at Starbucks, which significantly reduces the validity of their claims – those who would not be able to survive for even as little as few days, outside of “consumerist comfort”, closely associated with Western civilization, are the least qualified to talk on how people would benefit from limiting their consumerist appetites. At the same time, it can hardly be argued that the practice of accumulating material riches, as something that has value in itself, which characterizes the existential mode of majority of Americans, is counter-productive, because it turns people into the mindless robots. Therefore, it would only be naturally, on our part, to suggest that the problem does not reside in consumerism as an abstract concept, but in the fact that, over the course of years, the very essence of this concept has been transformed into something opposite, from what it originally used to be.
If we look at the concept of consumerism from historical perspective, it will appear that originally, the issue of consumerism has not been discussed within a context of analyzing what defines one’s lifestyle, as it is the case nowadays, but solemnly as the mean of boosting country’s industrial production. After the end of WW2, U.S. was able to enhance the effectiveness of its economy by increasing citizens’ buying power. This was being done with the mean of infusing America’s economy with monetary emissions, which in its turn, increased such citizens’ power. In its turn, citizens’ increased ability to buy industrial products in ever-bigger quantities stimulated the continuous economic progress in America. By continuing to work hard, people were ending up with more earned money on their hands, which they were willing to spend on acquiring things that could hardly be described as essential for their physical survival. America was the country, where TVs, fridges and cars ceased to have a status of luxury items, for the first time in history. However, the continuous process of citizens’ enrichment could only benefit them for as long as they were remaining in possession of specific spiritual quality, which allowed their ancestors to turn America into richest and most powerful country on Earth – existential idealism. Idealistic people think of their material possessions as rather the mean of accomplishing something greater, than simply the very purpose of their existence. However, ever since the racial homogeneity of Western societies began to be undermined by promoters of neo-Liberal agenda, more and more citizens in Western countries started to grow increasingly incapable of thinking about their personal welfare as being secondary to the welfare of societies where they lived. The same socio-political trends could be observed in Roman Empire, during the time of its decline – slowly but surely, Roman citizens were turning into bunch of degenerates, solemnly preoccupied with indulging in perverse sex and with attending gladiator fights. From sixties onwards, American consumerism ceased to benefit this country politically and economically, while beginning to simply serve as synonym to the concept of materialistic narrow-mindedness. Americans were beginning to question themselves – why work hard, if so much more money could be made by the mean of financial speculations, selling drugs, or by simply suing employers over their “sexism” or “racism”? Hollywood movies of the period were promoting the effects of people’s biological and intellectual degradation by encouraging citizens to think that there was nothing wrong with seeking instant gratification, on their part. The very concept of “American dream” ceased to be associated with the abstract notion of freedom, while being transformed into conceptual equivalent for blind pursuit of riches. It is only when Americans became strongly convinced that the process of generating commercial profit does not have to be related to the process of manufacturing, which created metaphysical precondition for the emergence of post-industrial concept of consumerism, as we know it. It is namely this concept that is worthy of being criticized. However, those who criticize it from left-wing anarchist perspective do not understand that people can never reconsider their consumerist behaviour, simply because of sheer “evilness” of such behaviour. It never occurs to New Age “lefties” that their propaganda of “anti-consumerism” and their continuous attempts to promote the notion of “environmental friendliness”, as opposed to “capitalist greediness”, can never have any effect whatsoever, because the majority of Americans, marked by their strong consumerist attitudes, are simply incapable of operating with highly abstract categories, such as “morality”, “common good” or “intellectual enlightenment”, as the result of being deprived of existential idealism on biological level. All they care about is making their way to the nearest Wal-Mart, cashing in their food stamps, buying plenty of cheap food for themselves and for their numerous children, then coming back to their “projects”, where they sit in front of TV, while watching ball game 24/7. Once they run out of food, they take “loser cruiser” to Wal-Mart, and so it goes on and on. This is where the very roots of modern American consumerism are hidden. Therefore, it is quite pointless to talk about the evils of such consumerism, without understanding that this concept cannot be discussed outside of contemporary realities of living in multicultural America.
The issue of consumerism concerns us all and some of its aspects are just too pressing to be ignored. We no longer buy things because we really need them, but because we are being convinced by Medias that we really need them. Many of us no longer want to remain ourselves, because fashion models and movie stars, featured in countless magazines, look as anything but us. “I want to be her!” – this is a secret desire of those millions of women that are being addicted to reading fashion magazines, despite the fact that they do not look exactly as Auschwitz’ survivors. We are dependent on possession of things that many people in Third World countries have never heard of.
However, it would be wrong to deny consumerism altogether. After all, it is people’s natural desire to improve their lives, which served as the driving force behind capitalist economics, up until comparatively recent times. Therefore, we can conclude that there is nothing wrong about consumerism, for as long as it does not assume pathologic subtleties. Unfortunately, the objective reality points out to the fact that consumerist urges of many citizens in Western countries actually define the way they act, which in its turn, can be thought of as nothing but very clear indication of these people’s existential inadequateness. When people become too preoccupied with buying things, they cease to think of themselves as integral elements of the nation they belong to, and we all know what happens as a result. When hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the majority of hurricane victims in the affected areas could not think of anything but looting. Some of them would rather drown then to let go boxes with Mp3 players, they have stolen from stores. Every prolonged electrical blackout in large American cities results in these cities being reduced into the battleground of everybody against everybody. Consumerist instinct is a like a gold – it makes weak people weaker, and strong people stronger. Therefore, those that are being deprived of existential idealism from the time of their birth, will never be able to subject their buying irrationality to their sense of rationale (they rarely possess such sense). People preoccupied with consumerism can hardly benefit this nation. However, their materialistic greediness does not point out at them as intentionally malicious individuals – it simply reflects the degree of these people’s mental inadequateness.
Bibliography
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Skafidas, Michael “Has Materialism Conquered All?”. New Perspectives Quarterly, 24.3 (2007): 50-54.
Wilson, Mark “A Social-Value Analysis of Postmaterialism”. The Journal of Social Psychology.145.2 (2005): 209-224.