"Consumer Society" is a classic masterpiece of the French philosopher Baudrillard, this book is not only a must-read classic to understand consumer culture, but also provides a very good perspective for us to understand many political, economic and cultural phenomena today. "Consumer Society" is Baudrillard's work in the 70s of the 20th century, in the fifties and sixties of the 20th century, European and American Western societies experienced rapid social and economic development after World War II, and were in the ** era of great material abundance, but Baudrillard made a deep analysis of the consumerist trap behind this prosperity.
Although this book is an analysis of the consumerist society in the West at that time, it is actually very suitable for us today. Because we are in a consumer society, with rapid social and economic development and a great improvement in material life, the trap of consumerism is no stranger to us today, and even more so than Europe and the United States in the 20th century. With the popularity of mobile payment and e-commerce, "buying, buying, buying" has become a habit, and we are falling deeper and deeper into the trap of consumerism. How exactly is consumerism formed, and what is the essence of consumerism? Next, I will share the core content of this book in combination with our current social reality.
Before sharing this book specifically, let's take a look at the background information of this book, which is Baudrillard's second book in the strict sense, in which Baudrillard proposes that people living in capitalist society are becoming more and more functional people because they are surrounded by things. As a product of human activities, objects created by us not only fail to serve people, but in turn surround and besiege people, and alienate people. This is very similar to Marx's alienation of labor, which alienates people, and in fact, Baudrillard's early thought was also deeply influenced by Marx's thought. Marx believed that commodity production is the exploitation of laborers, while Baudrillard believed that consumerism is the control and enslavement of consumers.
In Both The System of Things and The Consumer Society, Baudrillard continues the critique of the consumer society, in which objects or commodities become a symbol of consumption power and social status, and the entire social culture is based on consumption, not production. In Marx's time, in the early capitalist society, it was production labor that drove social development, and with the development of capitalism, social and economic development gradually changed from production-driven to consumption-driven. Consumption drives demand, demand drives production, and then pushes the social economy into a positive cycle, which is the regular economic policy of all countries today. Consumption has become the most important force driving socio-economic development, and this is at the macro level. To put it simply, there has been a shift from a productive society to a consumer-oriented society.
So how did this shift happen? This brings us to the unprecedented economic crisis experienced by Europe and the United States in the 30s of the 20th century. Before the 20th century, the industrial age was an era of material scarcity, and it was production that restricted social development, so it was necessary to expand production, and "production" was the core and standard in economic activities, and economic activities were carried out with "production" as the center, and how to improve productivity and productivity was the core issue. The post-industrial era, especially the economic crisis that began in 1929, was a turning point in the birth of a consumer society.
The economic crisis of the 1929s was the most protracted, deepest and most serious periodic world economic crisis in economic history, and this crisis had a huge impact on Western capitalist society. And a very important cause of this economic crisis: overproduction. The fundamental contradiction of Western capitalism in the past was the contradiction between unlimited productive forces and limited consumption power. In the past, enterprises thought that the more production would be more profit, and the goal was to improve productivity, so they would make more money, but later found that they could not sell a lot of goods produced, and people were relatively poor and their consumption power was insufficient.
Economist John Maynard Keynes attributed the root cause of the economic crisis to oversupply and insufficient effective demand, and Keynesianism began to prevail, one of the core ideas of Keynesianism was to advocate that the state adopt expansionary economic policies to promote economic growth by increasing demand and stimulating consumption. As a result, consumption has become prominent at the core of economic activities, from how to improve productivity and how to increase production to how to guide, encourage, stimulate, and even create consumption. Therefore, we can simply understand that before the economic crisis of 1929, there was a production-oriented industrial society, and then there was a consumption-oriented post-industrial society. More importantly, this shift in economic strategy is also accompanied by a shift in social consumption ethics, from the ascetic Protestant ethic pursued in the industrial age to the post-industrial era: the consumption ethic.
What is the Protestant ethic and the ethic of consumption? The Protestant ethic of asceticism began with the Reformation in the 16th century, and Max Weber has an in-depth analysis of his classic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In simple terms, it is the social, ethical, and spiritual core of early capitalism. Under the guidance of this spirit, asceticism and abstinence were widely practiced, and it was widely believed that it was an obligation to work for God and accumulate wealth, and that the suppression of individual pleasures and the satisfaction of needs was regarded as a means of saving one's soul. No laziness, no luxury, no waste, and hard work are regarded as virtues. On the contrary, non-participation in labor, lack of active work, lack of effort, excessive pleasure, excessive consumption and extravagance are considered moral evils.
But the economic crisis of 1929 had a huge impact on these values, especially the economic system with "production and creation" at its core. It was found that production was no longer a problem, but that the problem was insufficient consumption. Therefore, in Keynesianism, as long as it can promote economic growth and promote the growth of wealth, it does not matter if it is extravagant consumption or even waste, so luxury and even waste are no longer regarded as an evil, but as a good. In the whole economic and social activities, consumption has replaced production as the core content and ultimate goal, and consumption-based has replaced the ascetic Protestant ethic and become the new social ethic.
In the era of consumer ethics, consumption behavior for personal pleasure is no longer denounced or suppressed, but encouraged and supported by national policies and financial systems such as credit systems and installment payments. Consumption has become the guarantee of national economic growth, and it is also regarded as the obligation of citizens, and even exaggerated as a patriotic responsibility. In fact, today, China encourages the birth of three children, encourages everyone to spend on holidays, encourages young people to get married and buy houses, etc., and the core logic behind it is also to encourage consumption, hoping to promote social and economic development through consumption.
In the West, under the influence of the new consumption ethic, with the emergence of various credit systems, people generally began to consume in advance, and people's lifestyles have undergone fundamental changes. It's the same as many of us today, just after the monthly salary is paid, we have to pay off all kinds of mortgages, car loans and credit cards.
This transformation is not achieved overnight, and the emergence and formation of consumer society and consumer ethics have gone through more than half a century, and great changes have taken place at all levels such as economy, politics, social ethics, and values. In economic activity, consumption is no longer an end in itself, expansion is the end of production, consumption becomes an end in itself. In social ethics, consumption, even overconsumption, is seen as justified. In the past, we advocated that "labor is the most glorious", but today "the consumer is God". In the culture of consumerism, life is short, and it becomes legitimate and reasonable to be happy in time, while on the contrary, frugality, hard work, and simple lifestyles are despised, and even labeled as conservative, mediocre, stubborn, and even stupid and failure.
Although under the influence of our traditional culture, our society still pursues rational consumption, opposes extravagance and waste, and encourages hard work, but most people who fall into consumerism have obviously accepted and identified with consumer culture, and it is difficult to resist the coercion and impact of consumer ethics, and traditional culture and spirit have become vulgar and boring. The ethics and values of the whole society have changed from the most glorious labor to the fact that consumers are God. In the past, we put up posters of laborers all over the streets, but today, you can see that the posters and advertisements in our streets and alleys have been replaced by all kinds of handsome guys and beauties, immersed in the pleasures of consumerism. But if we look closely, we will find that we are born with a love to buy, buy, buy? Not necessarily, as Schopenhauer said: we can do what we want, but we can't think what we think.
So how did we fall into the trap of consumerism step by step, for more exciting content, please like and collect and follow me, and we will see you in the next issue.