Consumerism is an economics of excess, waste and deceit. It relies on consumers' irrationality in order to arouse consumerist sentiments.
Consumerism controls our desires
Bauman: In a consumer society, what is produced after each consumption is not satisfaction, but more consumption desires. To achieve this effect, consumer goods are denigrated and devalued before they can satisfy desires.
Consumerism controls our sense of time
Bauman: Consumerism encourages us to consume our current goals quickly, making us feel that every moment is a new beginning. Once we miss it, we will never come back again. Hesitation and hesitation will only make people painful.
Consumerism controls the meaning of our lives
Bauman: Consumerism sets happiness as the sole criterion for judging everything and treats unhappiness as a punishable crime. It promises people that consumption can give people immediate and sustainable happiness.
Open this book and gain immunity against consumerism instantly!
Reader comments
Zygmunt tore apart the core pretense of consumer society: it simplified the relationship between people and commodities into the interaction of "Cartesian subject and object", but used the "inherently outdated" commodity logic to continuously generate new needs and new desires, trapping individuals in a cycle of chasing instant experiences. Social networks are supposed to be carriers of emotional connections, but instead they have become a "display ground" for personal information. People would rather immerse themselves in controllable virtual sharing than face the unknown and complexity of real social interactions, using information exchange to escape true self-exposure.
Its erosion has extended to the emotional and family fields, materializing love and replacing carefully managed intimate relationships with commodities. The dual pressure of work and consumption has caused mental alienation between individuals and family scenes. People lack the patience to deal with trivial conflicts in the family, and have lost the accumulation of the past and plans for the future in the "eternal present". The essence of consumerist manipulation is to use short-term material satisfaction to cover up spiritual emptiness, causing individuals to gradually lose their ability to love and be loved and the courage to face life in the process of chasing commodities.
Zygmunt tore apart the core pretense of consumer society: it simplified the relationship between people and commodities into the interaction of "Cartesian subject and object", but used the "inherently outdated" commodity logic to continuously generate new needs and new desires, trapping individuals in a cycle of chasing instant experiences. Social networks are supposed to be carriers of emotional connections, but instead they have become a "display ground" for personal information. People would rather immerse themselves in controllable virtual sharing than face the unknown and complexity of real social interactions, using information exchange to escape true self-exposure. Its erosion has extended to the emotional and family fields, materializing love and replacing carefully managed intimate relationships with commodities. The dual pressure of work and consumption has caused mental alienation between individuals and family scenes. People lack the patience to deal with trivial conflicts in the family, and have lost the accumulation of the past and plans for the future in the "eternal present". The essence of consumerist manipulation is to use short-term material satisfaction to cover up spiritual emptiness, causing individuals to gradually lose their ability to love and be loved and the courage to face life in the process of chasing commodities.