Consumer Society
Do you know
why people love to buy something they don’t need? Spends money for things that
never use, consumes something they really don’t like to eat? Regarding to this
problems, after industrial revolution in England and the beginning of modern
culture, people don’t aware of anything about the industrial impact and it
influences to the world civilization. The most frightening impact of industrial
development and the spreading of it ideas are about influencing the human
behaviors to buy, to consume, and to perform. Jean Boudrillard said to this
condition with ‘consumer society’.
Sociologically,
the industrial development stimulates to economic development, prosperity and
mechanical reproduction. It is gradually makes people or world become
prosperous and his buying capacity which commodities they want easily gotten.
Because they have money, actually. Latter, either personal or group in a company,
have the right to enrich they capital asset and build their opportunity to
build economic development. The exchange of commodities object as the principal
of economic development becomes something that unavoidable. This period named
as capital economy that becomes something critical.
Jean
Boudrillard, as a Marxist commentator toward capitalism--but he gradually
abandoned Marxist method because of the inappropriate theory in reading of the
development of capitalism today--argue on other effect of economic development.
The system of economic within it object exchange no more use a principle of
classic economic. It is not about simple deal of exchanges but indoctrinating
and influencing people psychologically
and sociologically to feel always lack and less of goods. They forced to buy
every material object and service from the industrial output by monopolistic
system. This is the system that the very newest of the capital system and said
as consumer society.
There are questions
appear related to consumer society term above. The first problem is consumption
as independent or nondependent activity and the second related about
psychological conditioning or do we controlled by any other system of
influence. To read these problems, we really need any perspective through any
critical theories.
We are living
in the new period of the objects. It not about human things anymore as
essential object of living but it is about goods, a foods, and clothing. People
of the previous period feel pleasure and find a value of living in interaction
to another human living. They interacted in knowledge exchange, classic
trading, and find living pleasure in communal perspective. People of consumer
society feel pleasure in individuality. This period begin with goods
accumulation or profusion. We can see everything after we cross our front yard
and streets such department store, factory outlet, or any goods advertising in
billboard and television. We don’t know how to control our willing to buy even
in sleep. Advertisement influences our brain and forces our consciousness as we
need everything to buy. It system of objects even worst with it signification
to any pleasuresness, beauty, femininity, masculinity appears when we buy one
of the products. For this reason, consumption becomes something controlled by
advertisement signification and it influences of our psychological being.
Finally, if
you ever heard the modern philosophical wise as, “You are what you think /
cogito ergo sum” actually has been changed by sentence, “You are what you eat”.
This is period of late capitalism and consumer society where the values of
living is on what you eat. The period where people sleeps even controlled by
exchange values and gods exist in your pocket.
Bahtiar Rifa'I
Jakarta, 10/02/2011
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