Anticonsommation

The anticonsommation , rejection of consumption, was born from the increasing concern of the consumers. Acts of purchase and use of goods often considered as unwise behaviors, course of consumption in the schools states-uniennes are as many events which increased the concern of the consumers with respect to the multinationals. The anticonsumerist is to be put in parallel with activism anticorporatism, environmental (protection of nature, right of the animals, ecological consequences of the industrial activity) and the movements antimondialisation, in particular in their judgment of the practices of the multinationals (see the business McLibel). Many works ( No Logo of Naomi Klein, left in 2000, is the best example) and of films ( The Corporation , Surplus ) proposes with the public arguments anticorporatists and anticonsumerists, as before them, the American actor Bill Hicks or the Italian intellectual Pier Paolo Pasolini.

The opposition to the economic Matérialisme has primarily two origins: the Religion and social activism. The religions are opposed to the materialism for primarily two reasons: it interferes in connection with the divine one and leads to an immoral lifestyle. For certain social activists, the wars, the crimes and the general social unrest are related to certain aspects of the materialism because it is unable to offer a healthy raison d'être to the human existence.

Origin

The anticonsommation is often associated with criticisms of consumption, that they are those of Karl Marx or Thorstein Veblen which, in the Théorie of the Class of the Leisures , makes go up the origin of consumption to the first human civilizations. Consumption is also associated with economic policies, the such economic theory Keynésienne. In a more abstract direction, it refers to the belief that the free choice of the consumers must dictate the economic structure of the company (see Productivisme, particularly in the English direction of the term).

Policy and company

The activists anticorporatists believe that the increase in the large companies is a threat with the legitimate authority of the State-nation and public sphere. They have the feeling which these companies invaded the life private of the individuals, handled the politicians and the governments and created useless needs in the consumers. The evidence which validates this belief includes intrusive publicity (Adware, Spam, Télémarketing, etc), the massive contributions of the multinationals to the democratic elections, the interferences in the sovereign policies of State-nations (see for example Ken Saro-Wiwa) and the ceaseless world stories about the corruption of company (Martha Stewart and Enron for example). For the opponents anticonsumerists, the only responsibility for the multinationals is to answer the shareholders, having towards the human rights and the other problems almost no consideration. In practice, the responsibility for the executive of a limited liability company is committed only towards its shareholders, since any philanthropic activity which does not serve the businesses directly, can be regarded as a breach of trust. This type of financial responsibility means that the multinationals can pursue their strategy of intensification and flexibility of work and reduction of the costs. For example, they will try (either directly, or by the means of subcontractors) to find countries where the salary costs are weak and the lenient laws on the human rights, environment, trade-union organizations, etc (see for example Nike Inc.)

Conspicuous consumption

This term is often used in a critical way to describe the tendency which have the people to be strongly identified with the goods and services that they consume, especially with the high-class products, indicating a high social status (jewels of luxury, big car, etc). The products are not seen like objects having an intrinsic value, but rather like social signals, they make it possible to the consumers to be easily identified with the people having same consumption. The majority of the people deny to have a conspicuous consumption by using the argument which they “are obliged to consume”. Moreover, little from people, for the moment, go until admitting that their relationship with a product or a mark replaces healthy human reports/ratios, reports/ratios which would be lacking in the modern societies in dysfunction. A company with a high rate of consumption is called a consumer society or company consumerist. Marx explained why the capitalist economy, instead of focusing itself on their market price, led to a fetichisation of the goods and services and to a devaluation of their value.

The older expression of “conspicuous consumption” was spread in the Sixties to describe consumption in the United States, but it was quickly attached to more important debates about the theory of the media, the Culture jamming and its corollary, the productivism. Appeared with the turning of the 20th century, in the work of Thorstein Veblen, the concept of “conspicuous consumption” is described like an irrational and disconcerting form economic behavior. Viktor Frankl takes again an argument of Veblen while suggesting, that in the United States, behind consumption, there is an extension of the desire of “bread-winner”, argument included more recently in the book of the Canadian authors Joseph Heat and Andrew Potter consumed Révolte .

Criticisms

Although there is no precisely intellectual movement to promote the consumerism, there was, in the recent years, of strong critics of the movement anticonsommation, which could lead by Rigorisme to prohibitions blaming individual freedom.

In particular the attacks libertariennes against the movement anticonsumerist are largely based on perception that such a movement leads to the elitism. The libertariens have the conviction that nobody has the right to decide for the others, to say which goods are “necessary” to the life of the every day and those which are not it. For them, the anticonsumerism is a precursory sign of a centralized planning and a totalitarian company. For example, according to the American review Reason, in 1999, the Marxist academies became anticonsumerists.

On another side, many which is those see the anticonsumerism like a lifestyle choice personal, more than like a political belief.

The partisans of a balanced regulation say that is with the governments to legislate in order to restrict the actions of the companies (see the business Sarbanes-Oxley) and to punish their leaders systematically when they violate the laws. Nevertheless, the bureaucratic structures and the capitalist economic imperatives can lead to detrimental behaviors at the local communities, paid and the environment.

See too

Adbusters
Altermondialisme
national Happiness gross
Contreculture
Decrease
Diversion
the Distinction
voluntary Rigorism
Simplicity

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