The bankruptcy of the mass consumer society
October 19th, 2006I my humble opinion is, that we have arrived at the end point of mass consumption, mass media, mass everything. I think this is the beginning of a very long trend, but I think that traditional notions of consumerism are exhausted the end of the mass media belle epoque – and we are arriving at a slow conclusion that there must be more to life than plastic shopping bags. That is the result of economic success.
In Kingdom Come – J.G. Ballard writes,
“If you can smell the motorway, you’re in the real England,”
The motorway in question is the M25, whose satellite towns make up a St George-flag-toting, casually racist Albion where to be a consumer is to be a citizen; where ownership of a loyalty card represents membership of humanity itself; and where spiritual experience takes the form of retail epiphany. As one typically lucid, socially-fascinated character observes of his fellow-citizens: “We’re all children today. Like it or not, only consumerism can hold a modern society together… Societies are happier when people spend, not save.”
J.G. Ballard is known to be very prescient with his observations on society and culture. Below Ballard discusses his ideas and theories with Melvin Bragg. The question is this, if, we define ourselves as consumers in the manner in which Ballard describes us, and, if that world is bankrupt, where does that leave credit card waving Britain? Is not the p2p society a contrast, and antidote to Ballard’s deepest fears?
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2 Responses to “The bankruptcy of the mass consumer society”
By David Cushman on Oct 20, 2006
Since we’re considering fine authors and their social commentaries…
ok a bit off topic perhaps, but…
If George Orwell saw how kids now write (eg http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=6966230 ) , would he believe sms text messaging was introduced as an instrument of thought control?
Sorry, probably old ground
By alan moore on Oct 20, 2006
Hi David,
Its an interesting question. Is txt messaging an instrument of thought control. I wonder if it is about speed of communication?
Is our language morphing into something else?
Seeing kids constantly texting, e-mailing, chatting, and blogging flies in the face of an idea of an explosion of illiteracy. It looks more like the spread of a sort of individual literacy.
As long as the people who receive the message understand it, what else is language for?
Language is one more strategy of disconnection and youth languages are creating vast swathes of culture that are unintelligible to people who like to think of themselves as literate
Your reference is interesting – and the person in question maybe a bit low on the old IQ. BUt I do think there is a broader issue at the heart of this.
What is culture? what is language? Are all existing traditional frameworks now unable to serve this younger generation. Their belief in their right to self-determination, means everything is up for grabs.
Hope that helps