RE: How are we pressured to consume in today's society?

[TSBU]

The corporate entities will not be satisfied until the earth is complete squeezed dry of all its resources, not a sinlge wild animal is free to roam and the climate is out of control, so that the earth shall turn into a desert, with polluted seas, with strange mutant creatures struggling for life.

And without an untouchable enlightened global government to control consumption the human race is doomed to destroy itself.

I think you've played too much fallout.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI5hrcwU7Dk

[Conde Lucanor]

That is why it is not really a commodity in the same way as all others.

The "not really in the same way" discussions lead nowhere. Labor is treated as a commodity in the market, it has use value and exchange value.

Women do most of the work around the world, and many work for no money.

That just means another form of exploitation not directly linked to capitalists mode of production. No wonder why in societies where the capitalist mode of production has deepened its roots, it has become a social need to "liberate" women from previous forms of oppression, in order to increase proletarization.

But truly alienated Labour is slavery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPNaaogT8fs

[Terrapin Station]

I'm not at all a fan of anti-consumerism, so definitely I'm not going to think that consumption is somehow unethical.

Anti-consumerists believe a lot of completely dubious crap about advertising, too.

[Hobbes' Choice]

I'm not at all a fan of anti-consumerism, so definitely I'm not going to think that consumption is somehow unethical.

Anti-consumerists believe a lot of completely dubious crap about advertising, too.

My brother has just gone into hospital with heart failure. I'm taking the opportunity to raid his apartment to clean it up. He has hoarded so many things that it has not been cleaned in several years and access to the bath, the kitchen sink and just about anywhere is fraught with problems. This filth has made him ill. He has blown his inheritance on shoes, stamps, bulk purchases of tobacco, D&D figurines, and DC comics: so much so that you can barely move in the dust and dirt caked over with smoking tar which lines the walls, the floors and the furniture. His collection of postage stamps is so large that it is going to fill 3 large (140litre) storage boxes. Don't get me started on the shoes!!
I defy you to spend ten minutes there are come out telling me consumerism is a good idea.

I popped into my local DIY shop and the choice of storage boxes, shelves and etc is bewildering. All this to cater to the shopping magpies who fill their homes with shit; their lofts with shit; and their sheds with shit; stored against a rainy day because they have convinced themselves that they are going to live forever and might need that shit at some point in the future. They store and save and grow old afflicted with the pressure sell, the onslaught of buy, buy, buy. The myth that the more you have the happier you must be. They sell you the shit you think you need, but don't even want. then they sell you a fucking box so you do not even have to look at it.

What does all this achieve except an accelerated destruction of the world's resources?

[Conde Lucanor]

I'm not at all a fan of anti-consumerism, so definitely I'm not going to think that consumption is somehow unethical.

Anti-consumerists believe a lot of completely dubious crap about advertising, too.

There's no capitalism without consumption. The constant process of creating and renovating "artificial" needs is inherent to capitalism and you wouldn't have all the advantages of today's advanced, highly technological society, without it. The option would be to forget about computers, airplanes, urban development, etc., and go back to the social conditions of medieval Europe or Pre-Hispanic America, not their romanticized versions, but the real tough, unmerciful, cold-hearted conditions.

But of course, idealizing today's conditions would be a bigger mistake. The real option is to surpass capitalism.