Consumerism

From dKosopedia

Category: Economics

Comsumerism is the belief that goods purchased and owned both express and define individual identity. This unconscious or barely conscious idea system is often expressed as competitive consumption of goods, with points informally scored according to the price, quality and quantity.

Assimilative Power

In their 2004 The Rebel Sell, Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter argue that culturally privileged but essentially safe nonconformity rather than conformity actually drives excessive consumer spendign and changes in consumer fashion (pp. 103-104).

In their 1985 book Acid Dreams, Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain write that, "The capacity to absorb its critics is one of the chief characteristics of American capitalism, and one of the keys to its enduring hegemony. Although they begin by posing a symbolic challenge to the status quo, rebellious styles invariably wind up creating new conventions and new options for industry....Rock and roll, drugs, and hip fashion wer all incorporated into the mainstream like so many eggs being folded into the batter" (p. 254).

References

• Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter. 2004. The Rebel Sell. HarperCollins. ISBN 006074586X.
• Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain. 1985. Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, The Sixties, and Beyond. Grove Press. ISBN 0802130623.