Tag Archives: consumerism

The Waste of the Progress

Posted on March 25, 2017 by

The Waste of the Progress While shelf life gets shorter and fashions rotate, Consumption is a skipping rope to leap over a payroll date. Acquire your duds, use and throw them away… The Progress rolls down a slope anyway.   … Continue reading →

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Christmas and conspicuous consumption: “People want something that shows money”

Posted on December 28, 2016 by

The commercialization of Christmas in the light of — and in the wake of — industrial capitalism in the UK and US during the 19th century is a very interesting subject matter. (At the end of this post there four … Continue reading →

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Market is deceitful, and beauty is vain

Posted on August 10, 2016 by

“The rise of consumerism led the body image industries to develop a sure-fire formula for success: promote a thin ideal of beauty that the majority of women can never attain and thereby create virtually infinite demand among consumers. The irony … Continue reading →

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The Alienated Consciousness, Homo Economicus and Capitalism

Posted on September 11, 2015 by

Norman O. Brown, a brilliant American scholar and social philosopher: “The alienated consciousness is correlative with a money economy. Its root is the compulsion to work. This compulsion to work subordinates man to things, producing at the same time confusion in the valuation of … Continue reading →

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I shop therefore I am

Posted on August 1, 2015 by

“I shop therefore I am“                  A work by Barbara Kruger (1987), whose art was influenced by writings of              Walter Benjamin and Pierre Bourdieu.

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You, Soros and Zizek’s “Cultural Capitalism”: We all BUY our redemption from being consumerists

Posted on January 10, 2015 by

In this 10 minute discerning and animated talk, the audio in which is complemented by a visually stunning cartoon, a philosopher Slavoj Zizek discusses how ethics and charity have been co-opted by capitalism, and why this is problematic and amoral. … Continue reading →

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Pope Francis against neoliberalism, finance capitalism, consumerism and inequality

Posted on December 25, 2014 by

In November 2013 Pope Francis issued his first Apostolic Exhortation translated into English as The Joy of the Gospel. Over 224 pages, in remarkably direct and plain, yet plentiful, language, Pope Francis – the first Pope from the Global South … Continue reading →

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Black Friday + Conspicuous consumption (Thorstein Veblen) = “Happiness”

Posted on November 27, 2014 by
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Jerry ‪Seinfeld‬ on ‪consumerism‬, ‪advertising‬ and ‪culture‬ of ‪consumption‬ :-)

Posted on October 19, 2014 by

Jerry Seinfeld: “I love advertising because I love lying… I think spending your life trying to dupe innocent people out of hard-won earnings to buy useless, low-quality, misrepresented items and services is an excellent use of your energy.” (4 min … Continue reading →

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