The cult of things and the illusion of one's own choice

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

“The prophets of the Old Testament called those who worshiped what they had created with their own hands as idolaters. Their gods were objects made of wood or stone.

The meaning of idolatry lies in the fact that a person transfers everything that he experiences, the power of love, the power of thought, to an object outside himself. Modern man is an idolater, he perceives himself only through things, through what he owns”(Erich Fromm).

The world of things becomes more and more, the person himself next to things becomes less and less. In the 19th century, Nietzsche said "God is dead," in the 21st century, we can say that a person has died, since by things modern man determines what he is. “I buy, then I exist,” as a thing, I confirm my existence by communicating with other things.

The cost of a house, furniture, car, clothing, watch, computer, TV, determine the value of an individual, form his social status. When a person loses part of his property, he loses part of himself.

When he loses everything, he loses himself completely. During economic crises, those who have lost a significant part of their wealth are thrown out of the windows of skyscrapers. Their wealth was what they are. Suicide on the basis of economic bankruptcy in this system of cultural values is quite logical, it means the bankruptcy of the individual.

People perceived themselves through things before, but never in history did things occupy such a place in the public consciousness as in recent decades, when consumption turned into a means of assessing the significance of a person.

The program of upbringing a person who subordinated his whole life to work was, in the main, completed, the next stage began: the upbringing of the consumer. The economy began to need not only a disciplined worker who unconditionally accepts the dehumanized atmosphere of a factory or office, it also needed an equally disciplined buyer who purchases all new products in accordance with their appearance on the market.

The system of upbringing the consumer included all social institutions that inculcate a certain lifestyle, a wide range of desires, cultivating existing and shaping pseudo-needs. The term “sofisticated consumer”, an experienced buyer, a professional buyer, has appeared.

The task of promoting consumption was to eradicate the centuries-old tradition of buying only the necessary things

In previous eras, material life was poor, therefore asceticism, limitation of material needs, was the ethical norm. Before the emergence of post-industrial society, the economy could provide only the most necessary, and the family budget was based on cost savings, clothes, furniture, all household items were carefully preserved, often passing from one generation to the next. With the high cost of many new products on the market, most chose to get by with the old stuff.

Today, according to Consumer Report, the industry is offering 220 new car models, 400 video car models, 40 soaps, 35 shower heads. The number of varieties of ice cream reaches 100, the number of varieties of cheese on sale is about 150, varieties of sausages are more than 50.

The industry produces much more than what is required for the well-to-do life of millions, and in order to sell everything that is produced, you need to cultivate the belief that only in the purchase of new and new things is all the joy, all the happiness of life.

The consumer is convinced that he makes the choice himself, he himself decides to buy this or that product. But the very costs of advertising, which in many cases make up 50% of its cost, indicate how much energy and talent is being invested. in the process of convincing the consumer.

The Declaration of Independence in the 18th century spoke of the main goal of human life, the search for happiness, and today happiness is determined by how much you can buy. The nationwide search for happiness is forcing even those who are unable to buy because of low income to borrow from the bank, to get into more and more debt on credit cards.

Science fiction writer Robert Sheckley, in one of his stories, "Nothing for Something," shows a man who signed with the devil, a sales agent, a contract that offered him eternal life and unlimited credit, for which he could purchase a marble palace, clothes, jewelry, many servants.

For many years he enjoyed his wealth and one day he received a bill for which he had to work under a contract. 10 thousand years as a slave in quarries for the use of the palace, 25 thousand years for feasts as a slave in galleys and 50 thousand years as a slave on plantations for everything else. He has eternity ahead of him.

Modern man also signs an unspoken contract - this is not a contract with the devil, it is a contract with society; a contract that obliges him to work and consume. And he has a whole life ahead of him, during which he must work non-stop in order to buy.

King Midas, a figure in Greek myth, was punished for greed by receiving a "gift" from the gods: everything he touched turned into gold. Food also turned into gold. Midas, possessing mountains of gold, died of hunger. Today's American, who chooses from a huge menu of things that he can have, is in human relations on a starvation diet.

Sisyphus, the hero of ancient Greek mythology, was condemned by the gods for being greedy to eternally lift a stone to the top of a mountain. Each time the stone rolled down to the foot. Sisyphus's task was as overwhelming as it was pointless. Aimless, like the very greed for which he was condemned. Sisyphus, endlessly lifting a stone to the top of the mountain, realized this as a punishment.

Today's consumer, whose greed for more and more new things is skillfully aroused by widely branched and psychologically perfect consumption propaganda, does not feel like a victim, in fact playing the role of Sisyphus.

“A person must assimilate the idea that happiness is the ability to acquire many new things. He must improve, enrich his personality, expanding his ability to use them. The more things he consumes, the richer he becomes as a person.

If a member of society stops buying, he stops in his development, in the eyes of others he loses his value as a person, in addition, he becomes an asocial element. If he stops buying, he stops the economic development of the country. (Baudrillard).

But, of course, it is not concern for the economic development of the country that drives the consumer society; as a consumer, everyone receives the most important values in human life, self-respect. "The simple worker, suddenly washed out of total contempt … finds himself being treated like an important person as a consumer with impressive politeness." R. Barth

The principle of consumer culture is all positive qualities associated with the new. Everything that is negative in life, this old, old prevents us from living and should be thrown into the trash.

In order for new products to be bought, while the old acquisitions are still fully functional, it was necessary to give things a new quality: social status.

It is difficult to manipulate a buyer who determines the value of a thing by its usefulness and functionality, while the subconscious reflexes of culture that draw the attention of the buyer, primarily to the status of the thing, can be manipulated.

Advertising does not sell the thing itself, but its image in the status scale, and it is more important than the quality and functionality of the things themselves. Each model of a car, refrigerator, watch, clothing is tied to a certain social status. Possession of the old model is an indicator of the owner's insolvency, his low social status.

The consumer does not buy a specific thing, he buys the status of the thing. He buys not a solid car, but a Mercedes, Porsche, Rolls-Royce; not a great watch, but Cartier, Rolex.

In the industrial economy, according to Fromm, there was a substitution of “being” for “having”.

In the postindustrial, there is a substitution of the possession of things for the possession of images of things. Things become a part of the virtual world, in which the physical possession of a thing is replaced by the possession of an image of the thing that causes such a rich emotional reaction that the thing itself cannot give.

It is not without reason that a teenager's purchase of a car is called his first novel - this is the first experience of love.

The brightest life impressions of a girl are usually associated not so much with their first love as with the first diamonds or a mink coat.

Things absorb emotions, and less and less emotions are left for full-fledged communication: things can bring more joy than communication with people. As Marilyn Monroe's character in How to Marry a Millionaire put it, "diamonds are a girl's best friend," or, as the Chivas Regal ad says, "You have no friend closer than Chivas Regal."

Therefore, when an individual person decides where to invest his emotional and intellectual energy: in human relationships or in communication with things, then the answer is predetermined. The dilemma "things - people" is decided in favor of things.

The number of hours spent in the shopping process, talking with a car, with a computer, TV, playing machine, much more hours of communication with other people. Previously, the greatest emotional excitement was brought by human relations, art, today - things, communication with them gives a full sense of life.

Russian immigrant philosopher Paramonov finds confirmation of this in his personal experience: “I have long understood that buying a house on Long Island is more interesting than reading Thomas Mann. I know what I’m talking about: I did both.”

The American sociologist, Phillip Slater, apparently never lacked material comforts and, unlike Paramonov, he has nothing to compare with. For him, buying a house or a new car is a familiar routine:

“Every time we buy a new thing, we experience a feeling of emotional uplift, as when meeting a new interesting person, but very soon this feeling is replaced by disappointment. A thing cannot have a reciprocal feeling. It is a kind of one-sided and unrequited love that leaves a person in a state of emotional hunger.

Trying to overcome the feeling of defenselessness, the feeling of colorlessness, the insipidity of our life and inner emptiness, we, hoping that more things that we can acquire, will nevertheless bring us a sharply desired sense of well-being and joy of life, increase our productivity and plunge even deeper into a state of despair.

The possession of things-statuses through which a person identifies himself, by which he measures his value in the eyes of society and the immediate environment, forces him to concentrate his emotions on things.

Consumption has become the main form of cultural entertainment in American society, and visiting the mall (a huge super-modern consumer goods market) is the most important form of pastime. The very process of shopping becomes an act of self-affirmation, a confirmation of social usefulness and has a therapeutic effect for many, it is calming. Those who cannot buy feel socially disadvantaged.

In saberbahs during the weekend you can see garage-sales on the lawns in front of the houses. The owners of the house sell things they don't need. Many things are sold in the same form in which they were purchased, in unopened store packaging. This is the result of a "shoping-spree", purchases made not for the sake of necessity, but a demonstration that success has been achieved, that "life is good."

The prophecy of the enlightener Saint-Simon "power over people will be replaced by power over things" did not come true: the power of people over the material world was replaced by the power of things over the human world.

In the time of Saint-Simon, poverty was widespread, and it seemed that only material well-being would create the foundation on which a house was built, a full-fledged life worthy of a person. But the house was not built, only a foundation was built with a mountain of things on it, and the owner himself serves his things, lives inside a storage warehouse and protects what he was able to accumulate while being homeless. As the proverb says, "Shop until you drop", buy until you fall from exhaustion.

“The American is surrounded by a huge number of things that make life easier that a European can only dream of, and at the same time, all this material comfort and his whole life is devoid of spiritual, emotional and aesthetic content . (Harold Steers).

But the spiritual, emotional, aesthetic are not a priority in a materialistic culture, they are not in mass demand. Institutions of the consumer society, instilling the value of impressions of new experience, "new experience", from the possession of new things, create a new culture of life, in which not the qualities of people, things, events are valued, and their constant change.

Things in the system of consumption should have a short life, after a single use they should be thrown away, embodying the principle of Progress: the new is better than the old.

The world of things that have filled the entire space of human life dictates the forms of relations between people.

This is a world where direct communication is replaced by communication through things, through things, among which the person himself is no more than a thing among other things … And, as the advocacy of consumption says, in order to enjoy all the riches of life, "work harder to buy more."