Jason Hickel, an economist anthropologist once said and I quote “You have to ask yourself: If our economic system actively destroys the biosphere and fails to meet most people’s basic needs, then what is the point of modern economies?”
The present economic scenario proves that supply and demand are not absolutes and are equally susceptible to manipulation since both are centered around human perception. One can arbitrarily interpret the term “basic needs” to fit one’s point.
This article will delve into the scary depths of a complex system that is the driving force of the modern world in an attempt to understand one of the most insidious phantasms that haunts not only human virtue but also poses a serious threat to the environment and the biosphere as a whole.
For most of history, humans owned nothing. In the best of times, maybe a sickle and a harrow. However, in the 1700s, with the establishment of the first water-powered cotton mill, the scenario began to change. As society grew, mankind chose wealth over virtue. By the middle of the 18th century, humans were living through a period of cataclysmic change. Wages rose, and the idea of shopping for pleasure came into being. The world witnessed an emerging love story between capitalism and its newly-found lover: CONSUMERISM. The capitalists, not quite satisfied with their huge profits, convinced people that they have extra mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical needs that they were unaware of and the needs can only be fulfilled by capitalists and their enterprises.
The emerging capitalist-consumerist world witnessed debates and discussions of various scholars and philosophers on the very issue of consumerism. As the famous economist of the 18th century, Mandeville argued, “In a consumerist society, the only way to generate wealth is to demand absurd and high demand for absurd and unnecessary things” which takes us to the modern-day biological phenomenon of dopamine shopping. On the other hand, we had scholars like Jean Jacques Rousseau, who looked back with fondness to the austere, martial spirit of the old Greek city of Sparta. In the 21st century, Mandeville’s ideas of competition, consumerism, and growth supersede Rousseau’s ethic of self-limitation and retrenchment.
Modern capitalism uses the impelling power of envy to promote its capitalist giants like the fashion industry. It is a complex mix of personal desire, societal pressure, status signaling, stress, and propaganda. Consumerism has changed the way we view life. As Eid passed the streets of Kashmir are bombarded with cloth brands, confectionery brands, shops, lights, packages, and trash. What was supposed to be a sacred festival has turned into a capitalist holiday wherein the average Kashmiri explodes their below-average income along with their carbon emission footprints. So vivid and numerous are the consumer novelties that it leads to your very own Kashmiri boy wondering what he could be if only he had that watch or that phone or that leather jacket, which enslaves him in an oppressive and suffocating world of opulence and class from where there is no going back. His bank balance itself is invisible to the plebeians on the street. So, the clothes he wears, and the car he drives, project his wealth and status.
Given our present preoccupation with vanity, pride, and ever-growing competition, we might just deplete the earth of its resources. We need to rewire our minds and understand that our desire and ambition to gather as much as possible before dying and to flex wealth and ingenuity against Mother Nature would only destroy mankind. For, how can you destroy that which sustains you? How can you destroy that which nourishes you?
Let us work towards a society free from the consumerist restraints of fashion, embroidered handbags, and one-upmanship around hairstyles. Let us join hands to work towards a stable world order which would allow us to live as humanely as possible without being a slave to vanities and superfluities.