Consume & Obey

[fox m.]

Da li i koliko volite da učestvujete u spektaklu potrošačkog društva ili samo onoliko koliko vam je neophodno za normalno funkcionisanje? Ja npr organski ne podnosim tržne centre, dok imam drugaricu koja je čista suprotnost, ne bi izlazila iz njih.

Francuski filozof i sociolog Žan Bodrijar je pisao o fenomenu. Izašlo je prošle godine srpsko izdanje njegove knjige iz 1970, koja je aktuelna i danas.

 

 

 

 

 

"Mi živimo vreme predmeta"

 

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Beogradska izdavačka kuća Darma objavila je knjigu Potrošačko društvo Žana Bodrijara (preveo Stefan Piper), čije uvodno poglavlje pod nazivom “Obilje” vam prenosimo ovde. Iako je objavljena 1970. godina i spada u rane radove iz polja kombinovanja socijalne teorije, semiologije i psihoanalize ovog francuskog filozofa, njena aktuelnost nije utihnula ni pola veka kasnije. Pokazujući na fenomenima svakodnevnog života, kako je u globalnom društvu “potrošnja, u obliku novog plemenskog mita, postala etika današnjeg sveta”, kako se kaže u predgovoru ove knjige, Potrošačko društvo daje pronicljive i neophodne uvide u konzumerizam koji nastavlja da obeležava široko egzistencijalno polje savremenog čoveka.

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Potrošnja, u obliku novog plemenskog mita, postala je etika današnjeg sveta.

Sama po sebi, ona pokreće proces uništenja osnova ljudskog bića, ili preciznije

–ravnotežu koju je evropska misao, još od antičke Grčke, uspostavljala između

mitoloških korena i sveta logosa. G. Bodrijar definiše opasnost sa kojom se susrećemo.

 

Opet ću citirati: „Kao što je društvo Srednjeg veka uspostavljalo ravnotežu putem

suprotstavljanja Boga i đavola, tako naše društvo uspostavlja ravnotežu kroz

suprotstavljenje potrošnje i osude potrošnje. Na osnovu vere u đavola i dalje je bilo

moguće organizovati jeresi i sekte crne magije. Za nas, naša magija je bela, sa druge

strane jeresi koja se ostvaruje u obilju. To je profilaktička belina jednog prezasićenog

društva – društva bez vrtoglavice i bez istorije – bez ijednog drugog mita do njega

samog.

 

 Potrošačko društvo, pisano konciznim stilom, moraće postati neizostavna

lektira mlađih generacija. Njen cilj može se shvatiti kao ukidanje današnjeg

monstruoznog, ako ne i opscenog, sveta obilja predmeta – koji masovni mediji, a naročito

televizija, tako neprikosnoveno podržavaju – i koji nam svima preti.

https://www.darmabooks.com/knjige/zan-bodrijar-potrosacko-drustvo/

 

Članak koji sumira glavne teme knjige, pisano iz današnjeg vremena i konteksta, o tome kako je potrošnja socijalno nametnuta.

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Baudrillard is highly critical of the view that consumerism amounts to liberation. It is true that certain older regimes of authoritarianism have decayed. But the new regime is also a system of control. Repression persists, but it moves sideways. The image of a sterile, hygienic body and fear of contamination establishes an inner control which removes desire from the body. The ranking of bodies in terms of status leads to a re-racialisation. Puritanism becomes mixed-up with hedonism in this ranking process. The body as locus of desire remains censored and silenced, even when it appears to undergo hedonistic release. Sexuality is expressed in consumption so it can’t disrupt the status quo. What is now censored is the symbolic structure and the possibility of deep meaning. Living representations are turned into empty signs. Because of this change, the old resistances to repression no longer work.

Similarly, groups supposedly liberated – such as women, black people, and young people – are denied the effects of liberation by being re-encoded in terms of myths. Once labelled as irresponsible, people’s liberation is attached to a coded meaning which demands and bars responsibility and social power. Real liberation is avoided by giving people an image of themselves to consume – women are given the image of Woman, the young an image of Youth, technological change by Technology (gadgets), and so on. Liberation is thus nullified, and re-encoded as a role and as narcissism. Concrete gains for liberation movements are side-effects of this immense strategic operation to disempower oppressed groups through their reduction to a function or role. We are drip-fed little bits of democracy and progress to ensure the system’s survival. They operate as its alibis. Even if income equality is encouraged, the system can survive by moving inequality elsewhere, to status, style, power and so on.

Baudrillard also sees communication and sociality being corrupted into sign-values to be consumed. This occurs through the consumption of ‘services’ based on sociability. The loss of genuine, spontaneous, reciprocal human relations (which require a symbolic dimension) is covered up by the standardised production of signs of social warmth and participation. As with the smile of the salesman, receptionist or PR executive, or the “have a nice day” of McDonald’s, it simulates intimacy. These simulated signs are what now counts as abstract ‘interpersonal skills’. In practice, Baudrillard observes, such false sociality is shot through with the flaws of the mode of production, including aggression and frustration. It turns into an entire value-system dressed-up as functionality. It has a constant repressive effect, pacifying social relations.

Excessive social contact due to urbanism leads to psychological pauperisation. People gain an increased need for objects as signifiers of differentiation. Consumption actually excludes the possibility of enjoyment. This is because consumption is always collective, at least indirectly, whereas enjoyment is personal. The disappearance of altruistic forms of integration leads to an expanded role for state repression. Atomisation leads to bureaucratic control, disguised as freedom. Credit is used to condition people into capitalistic forms of action. The ‘people’ or consumers are glorified as long as they do not try to exercise their putative sovereignty on a political or social stage, and instead stick to consuming.

 

 

Consumer goods are experienced as miraculous, because their production is concealed. They seem as if they come from technology, progress or growth. In fact we have only the signs of affluence, coexisting with ever more impoverished social relations. Competition, generalised across social life as consumption as well as production is ranked, leads to generalised fatigue. Such fatigue is really a resistance, akin to a slowdown by workers or boredom in school. Such resistance, as the only resistance available, becomes habitual and ‘grows into’ people’s bodies. It is a partial revolt necessary to prevent total breakdown, which is also instantly available as a source of discontent in crisis situations.

The real social effect of the pursuit of system-promoted goals is an exhausting rat-race. The system of unstable, precarious employment creates generalised insecurity and generalised competition for status. The constant treadmill of work, retraining and status-competition leaves some on the scrapheap and others successful but exhausted. But the ideology of consumption lulls people into believing that they are affluent, fulfilled, happy and liberated.

The welfare state is criticised as a way to portray an exchange society as if it were a service society, giving back what it takes from workers. Equality and democracy conceal the real system of discrimination, based on whether or not one can decode consumer goods. Furthermore, the system conditions people to constantly want a little more than they have. The system produces the needs it satisfies (through advertising and demand management), produces only for its own needs, and hides behind the alibi of individual needs (inventing an idea of economic man to prop itself up). It rests on real needs being misrecognised. And it produces needs which it then refuses to satisfy, instead using them as inducements to conformity.

https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/in-theory-baudrillard-3/

[Debeli]

Мени објекти и даље служе, а не ја њима.

[Trans-Lucky]

Фокс је дендијев алтер его. 

[G!!!]

ne podnosim trzne centre i hiper markete, ni licno ni profesionalno

[Lucky]

6 hours ago, G!!! said:

ne podnosim trzne centre i hiper markete, ni licno ni profesionalno

ja sam jedno vreme kad je "moralo" išao u delta city jer je bio izuzetno prazan, posebno nakon otvaranja galerije, a ušće je već bilo "načelo" i onda "milina", prazan tržni centar, ako ti već treba.

[voodoo_]

Da, u Delti često žive duše nema vikendom, naročito na gornjem spratu.

[Lucky]

40 minutes ago, voodoo_ said:

Da, u Delti često žive duše nema vikendom, naročito na gornjem spratu.

ima onaj potez od onih sportskih radnji preko celog onog dela sa muškim radnjama sve do onog kafića i valjda A1 šta li je tamo na drugom kraju koji nema bukvalno nikoga nikad :)) 

[alfa]

Foxe, evo fax za tebe

 

https://www.geopolitika.ru/en/article/westernology-towards-sovereign-russian-science?utm_referrer=https%3a%2f%2fwww.google.com%2f

 

 

[Dule_smor]

Jerli Drale dekan na tom faxu?

[Trans-Lucky]

45 minutes ago, alfa said:

Foxe, evo fax za tebe

 

https://www.geopolitika.ru/en/article/westernology-towards-sovereign-russian-science?utm_referrer=https%3a%2f%2fwww.google.com%2f

 

 

Хвала на сајту! 

[fox m.]

13 hours ago, alfa said:

Foxe, evo fax za tebe

 

https://www.geopolitika.ru/en/article/westernology-towards-sovereign-russian-science?utm_referrer=https%3a%2f%2fwww.google.com%2f

 

 

Kakve ovo veze ima sa temom? Misliš da današnja Rusija nije potrošačko društvo?