What is meant by culture of consumption
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In the whole of human history there has never been a societal system that has produced such a high level of material well-being and wealth of material comforts than that which has originated out of our modern Euro-American (Western Europe and North America) society. From sophisticated health care systems, to automated industrial manufacturing, to high-yield farming practices, to expansive transportation and communication networks, to an accessible educational system, the accomplishments go on. Humanity has now walked the craters of the moon and extended the life of a child with the implantation of a baboon's heart. In fact, the human biological heart can now be replaced with a mechanical heart.
The world is rapidly becoming a singular community. What is news in Beijing, Buenos Aires, Jakarta, Moscow or Tokyo is news in one's own living room. And what is dreamed in Beijing, Buenos Aires, Jakarta, Moscow or Tokyo is dreamed in one's own home. The aspirations associated with Euro-American society are rapidly becoming the aspirations of much of the entire world community. And those expectations are directed at ever increasing levels of consumer goods and material well-being, e.g., automobiles, clothing apparel, entertainment systems, recreational equipment, housing, nutrition and health care. One of America's most lucrative exports is its multi-billion-dollar-a-year "Hollywood Image,"--the motion picture, television, magazine, amusement park, popular music, and most assuredly, "fast food" and clothing industries. At this very moment it is likely that someone in Beijing, Buenos Aires, Jakarta, Moscow or Tokyo is standing in a line, wearing a pair of Levis, listening to "rock 'n' roll" and about to order a Big Mac and a Coke, and that someone is not an American. An entire life style, "American Popular Culture," is being successfully marketed worldwide. The images are clearly disseminated and received, images ingrained with expectations.
With the emergence of modern Euro-American society has emerged what John Bodley has labeled the "culture of consumption." (See Bodley 1985. Bodley is among many who have used the term "culture of consumption." For an insightful discussion of the range and implications of the consumer life style, see Alan Durning 1992). It is a life style predicated not only on what one consumes, but on an ever increasing level of consuming. One's social and economic status, familial relationships and modes of entertainment, the very core of one's self-identity are defined in terms of an almost insatiable hunger for consumable goods. Two favorite American pastimes, viewing television and visiting shopping malls, are oriented around their sales pitches for and lure of a seemingly endless array of brightly packaged consumer goods and throwaway products. The "culture of consumption" can best be epitomized in the soft drink and fast food slogans, "Gotta have it" and "What you want is what you get.