Consumer-oriented Society

It is very early to think that today's big society is a bit abnormal, the whole society is excessively advocating commercial consumption. Yes, human beings to their own meaning are not clear, just to live and live, which in my opinion is futile and meaningless life, but this is the survival of the majority of the society. The vast majority of people lost in the consumption, this is a very real tragedy.

Another understanding of the consumer society (turn)

The tide of consumption socialization is sweeping around the world in an unstoppable trend. French scholar Baudrillard, with a critical perspective of tragic color, tries to reveal the essential features of modern consumption, and its symbolic consumption theory provides a epoch-making theoretical perspective for us to understand and comprehend modern consumption and consumption society. But too much attention or admiration for a social theory often makes it impossible for us to see the complicated social realities. This article mainly introduces the Japanese scholar Yamazaki and another understanding to the consumer society, in order to surpass the limitation of the symbolic consumption theory, to understand the modern consumption and consumption society more comprehensively and objectively.

Baudrillard: The tragic consequences of the consumer society

We know that Baudrillard, based on the semiotic theory of French semiotics Bart, absorbed the theories of American institutional economist Veblen, German sociologist, American social psychologist Leachman and economist Galbraith, and then constructed his symbolic consumption theory. In his view, consumption, like language, is a sign of communication with others. More importantly, Baudrillard that in the modern capitalist system, there is no essential difference between consumption and production, as production complies with the requirements of the capitalist system, the principle and purpose of modern consumption is not for the enjoyment of individuals, but a kind of obligation which is controlled by producers and institutionalized and imposed on consumers. Driven by differentiated reproduction, consumers are being forced into an endless process of "destruction" and "waste" in the unconscious, and the efficiency principle of consuming more goods in a shorter period of time runs through the entire modern consumer field.

Is modern consumption as Baudrillard said, after all, can not escape the tragic fate of symbolic consumption? Is modern consumption really only a kind of "no-desire destruction" which is unrelated to individual desires and is completely manipulated and enforced by the capitalist production system? The Japanese scholar, Yamazaki, has answered these questions as early as the 80 's, showing us a distinct understanding of the consumer society in his book The Birth of Soft individualism: the Aesthetics of consumer society.

Another understanding of consumer society: the Aesthetics of Consumer Society

The biggest difference with Baudrillard is that Yamazaki and the modern consumer society hold a more positive and optimistic attitude. According to the dual structure of human desires and the new development trend of modern consumption society, the symbolic consumption which follows the principle of efficiency is the periodical phenomenon appearing under the specific social and historical conditions, not the invariable nature of consumption. In his view, the consumer society is different from the previous principle of the efficiency of the industrial society, it is that modern consumption began to shift from the consumption of goods to the consumption of time.

According to Yamazaki and himself, the opposition between him and Baudrillard in the understanding of the modern consumer society stems from the differences between the two sides on the understanding of the two basic concepts of "consumption" and "desire".

(i) on the concept of "consumption"

Yamazaki and pointed out, usually we think of consumption as "consumer to meet their own desires of the consumption of things," but this understanding does not have "consumption" and "production" the concept of real difference, because in the final analysis of production is also the consumption of goods, and baudrillard the concept of consumption is basically similar to the understanding. Although Baudrillard may try to look for the relative consumption of production, but based on the position of the consumer is completely controlled by the producer, he has to equate the modern consumption with the production activity, and comprehend the essence of consumption as a kind of "non-desire destruction" that "denies personal enjoyment".

Contrary to Baudrillard, Yamazaki and thought that consumption is the opposite of the efficiency of the behavior, compared to the realization of the goal, consumption more attention to the enjoyment of the process. Therefore, in his view, the consumer society is corresponding to the industrial society, in the production of priority industrial society, production and consumption is the same as the basic principle of efficiency, there is no essential difference between the two, and in the consumer society, consumption is the real opposite of production. In contrast to the principle of productivity adherence to efficiency, consumption in the consumer society is based on the principle of non-efficiency. Even some behaviors that have typical production characteristics in the industrial society have become typical consumption in the consumer society. For example, residents living in the modern metropolis use weekends and other breaks to grow vegetables and fruits in their own yards, spare time to go fishing in the countryside, and to assemble their furniture from Ikea at home in an interesting way.

(ii) on the nature of "desires"

Another reason for the divergence between Yamazaki and Baudrillard in the understanding of consumer society is that Baudrillard's understanding of the nature of desire has some prejudice and lacks the consideration of the objective social conditions which affect the desire.

Baudrillard's understanding of human desires can be summed up as: first, people's desires in the demand for things to continue to consume the same time will be unlimited expansion; second, people's desires always require the consumption of objects to achieve and other people for the purpose of differentiation. In Baudrillard's view, human desires have the "more, faster, more frequent" kind of Nietzsche-type instinct impulse, but because the consumer is under the control of the producer, so the object of desire is not aimed at a particular thing, but only for the producers to make the difference. As a result, Baudrillard finally concluded that modern consumption would move towards an endless "waste of desire and destruction" with a pessimistic conclusion.

But Yamazaki and the essence of desire have their own unique views. He argues that Baudrillard's view of desire as a principle of efficiency is a lack of sufficient evidence. As we all know, Veblen and Leachman to Baudrillard's consumption theory to provide a lot of nutrition, but they do not think that their proposed theoretical concept is the essence of the consumption of the revelation of the nature, and that only reflects the consumption characteristics of their time. But Baudrillard is not reconciled to this, he not only uses his symbolic consumption theory to explain all modern consumption phenomena, but also tries to predict the future trends of consumer society and capitalism, and even believes that symbolic consumption is the decisive factor for the continuation of capitalism. However, as pointed out in Yamazaki and one, the establishment of the differential consumption is necessary to the premise of certain social and historical conditions, while Baudrillard ignores this point.

Relative Hupodria to the concept of desire slightly hasty and superficial understanding, Yamazaki and then in understanding the concept of desire to put forward the "dual structure of Desire" view. He first thought that the material desire of man is limited, but there is a second desire besides the first desire of material desire in man's desire, that is, "man will try to prolong the time that the material desires to be fulfilled as far as possible, based on the limitation of material desires". For example, each person's stomach has a limited amount of food intake, but because of this, we take the time to carefully cook food, carefully choose or decorate the space environment of the dining, carefully select the container and tableware for the food, and invite relatives or friends to spend a happy time to enjoy the meal. The second desire to be Yamazaki and called "desire for Desires" or "spiritual desires" is the essential feature of consuming time and enjoying the consuming process. Obviously, in this sense, there is an essential difference between the consumption that satisfies the second desire and the symbolic consumption advocated by Baudrillard.

Therefore, the modern consumer society in the eyes of Baudrillard is a "wasteful", "destruction" and "the non-desire of the full" of the tragic society, but in Yamazaki and eyes is a leisurely, full of enjoyment and constantly discover the self-society, is a "soft individualism" the birth of the Society, It is a society in which both consumers and producers are artists, and this is what he calls the "aesthetics of the Consumer society".

Conclusion

Yamazaki and the above understanding of the modern consumer society is by no means divorced from the reality of the castle, in fact, the reality of Western consumer Society has told us that the modern consumption and consumption of culture is moving in the direction of diversification. Inter-professor of the University of Japan Tian Xiaofu in recent years, The theory of "The third consumer culture" and the "McDonald's" of American scholar Ricl not only show the diversity and complexity of modern consumption, but also show us many consumption phenomena which cannot be covered by the Baudrillard symbol consumption theory. But at least for the time being, there is no clear verdict as to whether the modern consumer society will develop in the direction of Yamazaki and Baudrillard or RICL. Yamazaki and advocated non-efficient consumption now also does not show a clear advantage, but taking into account the symbolic consumption of human alienation and its endless waste characteristics of the environmental resources brought a great negative impact, as well as "McDonald's" consumption of irrational consequences, I am more willing to look forward to Yamazaki and give us a picture of the future prospects of the consumer society. There is no doubt that Yamazaki and another understanding of the consumer society provides us with a new theoretical perspective, which will help us to understand and recognize the modern consumer and consumer society more comprehensively and objectively.

Another: The main theoretical perspective of consumer Sociology-Thesis

Consumer-oriented Society