Reading | The standard of trace in the consumer society

We are in the beautiful age of the public consumption, the circulation of commodities brought about by economic globalization, the market economy and convenience services have greatly met the various needs of the public. The identity cognition and relationship positioning between some business discourse ideas are exquisite and natural, and it is often remembered. For example, this self -media sentence, "People are the scale of all things, and mothers are the scale of consumption." The world of ancient Greek wise men coupled with the women's groups that advocate perfection and exquisite lifestyles, which is quite emotional. However, as long as we need to think for a moment, we will find the contradiction behind the discourse. Whether it is scale or scale, everything and women, the standard of measuring people has quietly converted into the ownership and enjoyment of goods from its own practice and experience. We can achieve some kind of self -blooming through consumption, but we can't escape the dilemma of being lost and continuous anxiety in consumption.

The philosopher Pascal reminds us that people are fragile and small reeds, but they are thoughtful reeds. If you want to get rid of the constraints of the consumer society today, it is as unrealistic as breaking away from the gravity, but if we can use people's thinking and energy, try to retreat from the two dimensions of time and space to trace back to the evolution of consumer behavior of human society. The formation of business and consumer society, the rise of modern consumerism, and its symptoms, reinterpretation of self -position in the times and society, is probably a lot of benefits.

Service Consumer: Business culture that seduces desire

To understand the past and present of consumer society, records and perceptions from history are essential. The "Land of Desire: The rise of American consumerism culture" by Cultural Historian of Columbia University in the United States, is a classic book that understands the rise of American commercial consumer civilization in the 20th century. The author's teacher Volon Sasman and Christopher Rashi from the study of the history of American ideology and culture have benefited a lot from the two mentors. Wallen Sasman pioneered the popularity of the popular American culture to the position with the research with political, economic and social research, and claiming that popular culture should not be the corner materials in historical research, but an important force to drive social development and transformation. Images, symbols, sound light and space, and consumption phenomenon in business culture are important research themes. It is an important theme to study American history. Christopher Rashi is famous for studying cultural narcissism and civilianism in American society. His research focuses more on the dimension of social criticism and analyzes the moral loss and crisis of belief that individuals and groups have encountered in social transformation. It can be said that the author of the author focuses on American society, the former is more focused on "things", and the latter is more focused on "people". In "The Land of Desire", the depiction of portrait portraits behind the American consumer society and the portraits behind them are not only full of narrative tension, but also inner peaceful narratives. In addition, rich archives, historical materials and interview materials make the book very knowledgeable and read.

"Land of Desire: The Rise of American Consumerism Culture"

[Mei] William Lichi

Sun Luping Fu Ailing Translation

Peking University Press Publishing

The rise of American consumerism in "Land of Desire" has gone through the following keywords, namely "transformation" and "service", and "desire". The so -called transformation refers to the gold -plated era of the United States at the end of the 19th century, and to the social changes of nearly half a century in the 1920s, the United States has quickly transformed from a society led by professional ethics to a consumer capitalist Drived society. In the process of transformation, emerging business managers have led this transformation, especially the consumption space formed by commercial department stores in emerging big cities. The best place for marketing surgery practice. The so -called service, the author takes the creator of the American commercial department store, Vanamek as an example, in depth the huge transformation of the service meaning. In the operation of commercial civilization, Warnemek's awareness and actions of the 19th century Americans' service and community people cleverly changed into new services to advocate consumers and consumers and consumer services under the order of commercial civilization. Spirit. The new service no longer cares about the devotion, pain or moral destiny of individuals, but persuades and guides people to achieve satisfaction through consumption. At the same time, this service is more targeted and has the willingness to actively shape. Children, women, and youth groups Become a new focus of service chasing. Mailing shopping books, cheap toys, fashion clothing, and installment loans have emerged. The service of commercial consumption forms new clear values, emphasizing material wealth, luxury, comfort, happiness and happiness. While accepting the new service concept, people are also saying goodbye to the past. The vision of American life in the 19th century, that is, a good desire to produce and find good and discover goodness through labor and production items, has been replaced by the values ​​of good and happiness through consumer goods in the 20th century. The existence of modern consumer society has killed people's contributions, sacrifices, and even suffering in the creation of the creation. It only leaves a one -way desire -like satisfaction. The United States has created a mythical capitalist business civilization, and consumers and consumerism have become a symbol of American spirit, but this is not a benefit. Behind the rich material is a kind of unprepared sense of insecurity in all aspects of American society. "The huge wealth gap between reality in the United States indicates the emergence of a new round of radical movement. It can be said that "Land of Desire" has a sober criticism value for understanding the current United States. Consumer: Skills of modern advertising industry

If American consumerism occupies the pinnacle of the first half of the 20th century, since the 1960s, many crises facing western society have also spawned the new darling of consumerism. In "Consumer: Global History of Consumerism", French scholar Anthony Galuzo has introduced the more concise, smooth, and clear viewing, and introduced ordinary readers for nearly two hundred years. Western society has moved from production -oriented society to consumption The transformation process of a type of society. The author is obviously a follower of the media criticized scholar Baliax. In the first half of the "Making Consumers", the author takes image, symbols, and information as the starting point, and consumerism has penetrated the comprehensive penetration of individuals, families, and social life as the path. The history of trying to show modern consumption is actually a documentary of "Commodity Image Accelerating Circulation", "Symbol Images", "Consumption Ideology immersion coexistence", "advertising becomes lifestyle doctrine" and "consumer imagination redefine self". After experiencing the gender liberation campaign, business propaganda has a more accurate and delicate grasp of people's needs and desires. For example, no one can refuse "women who are not ugly in the world, only women who do not know that they can become beautiful" Behind the artistic, the metaphor: if a woman cannot save itself, it will be abandoned. At this point of view, women must work hard to make their image attractive and love. Today, such words have spread from women to all gender fields: as long as it is a human body, it can become the object of processing and materialization.

"Manufacturing Consumer: Global History of Consumerism"

[Method] Anthony Galuzo

Ma Ya translated

Published by Guangdong People's Publishing House

"Manufacturing Consumers" cracked us the usual cognition, that is, after the 1960s, the American anti -mainstream culture, which has set off in western society, has lost its strikes, but only the possibility of liberation and pursuit of personality. Consumer business culture has long been incorporated into it. As long as these consumers are fantasizing about the identity, the market will launch and build unrealistic but perceptible commodity aesthetics to consumption. The more, the group mentality with anti -ink and conservation rules will immediately build the advertising slogan to cater to the capital. When the advertisement is increasingly catering to the self -publicity of others and the declarations of the declarations "becoming ourselves", we will find out again. Finally, Fan Mo's debut is still using products to replace themselves as a tool for liberating themselves. As the overall consumer group, it is replaced by trial, atomic, and individualized "freedom" consumer individuals, and its implicit continuous identity fission and even opposition have become more obvious. With the sustainable development of media and network technology, the virtual truth represented by the Yuan universe is also stimulating consumerism to further strip the individual identity. People seem to be able to reach the whole world. Consumption and shopping have become the ultimate means to establish self, get rid of restraint, and achieve freedom. But this imagination freedom and praise for consumers are based on the global production and fragile global network and its crisis. The manufacture consumers blocked external noise and also shielded the imminent crisis. Society should not abandon "defective consumers"

"Every society has poor people, but the meaning of poverty depends on the 'us' with them." Known as the most influential Polish sociologist Zigmont Bowman, who is known as the most influential English, puts forward this very important issue in his "Work, Consumerism, and New Poor Man." Bowman reminds us that after more than two hundred years of transition from industrial society to a consumer society, the original work ethics has been replaced by consumer aesthetics, and the connotation of happy life has also changed. If a person cannot live happily in the way of mainstream definition, or even unable to live, it means that he is a failed and flawed consumer. A person who cannot fulfill consumer obligations will be abandoned, deprived of society, and even rejected from the social feast shared by normal people. Therefore, they have become the "new poor" of consumer society. "Consumers with defects are lonely. I feel that they are abandoned. Once they are in a state of loneliness for a long time, they will really become a lone. "

"Work, Consumerism, and New Poor"

[English] Zegmont Bowman

Guo Nan translated

Published by Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press

Bowman seriously pointed out that the prosperity of consumerism and the decline of the welfare society together constitute the contempt and abandonment of "new poor people" in the mainstream Western discourse. The standard, then the Pandora box of human desire has been opened, no matter how much purchase and excitement, you can't change it back. " The poor who lost their social position should not lose their existence value. Worshipism consumption concept of consumption has made the existence of the poor lose guilt and moral responsibility, and Western elites ignore in the name of freedom, which is precisely the biggest crisis encountered in the West today.

How to save the new poor from the bottom class of society and how to achieve self -rescue, Bowman also proposed in his works. In his opinion, people cannot return to the work ethics of material stimuli, nor can they repeat consumer aesthetics that seduce desires. Instead, they need a brand new craft ethics. This ethics tends to restore human beings.本能的尊严，恢复社会公认的意义，打破将收入、效率和利润奉为神明的消费主义秩序观，重新肯定“人是有创造力的生物”这一自然法则，正如鲍曼所言，“如果It is believed that the price of the price is the standard of distinguishing work and non -work, hard work, and laziness, which will be a derogation for human nature. "

In general, these works that discuss consumerism have distinctive theme content and viewpoints, and they are also clearly outlined the theme of the consumer era "the spiritual situation of people" in the consumer era. If "The Land of Desire" reveals how modern business civilization persuades the public to accept the desire of consumer that has never stopped, the modern advertising industry in the eyes of "Consumers" is to create identity and realize the hope of illusory life. Then "Consumerism and the New Poor" is to warn us that the elite discourse that equates people with material and consumption capabilities is a real disappointment.

Reflecting the consumer culture is not to deny the vision and hope of consumption to bring a better life to modern people, but to return consumption to people -oriented and return to the people -centered development concept. Let the people's longing for a better life become an inexhaustible source and lasting driving force for the new trend of consumption. The roads and detours that Western consumer culture have gone through, and the disagreement that is experiencing should become a lesson worthy of our learning.

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Author: Jia Min

Edit: Kim Jiuchao

Editor in charge: Zhu Zilong

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