Citizens as Consumers (WAS Re: [Marxism] Mr. Cranky reviews Fahrenheit 9/11)

[" Ian Pace" <ian@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm dragging up some old chestnuts from previous threads, I realise, but
this message made me think further about some matters.

> there are people out there trying to resist the pro-rich agendas of both
the
> bourgeois political parties. why don't you get involved?
>
> you're right, americans have been turned from citizens into consumers, and
> possess a level of political education and/or awareness which is
deplorable.

This is very very true (and of many others in the developed world);
consumerism is a major diversion from political awareness.  If I may digress
a little, just to follow up on some points made a couple of weeks ago:
what's really sinister (see the previous threads on Class, Race and Gender)
is the way in which big business have contrived to create a situation where
some bourgeois gay and feminist elements have become the staunchest
defenders of consumerism (really they are defending the interests of their
class), creating a false identification of some supposed 'essence' of
femininity or gay sexuality with a particular attraction towards
consumerism.

All people have been defined as consumers rather than citizens by mass
capitalism, including women and gay men/lesbians. The portrayals in the
media define them almost solely in terms of their habits of consumption.
Advertising and other forms of media propaganda must be effective in some
sense, else why would the corporations spend millions on it? Who could
really be expected to resist this onslaught on their consciousness? We are
in a serious situation when the petty-bourgeois spokespeople for those
people who ought to be amongst our strongest allies, women and gay men, seem
to be succeeding in propagating the ideology that high capitalism is the
most liberating force for these peoples. Of course, the media connives
things so only those born-again consumerists amongst women and gay men get
any substantial degree of media exposure.

I know more than a few gay friends who believe that this sort of
'liberation' is actually counter-productive; those gay people who don't have
the financial wherewithal to be enthusiastic participants in an orgy of mass
consumerism, or ideologically disdain it, are alienated not only by straight
society as per usual, but also by the bourgeois members of their own
'community'.

I'm thinking about the Gay Pride march tomorrow in London, which might as
well be called Gap Pride. What could be more cynical than to hijack a
movement celebrating sexual identity, defiantly, into a blatant celebration
of consumerism?  Quote from Naomi Klein:

"The need for greater diversity - the rallying cry of my university years -
is now not only accepted by the culture industries, it is the mantra of
global capital. And identity politics, as they were practiced in the
nineties, weren't a threat, they were a gold mine. "This revolution," writes
cultural critic Richard Goldstein in The Village Voice, "turned out to be
the savior of late capitalism." And just in time, too."



Naomi Klein, 'Patriarchy Gets Funky', in No Logo, p.115



Similarly, what better propaganda could the dark forces of consumerist
aesthetics have than 'Sex and the City'?



Consumerism can now be sold as somehow 'subversive' and counter-cultural.
This shows how 'subversion' is by no means a progressive political
category - after all, some punk's flirtation with fascism and the swastika
was 'subversive' and 'outrageous' as well. :(



This is the MOST potent weapon, the biggest trump card, that the forces of
reaction have to play against us to 'divide and rule'. That's why I keep
banging on about it, apologies if I'm getting tedious in that respect.

Ian



_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism