Consumerism, Corruption, and the Corporate Hegemony
Consumerism, corruption, and the corporate hegemony
To live on the earth, for survival, we must consume foods, essential products or services. Nothing is wrong in it and this is not consumerism. In fact, the working definition of consumerism is the consumption of products or services for fulfilling the artificial demands created in the human psyche. In the myth of consumerism, by consuming products and services the individual perceives that eventually he/she will be gratified and integrated. Unfortunately, consumerism offers only short term ego-gratification for those who can afford the luxury and frustration for those who can not. Take an example, many youngsters from the lower middle class and onward dream of owning the latest model mobile sets. However, a few of them can afford to buy them and many cannot. Those who cannot afford to buy suffer utmost frustration. Even the fortunate ones, who could afford to own it, albeit satisfy temporarily, fall again in frustration as within a shortest span of time this ‘latest’ model will not be the latest anymore as new model mobiles will be channelled into the market by the manufacturers. So, the phenomenon of such consumerism is never ending.
If we objectively analyse, then it will be revealed that the consumerism, indeed, is the bi-product of the free market economy, the basis of corporate culture and neo-capitalism of this post modern era. The driving force of neo-capitalism has paved the way for the rapid expansion of corporate culture by exploring the advantage of globalisation.
The implications of consumerism are manifold and this short article has no scope to discuss in detail. However, in a brief some implications are cited below:
a) Extensive environmental damage: Excessive production and use of refrigeration, especially by the first world have generated CFC (chlorofluorocarbon ) which causes the depletion of the Ozone layers of the atmosphere. This, in turn, will lead the planet earth in an
To live on the earth, for survival, we must consume foods, essential products or services. Nothing is wrong in it and this is not consumerism. In fact, the working definition of consumerism is the consumption of products or services for fulfilling the artificial demands created in the human psyche. In the myth of consumerism, by consuming products and services the individual perceives that eventually he/she will be gratified and integrated. Unfortunately, consumerism offers only short term ego-gratification for those who can afford the luxury and frustration for those who can not. Take an example, many youngsters from the lower middle class and onward dream of owning the latest model mobile sets. However, a few of them can afford to buy them and many cannot. Those who cannot afford to buy suffer utmost frustration. Even the fortunate ones, who could afford to own it, albeit satisfy temporarily, fall again in frustration as within a shortest span of time this ‘latest’ model will not be the latest anymore as new model mobiles will be channelled into the market by the manufacturers. So, the phenomenon of such consumerism is never ending.
If we objectively analyse, then it will be revealed that the consumerism, indeed, is the bi-product of the free market economy, the basis of corporate culture and neo-capitalism of this post modern era. The driving force of neo-capitalism has paved the way for the rapid expansion of corporate culture by exploring the advantage of globalisation.
The implications of consumerism are manifold and this short article has no scope to discuss in detail. However, in a brief some implications are cited below:
a) Extensive environmental damage: Excessive production and use of refrigeration, especially by the first world have generated CFC (chlorofluorocarbon ) which causes the depletion of the Ozone layers of the atmosphere. This, in turn, will lead the planet earth in an