Theory Of Leisure Class

To outline the main point of this essay, which is about consumerism, the reader has to know roughly the structure of it. It begins with Veblens book about conspicuous consumption, what this is, and how the modern reader can relate to it. Second part will talk about a different theory of Heath and Potter’s book about the anti-consumerism, how is it that people come to be anti-consumerist, and the reasons it has not been as successful as it is often think it would be. Leading us to the third part, which answers the question of what is the relation between this two, and why is the ‘system’ something we cannot escape from.
In the book, The Theory of Leisure Class, Veblen talks about “conspicuous consumption”. This means to buy objects or services,
which a person does not really need. We do this in order to show the others that we can actually spend money in what we want. That is better known as fitting in the society. With all the different social classes, there is a lot of pressure on people. Everyone has a certain status to maintain and in the best case, upgrade to a better one. That is what is seen in society as success. By Leisure class, Veblen talks about the higher social class. From there is where the other classes see what is “in” and what they should aim for. It comes from the times when the nobles lived in their huge residences and the lower class had to do hard works in fields, with poor living conditions. From that time people wanted to have everything the high class has, but only a few years ago this became in some way possible. This is why we can see similar, but lower quality objects in high streets. People want to feel they can be like celebrities, but without having to spend that much money. What they end up doing is what Thorsten talks about, they buy anything to look “cool” thinking it is essential in their lifes but really it is not. QUOTE
This theory of conspicuous consumption now can be applied to a wider percentage of people, as the ‘leisure class’ in current times has grown a lot. This is due to the technology advancement of the last years, mass production being one of the main reasons. Mostly all of us are conspicuous consumers, without realizing it. If we look to the past we can see how the term “luxury” has changed its meaning. Today people who are not from a wealthy class can buy articles which they think are essential, but many years ago they were just luxuries for the wealthy. Having a car, traveling, eating out, acquiring the latest gadgets, is all available to the public in general. The only difference is the quality. A wealthy person will allow himself to buy, for example, a fur coat from an exclusive boutique. In the case of the middle class, a similar coat can be found in the high street shop like Primark or New Look, for a lower price. This is due to the low quality materials and techniques used.
Another element that has to do with this type of consumption is the different brands. Nowadays brands are everywhere. Because of this, we feel the pressure to choose certain brands instead of others. It has become a need to buy what everyone else has, although you do not really know if it is worth it or not. Advertisements have taken most of the visible space. No matter where you are you will be reminded of a brand, unless you are part of a tribe in the jungle who never have been in the urban area. Coming back to Veblen’s theory, no one realizes the psychological impact this pressure of buying items we do not need has on us. Lets say a woman has this collection of thirty-something lipsticks. These are all different brands, or maybe only one of her preference. After going for a walk in town or reading a magazine, an advertisement of this ‘amazing’, long stay, lipstick appears in front of the woman’s eyes. Probably the ad has a photo of a celebrity or some interesting design, as it can be seen in the images below. (image from tumblr and another ad from http://stylenews.peoplestylewatch.com/2011/12/30/emma-watson-lancome-lipstick-ad/) This makes an impact in her subconscious, making her think this is the product she needs. Without realizing it, she finds herself buying this lipstick, adding one more to her collection. The case can be, she has not used most of them. Probably after acquiring them, the woman realizes she did not really like the colour or some other reason. There is an interesting fact about make-up. Girls feel the need of using it to look pretty, so man would feel attracted to them. Saying this, if man would be asked what do they prefer, a girl with or without make up, the second choice would most likely win. At the end all that money spending on make-up and different other beauty items is unnecessary.
People spend long, tiring hours of work to then go to a store, either physically or online. All of this money from hard work is soon gone in something they probably will use once in a lifetime, just to show the world the money they have. If people would be asked about what products are necessary, they would probably talk about commodities. Having a double bed, usually including a huge pile of pillows, memory foam mattress, all that for a single person.
Priorities are changing in the contemporary world. A century ago it was more important to build a family. Today we can see much more single people, who work non-stop, without having time to find a partner. This can be due to the necessity of pleasing yourself, by adding the nicest table or piece of decoration in your ‘awesome’ house. A famous film, 500 Days of Summer, has a few scenes in IKEA, where the two main characters pretend they are in their dream house by going through the show rooms and using them. This is basically sending us an unconscious signal, making us think of a store where we can not only please our needs, but also have fun while we are imagining that marvelous red kitchen in our flat. IKEA, is one of the brands that with the years have taken most of the middle class houses. Being a cheap version of the high quality furniture, it allows us to have a nicely decorated house, without the stress of spending tons of money. One of the most important ways to a success in a company is to be clever, and that is what describes IKEA. There was a campaign, which was done with collaboration of Facebook, another brand that will be talked about in the essay later on. This was made before an opening of a new IKEA store in Malmö. The purpose of this was having a new picture of a show room everyday, and the person who tags himself first, wins the room. A YouTube link for the ad can be found at the end of the essay.
By analyzing what was said before, a problem emerges. We end up caring more about objects than about our close ones and our values. Instead of going to visit our relatives, having as an excuse the distance and the price, we use the leisure time for ourselves, to satisfy what we call ‘needs’. “What is essential is invisible to the eyes” quote from the book, The Little Prince, a great phrase to think about and relate it to the modern consumerism.
Having said that, I can further my point deeper with Heath and Potter's, The Rebel Sell, a theory about anti-consumerism.
Nowadays, the world is what we call ‘brain-washed’ by the market, using advertisement, “…Society’s become so thoroughly permeated with propaganda and lies…” (1ST PARAGRAPH REBELL SELL). If we go back to the sixties, the idea of counter-culture was starting to emerge. This came from people wanting to become individuals, not being part of a system. Music was at the time one of the most influential factors. Best example to use would be, The Rolling Stones. This band at the time was doing the totally contrary of what was expected, totally rebelling to the authorities. The masses of people, starting following this in no time. People were actually going crazy, doing anything to become different, and show it to the world. From that point on, years passed by, and new types of what we call ‘sub-cultures’ started to appear. Hippies, Rockers, Punks, Goths, and many others including one of the latest addition to the list, the Hipsters. All of them showing they are anti-consumerist, finding ways to differentiate from the crowd. At the same time, going back to The Rolling Stones, in the present time, they are more a brand than a band. Their famous ‘tongue’ icon has became so famous, one can find it in any part of the world. The interesting thing is that when a person is seen wearing a T-shirt with the logo, and asked what is it, this person would probably not know.
This is clearly shown in this the figure below, from the famous website 9GAG. (image http://9gag.com/gag/5096831) So, all the concept of the Stones being this unique band, revolutionizing the world, going against the system, ended up being part of the system itself.
The question here is, how does anti-consumerism function in relation to conspicuous consumption?
Well, the answer is simple, at the moment when a person realizes that he is one of the conspicuous consumers, what will come to his mind is probably asking himself why is that and how can it be changed. This all comes to this individual wanting to be different, to become anti-consumerist. Using Hipsters as an example, we can see how it is all a never-ending cycle. The hipster in this case will be called Fred. He wants to be different, by not going to Starbucks, and not listening to the latest radio hit. Fred buys himself a great coffee machine, an eco-friendly thermos (because obviously he cares so much about environment, as no one else does), which he will use to take his coffee to work, and listening to this new, barely known band to the public. Now Fred feels different, and good about himself. What happens later, he meets with his friends, in a non-mainstream café, and talks about this band discovery and how different they are from all the others. A part of his friends, who want to be unconsciously anti-consumerists, starts listening to this band. After some time, this band becomes mainstream, because more people are listening to it, as it is so different. Fred finds himself being a conspicuous consumer again, because not only the band is so popular now, but suddenly everyone around is being eco-friendly as well as other factors. He has to find a new way to be different, so,
the process begins again. If we look at the counterculture, we can realize that this is what has became the centre of the market and the system itself. There will always be new ways of trying to show that consumerism can be ended and we do not have to be part of a mass, like ‘copy-pasted’ items. At some point that new way will become mainstream as expected, so needless to say, it goes on and on. Probably there are some people that in a small way are not part of the system, but because of their big difference to the others, what they are is ‘outsiders’, not accepted in society. Interesting that this can only mean, they are actually part of the system being as the non accepted ones.
Basically, from my point of view, it is quite impossible to get out of the cycle. New items, ways of being, music, and etcetera, will become a trend in a blink of an eye. In the course of our lifes we probably do not notice all this until we go back to the past and see huge changes from what it was only ten years ago. Facebook is one of those trends that has already occupied most of young people’s time, and not only young. Now we think that we cannot live without it. Feeling the need of being up to date of what happened in that event we could not assist, because there was this annoying person in the list of people who “R.S.V.P’d as Going”. People, who do not have Facebook and are young, will probably have the pressure of others to create an account. There is the other type of Facebook users, who use it, but have all their photos and many other features blocked so people cannot access them even if they are in the friends list. Their excuse is them not liking others finding out about their lifes, but that is what Facebook is about in some way, is it? We are in a continuous competition of trying to be better than others, and in the modern world any of the social networks are the main source for us to find out what is everyone up to.
So, in conclusion to this essay, which talks about two opposite sides, conspicuous consumption and anti-consumerism, we can realize that they are not that much opposite, although they are in theory. The sub-cultures are nothing more but individuals doing what it is of their preference, in one way being different to others. It shows us more than ever how the human being is so different of other humans, but at the same time we are so equal. All of us are and are going to be consumers in a light or heavy way. We don’t need to be buying every single item we see, neither attending all the events only because we have the fear we will miss out something important. It is part of our lifes to consume, we cannot escape from it. Instead of trying not consuming, and going against the system, we should try consuming responsibly; feeding our needs and making the people we love happy. There is so much more to talk about in this essay, but hopefully what is written will be enough so the reader can have a better understanding of the two theories and how to find them in his own life experience. There is no need to think about what happened so the society would come to what it is, because that is the past. No one knows what changes the future will provide us. So what’s left is living the present.