A Delusional State

The world has been living in a state of delusion for a long time now. It is now payback time for the excesses of the last several decades. The delusion was that the world can be endlessly exploited without thought of consequences. The growth of consumerism as a leading global ideology has contributed enormously to this delusional mindset. Modern capitalism has both driven and is being driven by consumerism. Short term financial thinking and an emphasis on the bottom line has led companies to try and condition people into equating personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions in general and their own specific product in particular. Take virtually any advertisement and you will see this element at work. To take an example: I recently saw an ad for a fridge which showed a glamorous woman behaving excitedly and dancing with joy around it. There was no mention of the specific characteristics of the product itself; why should anyone buy it, what made this brand superior to others, what specific benefits did this brand deliver that others did not or if they did in what fashion were these benefits superior to the offerings of competitors? None of these questions were addressed by the ad. Instead the focus was on convincing viewers that purchase of this particular brand would make them feel better or enhance their status. To take another example: you see people wearing branded shirts and the like. Sometimes these have messages written on them. Generally these messages aim to amuse or shock. If you see the ads for such clothing, the message will emphasize how this particular item will help a person express his or her unique individuality. Yet there will be several thousand people (at the very least) who will be wearing such clothes.

It is this equating of personal happiness and consumption that drives the current model of capitalism. If consumers are not made to feel that they have to buy items which they generally do not require, then the whole edifice starts coming down. The result was that consumers in the developed countries ended up with massive debts and this debt fueled consumption model was exported around the world. Now, however, the credit crunch has exposed the limitations of this model. It seems that this method of business has reached its limits and a painful period of adjustment has started.