Free Liquid Life, Choice, Quantity And Quality Report Example

Is Shopping Political?

When the feminist revolution of the 1970’s embraced the simple yet deceptive idea of ‘Personal is Political’ it unleashed myriad possibilities. ‘Private’ was opened to its wider social and political implications. Shopping, a consumerist consumption act is one such private space that has become political. Consumption and shopping is closely interlaced with the social fabric, the social divisions and the physical and architectural settings. The pattern of consumption and shopping has changed over the years. Inglehart on his study on intergenerational change in post industrialist societies says that “an intergenerational change is taking place in the value priorities of West European populations-and that this change may have a significant long term impact on their political behavior. (Inglehart 1971, p. 1017).” He goes on to add that this new generation that grew up in relative affluence, economic security is taken for granted and that “the pursuit of symbols of affluence could be regarded as derivative from the search for sustenance (p.991).”This new generation is also a group that makes rational choices and is not slave to blind consumerism. While Inglehart talks about a change in the political behavior and intergenerational political shift and conflict, Marcuse (1964) talks about the closing of the personal and the political space. In his book, ‘The One Dimensional Man’ Marcuse poses the question as to why “individuals would insist on different institutions for a different production of different goods and services when are satisfied to the point of happiness with the goods and services handed down to them by the administration (p.50).” Bauman (2005) in his Liquid Life, echoes Marcuse’s sentiments about the shrinking of the political space and says that people are slavish to market forces. He says that “Liquid life is a consuming life. It casts the world and all its animate and inanimate fragments as objects of consumption: that is objects that lose their usefulness (and so their luster, attraction, seductive power and worth) in the course of being used (p.7).’ They then constantly move on to new things continuing the never ending need and consumption process. In spite of Marcuse’s and Bauman’s gloomy predictions for the political space in consumerism and shopping, there still exists something very political about shopping. People exist as consumers only in the spread sheets of economists. In real life they have the power to change institutions- entrenched economic and political institutions have to work hard to make people buy their products and services and make the system work and this gives the shoppers or consumers their political space. Inglehart’s analysis of the new generation and their changing political behavior well explains this political space that has come up. This rational thinking new generation is opening up new possibilities in how consumerism and capitalism works. They are no longer passive buyers but give more importance to the quality and aesthetics of the products.

Bauman says that the characteristic of liquid life is the insatiable need to keep buying more. But it is not always the case and rational decisions made by people or the new generation as said by Inglehart ensures that people are increasingly preferring quantity over quality. The political space that this action creates will be instrumental in bringing about changes in the future. The existence of choice brings about changes in both the political and economic sphere.

Image 1: A supermarket trolley filled with products and a shelf with variants of the same juice

The above image is indicative of Bauman’s analysis of the modern consumer where the spread of liquid life and unlimited consumption is typified by its insatiability, where nothing is ever enough and the price mechanism maintains fluid boundaries of what can and can’t be bought (Bauman 2005). Given the numerous options at his disposal the consumer always looks at getting something better and is never satisfied. Consumer loyalty is to the brand and image, what he calls neo-tribalism and old loyalties to political parties make way for new loyalties to sub-cultures and protecting the integrity of their scene. Bauman thus has very little hope for a change in this situation.

Image 2: A man hand-rolling a cigar.

Image 2 gives a very different perspective to consumerism and their tastes. Unlike Bauman’s consumer who falls prey to advertisements and tries to buy the best of the lot, the consumer here favors a more personal approach to shopping. Rather than buy a cigarette that is mass produced, the hand rolling of individual cigars in the picture shows that the consumer still has a choice. He or she who buys this product is more worried about the environmental costs and the aesthetics of the product that the quantity that he or she can afford. This choice and the luxury to choose is the determining characteristic of the new generation of shoppers whose preferences are different from that of the older generation. While for the older generation shopping was about needs, shopping now has become a lifestyle where the consumer can decide how the product should be. Although not everyone has a choice, the growth in the call for environmentally sustainable products and the support for local industries is a sign of the changing times and the possibility of an increased political space for the consumer. The new social movements are also reflective of this opening up of political spaces where the power structure is no longer top down but bottom-up. Buying handmade products or locally grown products is a political statement. It transfers a significant amount of economic power to the local community and erodes little by little the consolidation of economic and retail power in the hands of a few retail giants.

Image 3: Boy holding a placard

Marcuse (1964) says that in the consumerist era, a dehumanizing process happens where people become mere resources to be manipulated ad administered. He says that it gets to a point where workers start thinking and acting like the machines they work with. This is still partially true but he also identifies the struggle for authenticity and genuine human needs against those perceived to be manufactured by those economic interests. The protest by the boy and his support for unions creates a momentary social and political space. But protests do not happen every day and as Bauman says, loyalties are divided between brands and to cater to group identities. Inglehart’s prediction that the intergenerational political conflicts would bring about a change looks rather feasible in today’s context. The boy holding a placard in indicative of the generational change. Consumption is not about sustenance alone and old forms of manufacturing and production will change as the new generation rationalizes its purchase options. Shopping becoming a political space makes it possible that there are no regulations and laws that condone child labor. Customers are always free and choose to boycott products that involve child labor. Boycotting or preferring specific products is also a political act and not just simple economics.
Shopping is political and is not private as it once used to be. The mere act of shopping for a product and the informed decision that consumers take is a political act. It signifies that there is still some freedom of choice and not democratic unfreedom (Marcuse 1964) that exists in a technologically advanced industrial civilization. Shopping does not also have to be a continuous, insatiable process as Bauman puts it but a space where consumers make informed decisions and change how products are made and delivered. Shopping then is not just an act of buying and selling but it very political that can change systems and also explain how systems work. Shopping at the same time explains how capitalism feds the consumerist society and also creates spaces to protest against the existing systems.

Works Cited

Image 1: A supermarket trolley filled with products and a shelf with variants of the same juice (2014) [Photograph] At: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2755603/Don-t-pick-politics-trip-supermarket-says-JANET-STREET-PORTER.html
Image 2: A man hand-rolling a cigar (2014) [Photograph] At: http://tbo.com/news/politics/feds-consider-cigar-exception-in-new-tobacco-rules-20140604/
Image 3: A boy holding a placard (2011) [Photograph] At: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/11/shopping-right-wing-lululemons-political-values/
Marcuse, Herbert (1964), One Dimensional Man, Beacon, Boston.
Inglehart, Ronald (1971), ‘The Silent Revolution in Europe: Intergenerational Change in Post-Industrial Societies’, The American Political Science Review, Vol. 65, No. 4, pp. 991-1017
Bauman, Zigmunt (2005), Liquid Life, Polity, New York.