/lit/ - Literature

Also it's amusing to me that Marcuse is considered a boogeyman in the West by many on the right and some self-described (but socially reactionary) "communists" who stan Xi Jinping online even while Xi himself is a big Marcuse fan and has "One-Dimensional Man" on his reading list published by the Global Times. Now there are policies to reign in waste, financial speculation, excessive consumption and so forth. They just up and banned for-profit private tutoring services a few weeks ago.

>In modern consumer societies, Marcuse argues that a small number of individuals are empowered to dictate our perceptions of freedom by providing us with opportunities to buy our happiness. In this state of "unfreedom", consumers act irrationally by working more than they are required to in order to fulfill actual basic needs, by ignoring the psychologically destructive effects, by ignoring the waste and environmental damage it causes, and by searching for social connection through material items.

>It is even more irrational in the sense that the creation of new products, calling for the disposal of old products, fuels the economy and encourages the need to work more to buy more. An individual loses his humanity and becomes a tool in the industrial machine and a cog in the consumer machine. Additionally, advertising sustains consumerism, which disintegrates societal demeanor, delivered in bulk and informing the masses that happiness can be bought, an idea that is psychologically damaging.

>There are alternatives to counter the consumer lifestyle. Anti-consumerism is a lifestyle that demotes any unnecessary consumption, as well as unnecessary work, waste, etc. But even this alternative is complicated by the extreme interpenetration of advertising and commodification because everything is a commodity, even those things that are actual needs.

I'm not sure how any of them square that. But I just think they're looking for scapegoats instead of reading anything.

https://youtu.be/EHk6ttVn8rY

You people are so pathetic.

https://youtu.be/KtbYoCssEnw

>>18361548
Hmmmmmm

https://youtu.be/qceL8xO68mQ