Under Construction @ Keele 2016 Volume 2 Issue 1 | Page 57

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becomes much easier to win.10 The media assaults their senses with an array of
objects, which they are made to feel they must own now, with immediate effect,
regardless of the consequences.11 Human entities become mere canvases of the
latest

fashions,

technological

developments

and

commodities;

symbols

of

consumption personified.12 The consumer recognises the importance of commodity
accumulation for status enhancement and therein seeks to invest in objects to avoid
being deemed undesirable and ‘disposable’ trash, like the outdated products they
possess.13
Thus, commodities become ‘must have’ possessions, something which all
individuals need to acquire to understand who they are, where they fit within society
and to experience positive wellbeing.14 Without consumption, people could not derive
a selfhood due to their identity being intrinsically tied to the artificial objects which
they purchase. This belief continues despite individuals needing to work longer hours
(often necessitating exploitative work) and undertaking personal sacrifice.15 From the
Neo-Marxist, Frankfurt School perspective, Adorno notes that within the current
‘culture industry’, the ‘true nature of things’ is ‘disguis[ed]’ to ensure all people ‘forget
[their] suffering’ and continue to sustain this self-harming way of life.16 This industry
creates false needs, based on fetishism, leading individuals to believe they will
experience ‘authentic happiness’ when they purchase objects. However, in reality
these objects only establish a fake sense of accomplishment and consumers become
no more of a real entity than the products they buy.17
Furthermore, the state and the media encourage individuals to purchase
commodities to ‘stag[e]’ a fashionable ‘character’ according to societal expectation.18
The price of an object should not matter as long as the individual upholds a socially
approved appearance guaranteeing their inclusion within the general populace.19 If

10

Henry Giroux, Youth in a Suspect Society. Democracy or Disposability? (United States of America:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 32.
11
Ibid.
12
Ibid., 33.
13
Ibid., 54
14
Theodor, Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture, (London: Routledge,
1991), 85.
15
Ibid., 3,6
16
Ibid., 10.
17
Bernstein, 1991, 13.
18
Andrew Trigg, “Veblen, Bourdieu, and Conspicuous Consumption,” Journal of Economic Issues 35,
(2001): 101.
19
Erving, Goffman, The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life (London: Penguin Books, 1959).