The Culture of Consumption

Major term of 20th Century academic social analysis.

Definition

 * At its simplest: a consumer culture is a society with lots of consumer goods - Michael Schudson
 * At its more discussed: a consumer culture is taken to be a society in which human values have been grostesquely distorted so that commodities become more important than people

Comparative Histories

 * Pre-Industrial Society is not really a consumer society, because products are far more personally produced- self-sufficiency
 * Industrial Society makes individuals into persons who sell their time as though it is commodity, and then are made to believe that everything else is also a commodity which purchasing and consuming can be a situation of happiness


 * Relics of Older Society -> Search for "The True Meaning of Christmas"

History

 * By the late 18th Century, Western Society had many signs of developing Consumer Culture
 * Increased standard of living -> Connected to goods
 * Decline of the Work Week
 * 66 Hours a week in 1860
 * 50 Hours a week in 1914


 * Growth of leisure time
 * Diffusion of consumer products
 * Advertisements

Development of Self

 * By 1800 -> The development and need of "Character"
 * Citizenship
 * Reputation
 * Manhood
 * Patriotism
 * Moral Integrity


 * Emerson
 * "Moral order through individual nature"

Personality

 * Warren Susman -> Studies the literature of ideas of the person
 * Development of need to have a powerful and engaging personality
 * Shift from self-sacrifice to idea of self fulfillment
 * Books and courses offered to develop/modify personality

Seeing Consumerism

 * Consumer culture is complex because it is the water and we are fish -> we don't see the water
 * You cannot see the consumer culture individually -> You have to multiply the perception of an individual by the whole of society to render the entire practice

The Story of the Dishes

 * Professor Smulyan explains the trauma of her life in trying to

Bruce Barton

 * Son of a minister, entitled childhood, had imagined becoming a History Professor, gave it up, traveled the US
 * Found a way to bridge the Purtian work ethic to a new culture of consumerism
 * 1913 -> Founded a ad company
 *  A Man Nobody Knows -> Presented a new vision of Jesus
 * Barton's Jesus -> Strong, Capitalist, Socialable
 * The 12 Apostles become a corporation of low, weak capitalists made strong under Jesus as a CEO
 * The parables are Public Relations genius
 * Always does something new
 * Barton turns Jesus into a business man
 * Because Barton wants to make the advertising man into the new ministers