235
Designer goods stimulate the desire
for purchase, possession, and for a
lifestyle far removed from the mundane
realities of existence. But desire, by its
very nature, is insatiable.
See also: Karl Marx 28–31 ■ Max Weber 38–45 ■ Herbert Marcuse 182–87 ■ Jean Baudrillard 196–99 ■
Thorstein Veblen 214–19 ■ Daniel Bell 224–25
WORK AND CONSUMERISM
capitalist societies, have their basis
in the Protestant work ethic of the
16th and 17th centuries. Campbell,
building on Weber’s work, advances
the theory that the emotions and
hedonistic desires that drive
consumer culture are firmly rooted
in the ideals of 19th-century
Romanticism, which followed on
the heels of the Enlightenment and
the Industrial Revolution.
Desire, illusion, and reality
The Enlightenment conceived
of individuals as rational, hard-
working, and self-disciplined. But
the Romantics saw this as a denial
of the very essence of humanity.
They stressed intuition above
reason, and believed that the
individual should be free to pursue
hedonistic pleasures and new and
exciting feelings.
The Romantic ethic was inculcated
into and carried forward by the
burgeoning middle class, and by
women in particular, Campbell
argues. Within consumer culture
this ethic is expressed as a self-
perpetuating loop: individuals
project their desire for pleasure and
novelty onto consumer goods; they
then purchase and make use of
those goods; but the appeal of the
product quickly diminishes as the
novelty factor and initial excitement
fade; the desire for excitement,
fulfillment, and novelty is then
projected onto, and restimulated
by, new consumer items. And
so the cycle of consumption,
fleeting fulfillment, and ultimate
disillusionment, repeats itself.The engine of capitalism
The cycle described by Campbell
is one of highs and lows for the
consumer. Consumer desire is the
very engine of capitalism because
it drives individuals to search
for that elusive yet satisfying
experience amid the endless tide of
new products. The consequencesof this process for economies based
on consumption are vast because
consumers are forever chasing the
latest commodities.
Campbell’s concept of the
Romantic ethic has had immense
influence on sociology and
anthropology. His work not only
dispels the overly simplistic view of
humans as necessarily disposed to
acquire things, but it also attempts
to shed light on the more positive
aspects of consumer society.
It is simply wrong, according
to Campbell, to suggest that
consumerism is an inherently
bad thing. Instead, the pursuit
and projection of our innermost
desires onto consumer goods form
a fundamental part of our own self-
realization in the modern world.
Campbell’s highly original
and powerful correctives to more
economically reductive and cynical
accounts of consumerism have
provided contemporary thinkers
with fertile soil in which to develop
more positive and historically
informed appraisals of modern-day
consumer society. ■Consumerism as mass deception
The uniqueness of Campbell’s
focus on the Romantic ethic as
the key to modern consumerism
lies in its engagement with the
impact of long-term historical
processes. His ideas differ
greatly from those of the
highly influential French post-
structuralist and postmodern
thinkers such as Roland Barthes
and Jean Baudrillard a decade
or so earlier.
For them, unlike Campbell,
the triumph of consumer culture
is to be resisted at all costs.They see the failed social and
political revolutions of the late
1960s as signifying the “death
of Marxism” and therefore
also the triumph of capitalism.
Barthes’ work on semiotics
identifies the advertising
industry as playing a key role
in blinding consumers to their
true wants and desires, whereas
for Baudrillard the media is
responsible for overwhelming
the consumer and concealing
the vacuous nature of modern
capitalist society.