Ethics in a Consumer Society: Bauman’s Arguments

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Zygmunt Bauman is believed to be one of the most valued and honored sociologists nowadays. During his long life, Bauman is putting a lot of effort into explaining the most important tendencies in modern human society. In the 1990s, Bauman’s works began to concentrate on a new theme. This theme was postmodernity and consumerism in a globalized society. Bauman’s works of this period are full of important findings concerning the ethics of a consumer society. Evaluating the argument Bauman presents in his works I must confess that it is very strong and supported with numerous facts. Bauman’s findings concerning ethics in a consumer society mean a lot to me as they help understand why numerous things that I do not like occur around me, and how to act in these new conditions.

Main body

Studying Zygmunt Bauman’s works discussing the theme of postmodernity and consumerism helps see that modern society has greatly changed. It is organized on a new type of relations. People’s way of thinking is concentrated around the idea that happiness is in acquiring more material things. Everything in our reality is built around the idea of consumerism. People are constantly bombarded by endless advertising and exposure of goods and services (Bauman Postmodernity and its discontents 20). Whenever one turns on a television receiver he or she sees advertisements of the most varied services and goods, and these offerings always claim that they are the best, the most profitable, the most advantageous, and it is impossible to be happy without the things they demonstrate. On their way to work, people see the endless amount of billboards and other printed advertisements. Entering shopping areas, people are offered numerous presentations that “shout” you must buy this or that or your life will be miserable otherwise. All of that makes people work longer hours, find a second or third job, neglect their families, and destroy their health. More than that people became commodities themselves. “Those who are in high demand reap the rewards, and those who are not facing bitter isolation” (Patterson 469). If a person is in demand he or she has a better job, better money, better relationships with people around, and so on. Everything in modern-day human life is built around the idea of consuming to be happy. “We consume to be consumed and are consumed so that we can consume. This is the “secret” of consumer society and the central thesis of Consuming Life” (Patterson 469). In his works concerning consumerism, Bauman explains how such tendencies in daily life affect people. Bauman argues that consumerism robs people of their joy in life (Bauman Consumerism and the new poor 35). People want to have everything here and now. The way how their ‘thirst” will be quenched is not important (Fearn 30). According to Patterson, “Bauman claims that consumers understand time in terms of “punctuated” presents, rather than thinking in terms of gradual progress and stability” (470). Such a way of thinking makes people egotistical and selfish. This, in turn, makes them unhappy as happiness is in satisfaction with what one has whereas consumerism makes people insatiable (Bauman Globalization: The Human Consequences 39).

Evaluating the argument that Bauman develops in his works concerning consumerism I conclude that the material world mad on having more is a place where people cannot be truly happy. Examples from real life prove this simple truth day by day. Even though people assume that they will be happier in case they will have something important for them at the end of the day they are disappointed. When you have something you wanted before you are not happy as the world around you dictates a new wish to you. This puts you into an endless run for money where you lose your friends, your family, and even yourself with your moral standards and principles, and your physical health, and spirituality. I see it very well in the example of my parents. All of their life they work very hard to have more material things. They are exhausted by a constant desire to have what the world around them says they should have. In this vein pursuit, they lost their affection, their mutual respect, and even the ability to communicate peacefully. They also lost their health. However, at the end of the day, their consumerism did not make them happy. Their example shows that the consumer world where everything is sold and bought including human lives is not a place for real happiness and contentment in life.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Zygmunt Bauman’s works discussing the theme of postmodernity and consumerism along with the ethics of a consumer society demonstrate a sober outlook on our modern-day reality. In his works, Bauman explains that complicated schemes designed by capitalists in order to make people live for consumption are dangerous as they create illusions able to destroy everything that is really important for a human. What I see in people’s lives around me proves that Bauman is not mistaken.

Works Cited

Bauman, Zygmunt. Postmodernity and its discontents, New York: New York University Press, 1997. Print.

Bauman, Zygmunt. Work, consumerism and the new poor, Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1998. Print.

Bauman, Zygmunt. Globalization: The Human Consequences, New York: Columbia University Press, 1998. Print.

Fearn, Nicholas. “Zygmunt Bauman: His Concerns Are Consumerism, Modernity and Power. to Some He Is the Greatest Living Sociologist. and He Lives Quietly in Leeds.” New Statesman. 2006: 30+. Questia. Web.

Patterson, Matt. “Zygmunt Bauman, Consuming Life.” Canadian Journal of Sociology 33.2 (2008): 468+. Questia. Web.

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Ethics in a Consumer Society: Bauman’s Arguments

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