5 Criticas Al Consumismo

WHAT IS WRONG WITH CONSUMERISM?
AN ASSESSMENT OF SOME COMMON CRITICISMS
COLIN CAMPBELL

Contemporary consumerism is frequently the target of criticisms
by intellectuals, academics, religious spokesmen and commentators. Five of the more common of these criticisms are selected for
analysis and examination; these being (a) the need criticism (b) the
materialism criticism (c) the addictioncriticism (d) the selfishness
criticism, and (e) the irrationality criticism. Each is then shown
either to he misconceived or to lack empirical support. Finally
several of these common criticisms are shown to be at odds with
each other.
Keywords: consumerism, need, materialism, addiction, selfishness.
El consumo contemporáneo es frecuentemente objeto de criticas
por parte de intelectuales,académicos, líderes religiosos y comentaristas diversos. En este trabajo se analizan y examinan cinco de
las criticas más comunes, como son: la crítica de la necesidad, la
crítica sobre su materialismo, la crítica de la adiccíón, la crítica del
egoísmo, y la crítica sobre su irracionalidad. Se muestra a continuación que todas ellas están desencaminadas o carecen de apoyo empírico. Finalmente, sepone de manifiesto que varias de estas
críticas son incompatibles entre sí.
Palabras clave: consumo, necesidad, materialismo, adicción,
egoísmo.

1. INTRODUCTION

eriticising, if not actually vilifying, modem consumerism, is
now a widespread and commonplace feature of public comment
and debate in contemporary Western societies, with ministers of
religion, environmentalists, artistic andliterary figures, and even
left-wing politicians, all outspoken in their condemnation of this
characteristic feature of modem life. And of course none have been
more forceful in their condemnation that academics, for many of
Anuario Filosófico, XLlII/2 (2010), 279-296

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whom consumerism now seems to occupy that special role, formerly held by capitalism, ofconstituting the fundamental and
systemic source of all the ills of modem life'. Yet few of the criticisms commonly levelled against consumerism, or more commonly
against consumers and their behaviour, appear to be based on a
careful study of the phenomenon in question. Rather it seems that
its malign and undesirable nature is more often than not taken-forgranted, an attitude that is then backed up bythe repetition of
certain common assumptions conceming both its nature and the
motives than impel individuals to consume; assumptions that are
not merely highly questionable, but frequently contradictory. It is
thus the aim of this paper to subject a few of these common assumptions to scrutiny and to try and show that, if they are not
exactly false, then they are at least highly debatable.Those criticisms commonly levelled against the behaviour of
contemporary consumers (and thus by implication against consumerism itself) typically focus on the extent to which it is seen to
stem from, or is regarded as stimulating or encouraging, unworthy
motives (for example acquisitiveness, envy, greed, or the desire to
impress), or as embodying undesirable values or traits (such as
materialismor selfishness). Given that it is not possible to examine
all these claims in one short article five are selected for discussion;
these being (a) that modem consumerism typically involves
individuals buying products that they do not need (b) that it
embodies an undesirable materialism (c) that it should be considered a form of addiction (d) that is stems from selfishness, and
lastly (e) thatit is irrational and misguided in so far as it embodies
the presumption that the acquisition of more and more goods is the
path to happiness.

1. See, for just one example among many, Z. BAUMAN, Consuming Life
(Polity, Cambridge, 2007).

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2. T HE NEED CRITICISM

One of the more common criticism directed against modem
consumerísm is that it leads...