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Wallowing in consumerism, passive citizens will make us pay

Last Updated 02 February 2012, 18:34 IST

As the debate rumbles on about India opening its doors further to powerful transnational companies, the question to be asked is just what is there to discuss?

The neo-liberal agenda of the US via the policies of various institutions, such as the World Bank and World Trade Organisation, has generally negatively impacted local economies, democracy and people’s rights, while fuelling inequality and lining the pockets of the rich and a relatively small section of the population.

Too ideological a standpoint? Not really, especially if you dig out the various reports on the rising inequalities in India, the low level of poverty alleviation (the same as it was 20 years ago, prior to economic liberalisation), the persistent deprivations and witness the ongoing often violent conflicts.

It’s for good reason that reactions against the US agenda are taking place and credible alternatives are being forwarded and implemented elsewhere in the world, such as in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and other places in Latin America via popular movements and democratically elected governments. Even in the US, where the ‘Occupy Movement’ has been prolific over the last six months or so, people are protesting and offering a plausible agenda for change.

But what of the rest of the population? What of the ‘don’t knows’, ‘don’t cares’ or ‘can’t be bothered’? How can they be galvanised into action?

On a recent train trip from Chennai to Delhi, a student told me that many of his friends at college are uninterested in politics or the problems facing India and the world at large. They were more taken with the marvels of the latest life changing iPod, world shattering laptop or revolutionary smart phone to hit the shelves. For such students, a college degree would be their passport to a nice job, nice car and a never ending stream of consumer products – everything a ‘model citizen’ could ever dream of.

But politicians have known for a long time that if economic prosperity can be guaranteed, then key sections of the population could be bought off and passive ‘model citizenship’ assured. The same compliant consumerist mindset of is prevalent among many in western countries too, even as they watch others taking to the streets to protest against corporate capitalism, job losses and attacks on the public sector and state provided welfare.

Long battle
Certain people only have the luxury of not caring, however, because others who went before them did care. And because they cared, they struggled for access to education, workers’ rights and equal rights for women, black people and gay people. It was a long and hard battle to ensure things like decent wages, housing and healthcare that the ‘not-my-problem’ set now take for granted.

Today, as people are struggling to obtain or maintain hard won freedoms and rights, many who were given them courtesy of others or previous generations of activists look around and say, while no doubt tapping away on their cellphone in some macburger hellhole and gorging on the products offered to them via the irresistible output of the entertainment and information industry, “Not my problem, leave me alone.”

As debate rages over the pros and cons of the opening of the Indian economy to outside interests, many have already been softened up to accept the ‘benefits’ of neoliberalism and consumerism.

But what’s the problem? They have a right to indulge in the crassest form of crass consumerism they like, don’t they? Well, maybe. But when people talk about democracy and the will of the people, or at least those privileged enough to express their will via their purchasing power, there is often a blind spot. How can there be democracy when giant corporations, through advertising, rich and well-connected lobbysists and PR machines, have been able to prescribe attitudes, habits and emotional reactions, which bind the consumers to their products and thus the perceived legitimacy of the free market system?

Even almost 50 years ago, French social philosopher Herbert Marcuse could see then that consumer products had the function of corrupting and manipulating. They promoted a false consciousness, which was immune against its falsehood. He had his finger firmly on the pulse as far back as 1964, when he argued that corporate capitalism had succeeded in tying people aggressively to the commodity form via the need for possessing, consuming and constantly renewing the gadgets and devices offered to and imposed upon them.

And politics has come to mirror the mindset of the marketplace. Think of some meaningless political slogan such as ‘we are change’ or some ad slogan that states ‘Cola is life’, even though it should actually read ‘is death’ for those farmers whose water supply has been contaminated or depleted near the local bottling plant. Nobody really knows what these slogans mean and perhaps nobody really cares. After all, it’s that feel-good, knee-jerk emotional factor that counts. That’s what the market is. That’s what politics has become.

Noam Chomsky once said that neo liberalism reduces the population to mouthing empty phrases and patriotic slogans and watching gladiatorial contests between politicians who are little more than models designed for them by the PR industry. He is of course correct because, as long politics and people are in the shadow of big business, any belief that we have genuine democracy is illusory.

Somehow, this neo liberalism, this passivity, this neo colonialism, by means of propaganda and garbled logic, is passed of as constituting freedom. And because it’s freedom, so the lie goes, it is also democracy. So we must have more of it. And the more we have of it, the better. Right?

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(Published 02 February 2012, 18:34 IST)

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