Consumer society

Summary

Dominique Pagani approaches the consumer society through a thesis of Michel Clouscard that he takes up: the consumer society does not exist, only one class consumes1. He opposes a consensus that runs from Soral to Lordon, and he criticises Lordon for turning Clouscard into a moralising critic of consumption. Drawing on Néo-fascisme et idéologie du désir, he distinguishes subsistence goods, collective infrastructure, household equipment, and a playful, marginal and libidinal consumption reserved for the privileged2. For him, the car, the refrigerator or the washing machine are equipment won by the Popular Front and the Resistance, not consumption. He holds that the majority does not consume enough, and he measures excess against the productive forces of the period. He defends the plan against generalised degrowth, which he likens to the employers' investment strike1. He links anti-consumerist discourse to the Marshall Plan, to May 68 and to Marcuse3, and he sees it as a puritanism that limits the consumption of the working classes. In his view, the resentment it fosters towards the worker who gets ahead has been able to serve as a breeding ground for fascism2.

1. 1C for Consumption17 Dec 2014
2. 2Neo-fascism and the ideology of desire: Clouscard, as relevant as ever2 May 2024
3. 3Everything is allowed, nothing is possible! Michel Clouscard, May 68 and the capitalism of seduction14 Jul 2021

Introduction produced automatically from the 5 sessions on this theme, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the sessions.