“Self-fashioning through shopping is a perfect pastime for the modern control society – non-threatening and solipsistic.” (Hari Kunzru for The Guardian)
Kunzru just wrote a piece for The Drawbridge (also excerpted in The Guardian) on the vacuousness of “luxury”. This is not an earth-shaking article and most of its points are self-evident to the aware. Nevertheless, it bears reading as a succinct essay on obvious truths that too many have somehow managed to overlook, look over, and choose not to look at. Also, it is by an author whose first novel I enjoyed tremendously, and whose subsequent ones I also enjoyed.
"...too many have somehow managed to overlook, look over, and choose not to look at." Isn't the whole purpose of our consumer driven economy to actually prevent or divert people from looking at these "truths". The only way it can continue to grow is for people to be constantly kept dissatisfied with what they have and yearning for more, or better, or latest, etc. "Luxury", i.e. more expensive, goods are needed simply to keep those who can afford more to keep spending more. Shopping and Democracy - two of the great myths of the military/industrial/capitalist society - opiates for the masses.