Ethics of Consumption - cultural capitalism

economist/philosopher Slavoj Zizek argues against a reliance on private charity, and particularly ethical consumption, as a solution to global problems. He suggests that, say, buying fair-trade coffee at Starbucks is unlikely to relieve inequities that are directly related to global capitalism (of which Starbucks is a part and beneficiary), and may in fact reinforce them by making individuals in more privileged nations feel like they've done something to address the problem, thus relieving them of any obligation to look more deeply into the problem:

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Ethics
• of
• consumption
• cultural
• capitalism

[truthcrusade]

Slavoj's solution is to construct a society in which private property (such as one's right to his own labor earnings) is denied by a totalitarian state in which poverty is impossible. The only way to give a man something he didn't work for is to take it away without compensation under the threat of violence from someone else who made it: Slavoj is calling for SLAVERY. Communism hurt hundreds of millions of people and brought unimaginable poverty everywhere it was embraced, on all continents.

[coffeedrinkingjerk]

@coffeedrinkingjerk i mean it REALLY REALLY doesn't fit, in my opinion... it's actually wrecking the video for me.

[coffeedrinkingjerk]

wtf is with that background music?? is it some kind of exercise in Brecht's alienation effect? ??

[stillceaser]

@vempparen Zizek critically engages the presuppositions (philosophical and psychological) that underpin economics. It is a meta-critique. You dont have to BE an economist to grasp economics (or any social/behavioural science for that matter) or their presuppositions. Presuppositions that underpin disciplinary frameworks are about so much more than the particular discipline itself.

[AeolisticFury]

@vempparen I would say this has less to do with economics and more to do with our social and cultural constructs surrounding the current economic system.

[MassiveJungle]

I'd like to think that the Starbucks ad at the end would not run in my home country of Australia because it would seem to cheesy, too cynical, that people would not believe in it but I think that's probably wishful thinking...

[vempparen]

Zizek is not an economist...