|
June 16, 2006
Should we think of shifting our politics from a concern about growth and deprivation--- because around 5-25% of Australians live in poverty--- to a politics concerned about the social and environmental effects of affluence?
Markets are now dominant aren't they? And we are such good consumers. It is almost a way of life as well as a mode of self-expression, isn't it. Don't we also find consumer culture empty even as we embrace the market and consumption and say to ourselves 'I shop, therefore I am'?
Isn't a lot of our progressive politics still based in the heartland of scarcity and austerity whilst we live amidst prosperity?
|
And we are such good consumers.
This site is a good example of social production.
Are we good consumers? The 18-35 years olds have deserted TV, which is the classic form of passive consumption, and are now on the internet actively participating in consumption and production - probably concurrently.
Opensource software is another example. Given choice, we move to production, and not necessarily commercial production. Outside of market language, social production is best termed culture.