Consumerism

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It is commonly known that we live in a culture of consumerism. Personally, I think buying and selling things, even promoting them is not a wrong thing to do. However, the extreme form of consumerism is dangerous. The quotation by Ivan Illich, "In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy". Means to me that the extreme form of consumerism is caused by addiction and envy.

The prisoners of addiction refers to people being addicted to buying --they need to buy more. The person with this addiction probably doesn't even realise that he or she has an addiction. This addiction can be shopping addiction, the need to always be on-trend, or even a sense of being empty. The prisoners of envy refers not to the "need", but to the "Why can't I have". The role of branded stuff creates envy --this is why people queue for a new Apple release. It is not just to be the first, but also to avoid living in a state of envy, seeing what other people has.