Mass Consumption And Mass Production Essay - 2183 Words

Most dystopian societies, depicted in dystopian fiction, are mass-consumption societies in which people are encouraged to consume more to compensate for their suppression. In the field of economics mass consumption is an economic theory; and economists define mass- consumption society as the society in which all people expand their range of consumer goods. The idea of mass consumption is new in the human history because it requires mass production and both are based on the development of science and technology. Mass consumption and mass production require opulence which was not available in the past. In 1964 George Katona, the American founder of behavioural economics, confirmed this idea: Throughout the course of human history, poverty has been the rule, riches the exception. Societies in the past were called affluent when their ruling classes lived in abundance and luxury†¦ [Now] We are rich compared with our grandparents and compared with most other peoples of the world (Katona 5-6). In Huxley’s Brave New World and Lowry’s The Giver people are trained to be over-consumers and hard workers. In these dystopian societies human behaviour is conditioned so that people can consume goods and services as much as possible. This conditioning in turn means that the makers of such goods or providers of such services are able to stay employed. The caste system in Brave New World encourages consumption and production. And in The Giver each person gets a job which should beShow MoreRelatedDouble Happiness : A System Of Mass Consumption And Production1495 Words   |  6 PagesDouble Happiness takes place in a system of mass consumption and production where individuals expend themselves in work, and become submerged in the world of objects which they construct in face of themselves. This is made possible as the ruling class who own the means of production control elements of their society, particularly in defining or degrading the existence of the lower working cla ss. Jade, the central driver of the film, is evidently part of the class of people who have nothing to sellRead MoreMustafa Mond And Aldous Huxleys Brave New World1001 Words   |  5 PagesMond and Henry Ford both enforce mass production in their communities, and Huxley proves how mass production strips individuals of their identity. 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Walter Benjamin, a German literary critic and philosopher during the 1900’s, strongly believed that the mass production of pieces has freed art from the boundaries of tradition, â€Å"For the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependance on ritual† (Benjamin 1992). This particular excerpt has a direct