SHOPPING IDEOLOGY PART 1
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SHOPPING IDEOLOGY PART 1
I thought a lot when putting the title above; Because it could be the ideology of consumption or the ideology of capitalism… However, I decided on the "shopping" ideology. Because the motivation provided by the word "shopping" is so strong... Moreover, this is the way the activity in question is said in daily language... (I should mention here that what I mean by shopping is not the basic necessities that a person cannot give up for his existence. It is the exchange of consumer goods that are not directly related to our existence.)< /span>
At this point, contemporary humans are experiencing an ontological transformation; The concept of reality is turned upside down. Capitalism as a system produces meaning/value and sells meaning/value every day. Moreover, it does so with the illusion that we produce such meanings/values ourselves. We remain defenseless from the pressure of shopping disease. So, how does the system work, how does it achieve this?
A life is taking shape, far from the culture of sacrifice produced by the ideologies we are accustomed to. The idea of happiness is produced and marketed. When thinking about happiness and unhappiness, I think for happiness; the absence of a state of unhappiness. Happiness should not be coincidental, it should be "legitimate". Unhappiness is when this routine is disrupted and expectations are not realized.
In order to understand the subject, this state of happiness must be understood well; So let's listen to Aristotle for a bit. According to him, happiness is "wealth determined by virtue", "independence of life", "maximum pleasure in a safe manner", "personal property, the power of preservation of the body and the well-being of the state of the body, together with the use of these".
After all, people want to live happily in a society. Being an accepted member of that society requires knowing the values and consumption habits of that society. Especially in terms of shopping, buying the "right" things from the "right" places seems to guarantee them being in the social position they want... When this happens, it becomes inevitable to speak the language of the brands they consume. Brands bring happiness to individuals. Maybe this is where the secret of capitalism lies. That secret is nothing other than capitalism's ability to produce personal happiness (despite all the unhappiness it creates). The happiness in question is directly proportional to a person's shopping potential. Today's people are happy to the extent that they shop, and unhappy to the extent that this ability is limited. As people shop, they provide the dominant economic system with the "energy" it needs... Thus, highways, bridges, plazas and shopping malls are increasing day by day; Technologies are updating themselves and getting stronger every day.
If we look at the activity in question a little more closely, we can say that shopping is all the behaviors and situations that mediate us in our relations with the world. Thus, we can express the shopping logic in its popular sense as a general view of the world that shows a personality type, a form of behavior, a reflection of an attitude, and makes people happy with its presence and unhappy with its absence. Therefore, I think it would not be an exaggeration if we call shopping a kind of ideology. After all, aren't mainstream ideologies just theories that promise happiness to people in an uncertain time? The difference here is that what I call the ideology of shopping does not postpone happiness to an indefinite time, it gives it immediately. This "happiness" may be short-lived and temporary, but people taste it immediately.
