Book Reviews
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed.” Francis Bacon (d. 1626)
Does Ethics Have A Chance in a World of Consumers?
Zygmunt Bauman
Boston, Harvard University Press, 2008, $26.
Reviewed by Monty M. Self, Little Rock, AR
As I walked down the aisles arms filled with Thomas the train, children’s books, and a leather journal for my wife; it caught my eye, Does Ethics have a Chance in a World of Consumers. How dare he lecture me about my spending habits, I thought as I picked up Zygmunt Bauman’s new book. What could a Polish born Marxist professor have to say that he has not already said in his first fifty plus books? I smirked at the irony as I sank into one of those big comfy chairs, setting my cardboard cup filled with a double shot of espresso on the arm rest. I am here in Barnes and Nobles during the Christmas season and I am reading a book about the evils of consumerism and the free market that was written by a man who has written too many books and is selling this one for $26. As I set my capitalistic biases aside, I discovered that Bauman had far more to share than tired, worn out remarks about Adam Smith and the evil of capitalism.
Bauman goes beyond the comments that many Marxist make about the downfall of society as it transitions from a producer economy to a consumer economy. Bauman takes the time to look at how the liquidity of postmodernism has eroded our sense of ethical stability. The winds of individual subjectivism have quickly chiseled away at our bedrock principles and left each of us isolated in a vacuum void of cultural or family tradition. Without a tradition, community, or objective standard to fall back on, each individual is forced to become his or her moral compass and the traditional concept of responsibility is forced to change. Bauman argues that “The concepts of responsibility and responsible choice, which used to reside in the semantic field of ethical duty and moral concern for Others, have moved or have been shifted to the realm of self-fulfillment and calculation of risks” (52).
The lack of moral foundations coupled with a global consumer based economy leaves us with nothing more than a hurried, ill-content lifestyle that never stops. Bauman argues, “The consuming life is not about acquiring and possessing. It is not even about getting rid of what had been acquired the day before yesterday and was proudly paraded a day later. It is, first and foremost, about being on the move” (147). Consumption does not bring happiness or contentment, just a desire to be on the move, even if without direction.
Bauman’s work is to be praised for its challenge. Even a far-right conservative would be hard pressed to reject Bauman’s description of our consumerist society. Bauman masterfully forces his reader to evaluation the western lifestyle for its eternal value. While Bauman does not propose a clear solution for our declining culture, he does understand what kind of solution is needed. He writes, “Global problems have only global solutions. On a globalizing planet, human problems can be tackled and resolved only by solitary humanity” (109).
While the text has great values for its ability to cause the reader to rethink his or her consumer tendencies, it falls short in several categories. First, Bauman fails to give a clear definition of consumerism and frequently uses the term to imply capitalistic economics. In this case Bauman has cheapened the moral enterprise by making a non-sentient being (the market) a moral agent. Next, Bauman lays too much blame on the market place and the economy and not enough on individual moral agents. The book is in need of a clear anthropology which outlines human needs and the state of nature. Bauman simply lays the blame for human greed and ill content upon the market without explaining why so many are driven by this consumer economy.
Finally, Bauman lamentation about the enlightenment’s effect upon bedrock human values and the family are misguided being that his own Marxist tendency is based upon those same enlightenment ideals which lead us down this postmodern road.
While political liberals will love Bauman’s work, it is a must read for even the most traditional capitalistic thinker. Whatever the cause of our current lust for consumption, it is in desperate need of a solution. We buy without knowing why. We look for something new without knowing why we need it and most of all we are still not happy or content. Bauman’s work is a wonderful starting place for a discussion of how the global economy must change, but this dialog must go beyond Bauman. It must be a global dialog.
With that thought, I left my coffee half-drunk; returned the trains, books, and the journal; but I still just had to buy this book!
