Is India shining? The irresistible consumerism gives the appearance of an India on the highway of progress and of becoming a super-power. The actual examination of the consumerist culture, however, has shown the deeper issues and questions lurking behind the facade of such slogans and impressionistic assessment of society. The social dynamics of consumerism tells us how it is part of a culture that is focussed on the enjoyment of the present moment, here and now, and how the form takes over the content, and aesthetics precedes ethical considerations. Consumerism serves as a means to identity-building and serves the purpose of affirming social status.

Conspicuous consumerism has serious repercussions on the poor of our society and also the natural environment. This twin concern is the primary basis for serious critique of an unbridled consumer culture, which can break the sustainability barriers of nature as well as of society. Depletion of natural resources and its degradation through the production, use and disposal of consumer goods calls for an alternative model of development. The control and checks the consumer movements can have over the production and marketing of goods regarding their ecological sustainability will serve as an important restraint. At bottom, in the ethical critique of consumerism what we need to do is to challenge the philosophy that believes the promotion of self-interest and personal ambitions as the way to progress and development. Ostentatious display of wealth and wallowing in luxuries in a country in which millions wallow below poverty line amounts to further humiliation of the poor. Consumer culture also brings in the challenge of self-transformation through a centrifugal movement towards the other.
Moralising is certainly not the most effective kind of response to consumerism. In fact, this could be counter-productive. Educational institutions have an important role to play. For example, what the colleges could do is to create a proper intellectual and cultural climate for the development of a critical sense and deep social and political consciousness among young students and the faculty. The proper response would be one that triggers the critical sense of the youth. It is they who have to put into operation their active agency. Given their idealism and the capacity for sacrifice, the boys and girls in the colleges and schools, far from requiring adults to protect them from consumerist culture, could transform themselves into active agents who critically challenge consumerism.

It is true that for many young people today, the ideal is to make money, and that too very quickly. For not a few, their icons would be a Bill Gates, or even a Harshad Mehta. There are very few who would like to be a Nelson Mandela, or a Medha Patker. But then we should remember that human beings not only have the tendency to fulfil their desires and aspirations, that is being exploited by consumer culture; but there is also a deep-seated capacity for selflessness and sacrifice, especially among the youth. The formative process of the youth today calls for even deeper involvement with the life of the poor and the marginalised. One of the greatest sons of India, Gautam Buddha, was challenged to leave behind the luxuries and the comforts of princely life, when human suffering and deprivation confronted him. I am convinced that greater social sensitivity and exposure to the struggles of the poor will stir the young students to exercise their critical sense vis-a-vis the prevailing consumer culture, and turn them into beacons of hope for a new and transformed society. 

This Article Is A Part Of The Utopia Series. Utopia
is not an unreal figment of imagination, or a chimera we chase in
futility. It is the projection of another real order of things, a
different set of values, and a new shape of the world and society. The
suppressed identities, women, minorities, Dalits and tribals and all
those who are marginalised in any way project their utopias. Utopia
leaps out from the shoulder of may struggles to glimpse and experience
the new and the different. Critique is indissociable from utopias. – See more at: http://sbfsa.blogspot.in/2013/11/minorities-in-age-of-globalisation.html#sthash.011yqV4U.dpuf
 This Article Is A Part Of The Utopia Series. Utopia is not an unreal figment of imagination, or a chimera we chase in futility. It is the projection of another real order of things, a
different set of values, and a new shape of the world and society. The suppressed identities, women, minorities, Dalits and tribals and all those who are marginalised in any way project their utopias. Utopia leaps out from the shoulder of may struggles to glimpse and experience the new and the different. Critique is indissociable from utopias.
Collected & Contributed By- 

Agriti Shrivastava,

Article Analyst, FSA
CNLU, Patna
This Article Is A Part Of The Utopia Series. Utopia
is not an unreal figment of imagination, or a chimera we chase in
futility. It is the projection of another real order of things, a
different set of values, and a new shape of the world and society. The
suppressed identities, women, minorities, Dalits and tribals and all
those who are marginalised in any way project their utopias. Utopia
leaps out from the shoulder of may struggles to glimpse and experience
the new and the different. Critique is indissociable from utopias. – See more at: http://sbfsa.blogspot.in/2013/11/minorities-in-age-of-globalisation.html#sthash.011yqV4U.dpuf

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