Freed From Desire1 Countering Consumerism with Critical Epicureanism Master Thesis Philosophy by Robin Habbé, written under guidance of Johan Hartle ABSTRACT: Consumer society has the consumer in a tight hold; due to the cyclical nature of desire the consumer is manipulated to keep on consuming with disastrous ecological and social problems as a result. In my thesis I will elucidate the rise and the workings of contemporary consumer societies, more specifically the element of hedonism, because the organization of consumer society can be categorized as hedonistic. I will discuss hedonism and happiness as understood by Marcuse, as well as tactics for liberation from the imposed desires to consume. I will discover what room we have for emancipating the consumer by providing an alternative form of hedonism, based in Epicureanism. This thesis will show that Marcuse and Epicurus have very similar ideas as to how we should live happily, but most importantly on how to distinguish between true and false desires in order to live a more free and happy life, and to not destroy the planet while living. Keywords: Consumerism, Liberation, Hedonism, Emancipation, Epicureanism, Desire, Happiness, Marcuse, Aesthetic Revisioning, Critical Hedonism 1 This title is a reference to the 1996 dance song by Gala, a Belgian performer. The lyrics seem to be very much aligned with the teachings of Epicurus: condemning money, power and fame and the desire for them as something we should liberate ourselves from through strong beliefs. I would certainly recommend listening to them. ~ 1 ~ Introduction We live in strange times: most of the affluent inhabitants on our beautiful planet are consuming away an immense proportion of the scarce resources we have left. These affluent consumers do not make up the majority of the human population, but they happily place the burden of their habits onto people and nature out of sight, whilst letting their own lives and homes overflow with superfluous amounts of stuff they do not need. Many of us know that there is no actual need for a lot of the consumables that we bring into our lives. The desire we feel to attain them seems to be real, unique and important, but after being gratified a new one swiftly arises. This locks the consumer into an endless cycle of desire. Most consumables lose their mesmerizing grip on us as soon as another desire replaces the fleeting feeling of joy we receive from attaining the consumable. Nevertheless, most consumers seem to be highly under the influence of consumerism and uphold the belief that happiness in life can be found through consumption. Many of the companies producing “the goods” flooding the market know that there is no actual need for the massive amounts of consumables they introduce. They know very well how to manipulate and shape our desires, making us long for the consumables that they present on the market through the application of various very advanced advertising techniques. These are rooted in psychological research, tapping into the unconscious mind of the consumer. They propose that need creation and the satisfaction of the created needs will bring happiness, whilst in actual fact it only brings about the creation of false desires, thus false happiness. Yet we continue to consume, as the companies sell. The belief in the possibility of living a gloriously happy life through the consumption of the consumables brought onto the market is just an illusion, springing from a form of false opinions. The false opinions are consciously imposed onto the masses by the industries that profit greatly from this organization of society. With their practices, the industries neglect to adhere value to the lives of factory laborers, the natural surroundings, the scarcity of non-renewable resources and the caused mental unrest within the western consumer. The only topic taken seriously in business is profit maximization and economic growth. ~ 2 ~ How have we arrived at a point in human history where companies have this kind of totalized control over our desires, without us being aware of it? In current societies consumerism is regarded as such a natural part of life that it is rarely questioned by the consuming mass, whilst the effects are seriously endangering their lives. Consumerism leads to a wide variety of problems, both ecological and social. The ecological challenges are numerous; ocean acidification and warming, melting of the ice caps, a rising sea level leading to mass-migration from coastal regions, droughts leading to loss of food resources (IPCC, 2014). The social effects are two-fold; firstly the exploitation of laborers at all levels of the supply chain, growing global inequality, unequal use and exploitation of resources – for instance through the practice of extractivism (Acosta, 2016, p. 54). Secondly the exploitation of the consumer resulting in pathological effects such as compulsive consumerism, consumer hyperchoice, shopping addictions, working too much in order to consume, people having towering credit card debts, the list could go on (Cherrier & Lego Munoz, 2007, p. 4). Many of the disastrous effects we have to face and try to resolve can be traced back to the capitalist organization of the World order, in which through mainstream ideology the exploitation of both labor and nature are centralized and legitimized in order to sustain the ideal of unlimited growth. Meanwhile propagandistic advertising schemes are instrumental in ensuring that products produced in this manner are pervasively consumed by the masses (Acosta, 2016, p. 55). In current times more than ever it is necessary to use critical theory to bring to light the ways in which society is structured unjustly and unsustainably. There is no time to lose as we have achieved scientific consensus about how the catastrophic effects of global climate change are caused by human activity, mainly by the habits of consumption of those living in Advanced Industrial Capitalist Consumer Societies (IPCC, 2014, p. 2). The most recent aggregate of climate research has shown that there is only 12 years left for us as a world community to change our ways. The impending catastrophe can be slightly limited if we can manage to radically change our culture within those next twelve years (pp. 28, 29). Since consumption today is the main locus of cultural production (Dunn, 2008, p. 5), it is very important to perform a swift cultural transformation into a different mode of consumption. In order to save the planet it is necessary that we consume in a way that is less resource intensive and more respectful to our natural environments. The need for a cultural transformation leads me to ask philosophy the following questions: What are imposed desires and how do they influence the ~ 3 ~ consumer? How can we free ourselves from these imposed desires? And to what extent do we have to free ourselves from our dependency of material objects? Method and structure of the thesis In this thesis I will explore the rise and workings of consumer society, which from now on will be termed Consumptia. I consider Consumptia to be an archetype for societies structured around the consumption of consumables, in which the citizens are primarily regarded as consumers. I will through this conceptualization explore it’s essential elements of desire and hedonism and in the end I will propose an alternative form of hedonism with the help of Epicurus. He has proposed some very insightful guiding principles we could all pragmatically implement in our own lives. In this manner I will counter the exploitative workings of hedonism with a critical hedonism through a revision of what it entails to attain happiness. I will be zig-zagging through history, focusing more on conceptual analysis than chronological order. I have decided on this structure because it is the most natural way to first illustrate the current context and how it came to be, after which I can go deeper into a conceptual discussion of hedonism and the necessity for liberation. At the end of the thesis I propose a pragmatic approach in order to realize the consumer liberation that I outline in the real world. My master plan is to take philosophy to the masses and that is why I want to revive elements of Epicurus’ thought and teachings and link them to important radical theory from the sixties. Both of which have been effective in starting progressive movements that find the hope for change in the transformation of individual consciousness. In the first chapter of my thesis I will analyze the rise of Consumptia, the land of consumerism. I will discuss the accounts of Zygmunt Bauman, a sociologist who is well- known for his works on consumerism and consumer societies. This is essential to provide the contextualization and foundation for the rest of my argument. The main focus will be on how the work ethic has been replaced by the aesthetics of consumption, and how this has affected the consumer in their subjectivity. Then I will go deeper into theory on consumer subjectivity, aided by a very extensive work by Robert G. Dunn, Identifying Consumption, so as to elucidate the elements that create the Consumer Complex, especially focusing on the sentiment of desire which plays an essential role in the perpetuation of Consumptia. Lastly I will zoom out again and discuss how the new stage of consumer capitalism, namely hedonistic consumerism, functions as a systemic accumulation regime. ~ 4 ~ The second chapter will be a conceptual discussion of hedonism, happiness and liberation, primarily exploring the 1938 essay On Hedonism by critical theorist Herbert Marcuse. I will firstly provide an overview Marcuse and his historical and philosophical context. Secondly I will discuss and explain Marcuse’s thoughts on hedonism. At the end of the chapter I will discuss discrepancies between Marcuse’s early work and his later work on liberation from the workings of advanced capitalist societies, a category of societies that also entails Consumptia in her many forms.