CONSUMERISM AND BRAVE NEW WORLD

EMILIO ZURITA SANTIAGO GARDUÑO

ALE GALLEGOS

OBJECTIVE: TRACE THE ORIGINS OF CONSUMERISM AND UNDERSTAND ITS

RELEVANCE IN BRAVE NEW WORLD.

WHAT IS CONSUMERISM?

• The belief that´s good for people to spend a lot of money on good or services.

WHO INVENTED CONSUMERISM?

• Thorstein Bunde Veblen (1857–1929)

• He was the first one to present examples of consumerism in a variety of his work.

HOW WAS CONSUMERISM INVENTED?

• When people started having spare time and money during the industrial revolution, advertising companies started leading people to believe that they needed things that they didn’t really need. Therefore, people started spending their money on these, and craving them even more.

WHEN WAS CONSUMERISM INVENTED?

• From about 1750. Around the time of the industrial revolution.

WHY WAS CONSUMERISM INVENTED?

• It wasn’t purposefully invented, but the idea of exploiting people’s desires for things was what gave it a purpose. And that is how it was invented.

WHERE WAS CONSUMERISM INVENTED?

• It was not in a specific place, but since it was closely related to the industrial revolution, we think it started in England.

EXAMPLES OF CONSUMERISM IN BRAVE NEW WORLD

• 1. Page 22 Line 4

• 2. Page 30 Line 3

• 3. Page 49 Line 5

EXAMPLE 1

• “The idea was to make them want to be going out into the country at every available opportunity, and so compel them to consume transport”

• This talks about how people were conditioned to have specific desires that led them to consume. Without these programmed desires, they never would have had the need to consume that particular thing.

EXAMPLE 2

• “Imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games witch do nothing whatever to increase consumption. It’s madness.”

• Children playing is an extremely common and natural thing. Therefore, it is a great opportunity to oblige them to consume. For this to work, children cannot know that they can play just as easily without purchasing intricate apparatus.

EXAMPLE 3• “I do love having new clothes.”

• “Old clothes are beastly, we always throw away old clothes.”

• “Ending is better than mending. The most stitches, the less riches.”

• Here, babies are being conditioned, with the core belief that when something breaks or simply gets old, it is better to get a new one entirely than to restore it. This way, there is guarantee that people will consume way more than necessary.

MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR• The book shows a clearly

disturbing society, and that society values consumerism above almost anything. In fact, it conditions people for extreme consumption. Since such a negative situation shows such favor towards consumerism, the author must have been against it. To him, excessive consumerism is part of a dystopian society.

CONCLUSION• We think that people are getting

use to buying things they don´t really need but only want. Consumerism is not 100% bad in our opinion, because it impulses the economy and plenty of jobs come from that. However, it is too easy to get confused about what you really want, and what you need. We agree with the idea that excessive consumerism is dangerous.