Consumerism is the curse of the contemporary world

1474 Words6 Pages
“Consumerism is the curse of the contemporary world”. Discuss this statement and the level to which you agree with it. This paper discusses the statement that ‘consumerism is the curse of the contemporary world’, hereafter referred to as ‘the proposal’. A discussion of the syntax of the proposal is followed by a synthesis of the term ‘consumerism’. An overview of the argued harms and benefits of consumerism is given and the possibility that ‘consumerism’ and the ‘contemporary world’ may be a tautology is discussed. It is accepted that it is such and the proposal therefore cannot be logically affirmed. In replacement it is put that the contemporary world is inextricable from consumerism and therefore shares its harms not suffers them. The proposal lends itself to two distinct interpretations. Depending on how one reads the preposition ‘of’ it could be that ‘the contemporary world has produced the curse that is consumerism’ or that ‘the contemporary world suffers the curse that is consumerism’. I proceed on the basis of the second possibility on the grounds that it would be the more common syntactic inference. I also proceed on the casual usage of the word ‘curse’ which I shall say is simply ‘source of harm’. However, the proposal is that consumerism is ‘the curse’ not just ‘a curse’ which more substantially burdens it. In fact if one were to construe ‘the curse’ in its narrowest terms it may be that the proposal is that consumerism is the only source of harm in the contemporary world. However, I proceed on the broader restatement that ‘consumerism is the most significant source of harm in the contemporary world’. What then, shall we take the term consumerism to mean? The term consumerism can have a range of distinct meanings. Swagler (1994, p.357) notes the irony of the conflict between the two major accepted meanings, ‘consumer protection’ and

More about Consumerism is the curse of the contemporary world

Open Document