Kultursoziologie I

Prof. Dr. Knorr-Cetina

Übungsgruppe Jessica Haas
von Sven Giersig und Jonathan Heck am 28.05.2008

Handout: Colin Campbell -

The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism
„Ich habe heute Kinderwäsche gekauft, die ist wunderschön und wirklich günstig. Und
das Witzige ist: Ich habe gar keine Kinder“ (Süddeutsche, 26.5.2008)

1 deterministische Konsumtheorien

„(...) deterministic theories of consumer behaviour which emphasized instinct or external manip-
ulation, whilst the only tradition of thought which presented the individual as actively involved in
formulating his own wants placed the emphasis on emulative desires; solution which fails to distinguish
modern from traditional consumerism.“ (S. 88)

2 Campbells Gegenentwurf: moderner autonomer imaginativer

Hedonismus

day-dreaming

„Day-dreaming can perhaps best be envisaged as an activity which mixes the pleasures of fantasy with
those of reality.“ (S. 85)

„(...) images are elaborated in order to increase pleasure and not for any other reason, yet they still
contain that element of possibility which separates them from pure fantasy“ (S. 83)

„ (...) day-dreaming makes an irreversible difference to the way people feel about the life they lead.“
(S. 87)

„What happens in its modern form is that the process of day-dreaming intervenes between the formu-
lation of a desire and its consummation; hence the desiring and dreaming modes become interfused,
with a dream element entering into desire itself.“ (S. 85)

longing

„This is the excitement of anticipation which arises when a foreseen pleasure draws near, in other
words, the ingredient of desire.“ (S. 85)

„ (...) our behaviour may correspond to an imaginatively initiated, diffuse search for an ’unknown’
object to desire. This characteristic feature of modern hedonism is best labelled ’longing’, something
which differs from desiring in so far as it occurs without the presence of any real object. In other
words, although one must always desire something, one can long for . . . one knows not what“ (S. 87)

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„This dynamic interaction between illusion and reality is the key to the understanding of modern
consumerism and, indeed, modern hedonism generally. The tension between the two creates longing
as a permanent mode, with the concomittant sense of dissatisfaction with ’what is’ and a yearning for
’something better’.“ (S. 90)

consumption

„The essential activity of consumption is thus not the actual selection, purchase or use of products,
but the imaginative pleasure-seeking to which the product image lends itself, ’real’ consumption being
largely a resultant of this ’mentalistic’ hedonism.“ (S. 89)

„(...) many of the cultural products offered for sale in modern societies are in fact consumed because
they serve as aids to the construction of day-dreams.“ (S. 92)

disappointment

„Thus the fact that wants are continually being indulged should not cause us to overlook the fact that
they are also continually being created, with the consequence that ’frustration’ is a permanent state.“
(S. 95)

... and the circle of consumption

„The modern consumer will desire a novel rather than a familiar product because this enables him
to believe that its acquisition and use can supply experiences which he has not so far encountered in
reality.“ (S. 89)

„What matters is that the presentation of a product as ’new’ allows the potential consumer to attach
some of his dream pleasure to it, and hence to associate acquisition and use of the object with
realization of the dream.“ (S. 89)

„Their basic motivation is the desire to experience in reality the pleasurable dramas which they have
already enjoyed in imagination, and each ’new’ product is seen as offering a possibility of realizing this
ambition. However, since reality can never provide the perfected pleasures encountered in day-dreams
each purchase leads to literal disillusionment, something which explains how wanting is extinguished
so quickly, and why people disacquire goods as rapidly as they acquire them “ (S. 89f)

modern autonomous imaginative hedonism

„It is this ’as if response’ which is at the heart of modern hedonism; the ability to treat sensory data
’as if it were ’real’ whilst knowing that it is indeed ’false’.“ (S. 82)

„(...) to make desiring itself a pleasurable activity [...] This reveals a unique feature of modern self-
illusory hedonism - the fact that the desiring mode constitutes a state of enjoyable discomfort, and
that wanting rather than having is the main focus of pleasure-seeking.“ (S. 86)

„The intimate association between pleasure and pain, which is so characteristic of modern hedonism,
derives in large measure from this source. Thus the contemporary hedonist not only tends to welcome
deferred and interrupted gratification, but may also prematurely abandon a source of pleasure, as, by

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so doing, he maximizes the opportunities for indulging the emotions of grief, sorrow, nostalgia and,
of course, self-pity.“ (S. 88)

„The consummation of desire is thus a necessarily disillusioning experience for the modern hedonist
as it constitutes the ’testing’ of his day-dream against reality, with the resultant recognition that
something is missing. (...) In this way, the modern hedonist is continually withdrawing from reality
as fast as he encounters it, ever-casting his day-dreams forward in time, attaching them to objects
of desire, and then subsequently ’unhooking’ them from these objects as and when they are attained
and experienced.“ (S. 86f)

„The cycle of desire-acquisition-use-disillusionment-renewed-desire is a general feature of modern he-

donism, and applies to romantic interpersonal relationships as much as the consumption of cultural
products such as clothes and records.“ (S. 90)

3 Beispiel Tchibo.de
„That there is a close relationship between people’s day-dreams and their selection,
purchase, use and disposal of goods and services is patently revealed in the character
of many advertisements. These typically address themselves to dreams rather than to
needs in an attempt to associate given products with cherished illusions and hence awaken
desire.“ (S. 91)

Tchibo setzt mit seinem Image, seiner Außenwirkung und dem Marketingkonzept genau am von Camp-
bell beschriebenen diffusen Verlangen nach „irgendetwas“ („one must always desire something, one can
long for... one knows not what“, S. 87) an. Es werden Träume sowohl getriggert als auch Ankerpunkte
zum aktiven „selbst weiterträumen“ geliefert. Die Sehnsucht nach Harmonie und Glück wird aufgenom-
men, weiter ausgebaut und dient dann als expliziertes, schön bebildertes Vehikel um „Quatschpro-
dukte“ (W. Siebek, Handelsblatt, 19.04.2006) individualistischen Konsumenten (Handelsblatt: „Soviel
Einheitsangebot und Einheitslook gab es nur in der DDR“) anzudrehen.