SMC219Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Planned Obsolescence, Formal Wear, Commodity Fetishism
3 Nov 2017
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Everyone has labour to market -> sell -> everything turns into capital. Some people get more capital than others -> more power and disadvantage people with less (undervalue labour) Capitalists: small high class (will eventually push bourgeoisie into proletariat -> revolution and dictatorship of proletariat) False consciousness: manipulated to not being aware to what is happening to them. Commodity fetishism: constant need to keep buying stuff you don"t need to fill emptiness/contrived consumerism. Obsolescence: perfectly good items go out of style. Number: convinced we need more of a given item even if we don"t need it. Religion: opiate of the masses; drug that kept everyone unaware. Impoverishes us and alienates us from our labour. Durkheim: anomie (not feeling like you belong) Flaws: instrumentalism (too much emphasis on labour and capital); overestimate false consciousness. Forced obsolescence: technology stops working -> force you to buy new technology (i. e. old.
