Through the influence of radio, TV and the internet we are connected to and become an undifferentiated mass of consumers, such as consumers of industrial products like cars, food, clothes as well as consumers of culture itself.
Yet the consumer only consumes, if he feels a need to do so. The point is, that the capitalistic system can only keep up itself by steady growth. Therefore on the on hand it is necessary to produce and offer new products almost every day and on the other hand it is necessary to build up a need for these products.
At least in industrialised countries all basic needs of humans are almost totally satisfied, like needs for food, for clothing, for living room, etc.. If we e.g. consider the pyramid of needs by US-Psychologist Abraham Maslow only the basic needs of a human can finally be satisfied by industrial products. Non-basic needs like social acknowledgement or self-development can hardly be satisfied by the economy.
It seems logical, that, when basic needs are fulfilled, the only way to achieve sustainable economic growth is by creating constantly new, but after all artificial needs. These needs are often build up just by offering a new product. Feeling the need, that the new car, one is buying, has to have leather seats is as artificial as feeling the need for a special taste of soup or a special type of TV. Just by offering these products the need for the product is generated.
Yet, if the product would not exist, the feeling of need would mostly not exist either. That is, what distinguishes a basic need like for food and warmth from artificial needs.
Source: http://polphilblog.wordpress.com/articles-and-essays/the-theme-of-alienation-in-max-horkheimers-and-theodor-w-adornos-dialectic-of-enlightenment-2/
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