> Consumption habits are indeed a weighty concern for a number of
> activists who mainly see people as consumers (whether they realize
> it or not). In the social context where Marxism (with its focus on
> solidarity among exploited direct producers engaged in mass
> struggles) is a very marginalized world view and political project,
> it is no wonder that even left-wing activists may end up thinking of
> maldistribution (who gets paid more, who uses more resources, etc.)
> as the main cause of social ills and focusing on changes in
> individual consumption habits as avenues for larger social changes.
> I'm afraid that ranting against their focus on distribution and
> consumption probably won't change what they think.
The fixation on consumption is more than simply not Marxist. I fail to see how it's progressive. Seriously, how is it in sync with your goals? It's stoicism, an attempt to extricate one's self from the evils of "consumerism" through self-denial. This often comes in the form of a conceit, that *I* will change *my* lifestyle and, with my ill-gotten privilege (which gets a kind of backhanded mystification by an outwardly self-deprecating ideology -- a masochistic delusion of grandeur), bring deliverance to the wretched of the earth.
This radical anti-consumerism, Small is Beautiful-type politics isn't pursuing workplace democracy or socializing the means of production. It's solution is small business. And this segues into the larger issue of provincialism behind too much contemporary anti-capitalism. There is a good deal of activism that takes marginal yet conservative positions and repackages them in a Left masquerade. Joel Schalit makes this very lament in _Jerusalem Calling_. He expresses joy at hearing news of "anti-capitalist" protests make the radio, only to find that too many of the activist are "neo-tribalists". He began plying back the progressive veneer of some US radical rhetoric in a piece for Bad Subjects a while back:
"Right As Reign" by Joel Schalit
<http://eserver.org/bs/36/schalit.html>
He revisits this in _Jerusalem Calling_, which is filled with some damn fine essays, BTW. <plug>
The significance of a suffocating activist culture is that it impedes coherent strategies. I agree that a group's politics and culture aren't entirely separate matters. An insular and conservative activist culture can choke off the vitality of both thought and action. It can also prevent ineffective actions and stagnant perspectives from facing the criticism they need. The crusade against consumption is only one example of this.
-- Shane
P.S. On 'humorlessness', Martin Amis can have the last word: "And by calling him humorless I mean to impugn his seriousness, categorically: such a man must rig up his probity _ex nihilo_."
________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.