There is no doubt about the strength of the country, even if China has a lot of black technology, even if the country has fallen into an unprecedented quagmire, the country is still one of the most powerful countries in the world, and in many ways it is incomparable to the current China. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In this case, the United States may turn over at any time. For example, in the crisis of extinction, all classes worked together to rein in external forces and cultivate internal forces, fighting for more than ten years of low-key, in exchange for the opportunity to soar to the sky.

Is this possible? Actually, there is.

It is necessary to understand that the United States is not a country like China, and if there is really some problem, if someone reacts, the relevant departments will inevitably take action. The United States is different, the United States is a capitalist country, what is capitalism? In fact, it is a capitalist, what is a capitalist? Not exploitation, not oppression, but bosses in the modern sense.

Working in their companies, if there are questions that they want to respond to, and those questions are offensive to their interests, what will the bosses answer?

Love to do it, not dry it.

This is the answer, and the same is true for the United States, once the background of the United States reaches a consensus, it is very likely that the United States will integrate all its forces and re-accumulate the power to rise. It's not impossible, because that's what the culture of the United States is.

Consumerism is a word that often appears in the study of Chinese culture today. The so-called "consumption" here does not refer to the demand and satisfaction of goods in the traditional political economy category, but refers to the relationship between people and goods.

Baudrillard, the author of "Consumer Society", believes that consumption constitutes the internal logic of the current capitalist society; The so-called cultural logic of late capitalism also covers the consumer society. In a consumer society, everything in life becomes a consumer product. The ubiquity of consumer goods justifies capitalism, and "the consumer society first demonstrated the myth of capitalist equality." ”

Everyone is equal when it comes to the consumption of goods. British scholar Lu Rui believes that "consumer culture is a special form of material culture that emerged in European and American societies in the second half of the 20th century. ”

Consumption in the realm of material culture is not limited to the commercial system. Commodities are used in a cultural context, and everyday necessities also have cultural meanings. Lu Rui further illustrates his argument by quoting two other scholars: "Commodities have value, and their value depends on the values of consumers...... Each person is both a judge of value and an object of judgment...... People choose these goods because they have a corresponding grade ......"

Consumption is a reflection of one's identity. Consumption was particularly important in the 20th century" and represents a major shift in capitalism...... Capitalism began to need to ensure that people actively and in a variety of special ways participated in the consumer society. ”

Consumer culture presupposes the expansion of capitalist commodity production, and the result of the expansion of production is the growth of leisure and consumer activity. "When people consume goods, social relationships are revealed."

The consumer society and consumer culture that appear in the above quotation are actually the same thing as the term consumerism; The cultural-social implications of the consumption involved constitute the problem of consumerism. When we study the problem of consumerism in the culture of the United States, we study the consumption value orientation of the people of the United States that has become a way of life. "Consumerism refers to a way of life in which the purpose of consumption is not to satisfy actual needs, but to constantly pursue the satisfaction of desires/desires that are manufactured and stimulated. In other words, what people consume is not the use value of goods and services, but their symbolic meaning. ”

Consumerism in rice culture is characterized by this. The United States is a country composed of consumers. American-style consumerism instills in the people of the United States that personal success is only achieved through monetary success, and wealth is manifested through the purchase of goods. In today's social and cultural context of the United States, consumption is the most authentic behavior. The people of the United States deal with consumption everywhere. The United States also sometimes worries about losing more meaningful values and lifestyles, but their discomfort and criticism of consumerism has never been strong.

In the 60s and early 70s of the 20th century, the Chinese academic community discussed consumer culture and had a far-reaching influence, and the commentator was the "new ****" influenced by the Frankfurt School. Their main point is that the people of the United States have been artificially dragged into a hypocritical consumer culture, which cannot truly meet the needs of humanity. However, this argument does not have a long-term vitality, and even critics of American culture do not agree with them. However, one thing cannot be denied: conspicuous consumption, which constitutes the institutional guarantee of the hierarchical order of values, is contrary to the Protestant ethic. Both the Protestant ethic and the Puritan spirit advocated frugality. In The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, Bell puts it bluntly: "In fact, it was the bourgeois economic system - or more precisely the free market - that caused the collapse of the traditional bourgeois value system." This is the root cause of the contradictions of capitalism in the life of the United States. ”

Today, the discussion of consumerism in Chinese cultural studies focuses on income inequality and the environmental degradation caused by consumerism. This paper argues that research focusing on this aspect is closer to the rationality of criticism. It is undeniable that some scholars call consumerism the new capitalism, and consumerism has indeed pushed capitalism to a new stage.

Consumerism in the modern sense originated in the late 19th century. The "Second Industrial Revolution" brought capitalism to a high speed. World industrial production in 1870-1900 tripled compared with 1850-1870. As an emerging capitalist country, the United States is particularly eye-catching. In the eighties of the 19th century, one hundred years after the founding of the United States of America, the total industrial output value accounted for 30% of the world's total industrial output, ranking first in the world. Between 1859 and 1899, the country's total industrial output increased from US$1.88 billion to US$11.407 billion.

During this period, the railway development of the United States was also very rapid, and in 1850 the railway line reached 9,021 miles, ranking first in the world. By 1890, there were 20 and 82 miles of railway lines. "The economy of the United States is ready to take a leap forward."

Beginning in the 40s of the 19th century, commercial agricultural production appeared in the United States, the electrical industry rose at the same time, and large companies and large enterprises emerged. This is the economic basis for the emergence of modern consumerism in the United States. According to Daniel Bell, the author of The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, the social factors that produced consumerism in the modern sense of the United States replaced the Protestant ethic with "hallucinatory coaxing". The emergence of a new way of life is due to a change in the way people feel and a change in the social structure. "From the development of new shopping habits in the high-consumption economy of the United States, and its erosion of the Protestant ethic and the spirit of Puritanism".

"Economic impulse" replaces "religious impulse", in other words: the values of life in the mainstream society of the United States have changed. Thrifty housekeeping has been replaced by conspicuous consumption. The majority of the upper middle class are then obsessed with grabbing more wealth and thus spending more luxury.

The consumption of "housewives" is an example of this. In the 19th century, men earned money to support the family, and women naturally took care of the house. Everyone expects that, and that's exactly what wealthy families do. Some people are getting richer and richer, and class differences are formed. One of the ways to distinguish between classes is by looking at the clothes of women. For wealthy families, it is important to maintain the identity of the upper middle class.

Working-class women could not afford tight-fitting lace dresses; One is too expensive, and the other is inconvenient to work. Maintaining the fairness and perfection of the skin and hands is a sign of affluence, and it is possible to see which class it belongs to. Perfectly fair skin means she doesn't have to work. This is one of the causes of extravagant consumption in high society. Another cause was the emergence of women's magazines during this period. During the period from 1890 to 1910, the salaries of white-collar workers in the United States rose by 1/3.

The mass production of ready-to-wear has led to an interest in fashion. Another factor in the rise of consumerism in the 19th century was the development of department stores. The mail-order catalogs of large department stores such as Sears became a "wish list" for emerging middle-class families. By then, such pamphlets had begun to advertise wardrobes, labor-saving utensils, and canned frozen processed foods.

Macy's and other big department stores bring ready-made fashion goods to many big cities. This provides an opportunity for women in the United States to visit the store, and the result of shopping is inevitably consumption. Department stores promote consumption. The rise of consumption has had a great impact on women in the United States. They are affected by the trend of consumption in shopping, cooking, work and leisure.

Women in the United States have also joined the ranks of department store salespeople and restaurant hostesses. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the urban leisure mode of the United States was characterized by the fact that the places of leisure were in public places such as parks, dance halls, salons, cinemas, racetracks, and gymnasiums. This is something that the people of the United States at the end of the 20th century complained about the loss. During this period, women in the United States became more and more active in outdoor sports such as golf, tennis, cycling, and croquet. Part of these projects is still the content of today's consumerist culture.

In addition, the City Theatre brings musical comedy, the most unique form of entertainment to the audience. There is a man named Owen Berlin who has written more than 1,000 songs for musicals, which few of today's producers of popular culture can match. Thomas Edison made a short film based on the musical comedy. There was also a new change in the private leisure areas of the urban middle class: indoor lighting began to be equipped with electric and gas lamps, making it easier to read consumer books such as cheap popular novels. Best-selling books such as Little Women appeared during this period.

In addition, women's education has been improved by the promotion of girls' schools. Private leisure includes activities such as music playing. Middle-class women in the country spent several years learning to play instruments such as piano and harp in order to play them at home for friends and family. As a result, sheet music became a best-selling product. Advertising also played a role in boosting consumption during this period. Between 1870 and 1910, the circulation of daily newspapers in the United States increased ninefold. It was also during this period that national news organizations and major newspaper chains appeared, such as the name "Pulitzer" that appeared in the media.

Mass-consumption magazines such as the Women's Home Magazine also appeared during this period and were in large circulation. These magazines contain various articles that track fashion trends and things like beauty guides. This boosts consumption. People began to find their identity by taking possession of objects. In one respect, women's magazines have instilled this ideal in the women of the United States. Women's magazines also publish articles teaching you how to take care of your children and housekeeping, emphasizing that the readers of the magazine should be beautiful and youthful while being a good housewife. Advertisements in magazines brought new fashion ideas to women and eventually turned readers into consumers. There are many factors that led to the emergence of consumerism in the United States at the end of the 19th century, and the above are just a few aspects. In short, at the end of the century, the country was in a turning period, and a consumer society was gradually taking shape.

Sociologist Van Buren summed up the consumption style of this period in the United States in "Theory of Leisure Class" with the word "conspicuous consumption", which is widely known to researchers of current consumer culture. If the consumerism of the United States at the end of the 19th century was still characterized by the "conspicuous consumption" of the upper class, the consumerism of the United States that appeared in the 20s of the 20th century was "mass consumption". "It owes its emergence to the technological revolution" and "three social inventions".

One of the most noteworthy is the "Fordist" assembly line production. Some scholars believe that consumerism began in 1913 when Ford Motor Company rolled off the Michigan production line with its first automobile.

The rise of consumerist mass culture in the 20th century, according to the scholar, "is closely related to the capitalist mode of large-scale industrial production represented by Fordism." ”

Fordism created a working-class consumption pattern. Standardized, large-scale mass production has made homes and cars affordable for workers. "Work 8 hours a day, earn 5 dollars", Fordism used the slogan to attract workers to join the ranks of consumerism. Marxist cultural studies analyze the Fordist mode of production in this way: capitalism uses the strategy of raising living standards to achieve the goal of "killing two birds with one stone". Heavy consumption avoids overproduction, and at the same time, society is stable due to abundant consumption. The workers thus gave up their struggle against "alienated labour" and the capitalist system. "In Gramsci's view, modern consumerism constitutes a new form of reproduction of labor power in capitalist society and of the entire capitalist social system." [15] In any case, the mass consumer culture of the United States, which originated in Fordism, became the "core of modern capitalism" in the late 50s of the 20th century.

In the 50s of the 20th century, the people of the United States were optimistic about the economic prospects because of the end of World War II. Housewives think they can finally concentrate on running their comfort zone. Appliances such as electric stoves, vacuum cleaners, and refrigerators freed women from heavy household chores, and now had time for social events such as cocktail parties. You have to dress up for social events. Brands such as "Dior" and "Chanel" lead the fashion of cosmetics. (To be continued.) )