Episode 161: [ENG] Marx's View on Consumerism w/ Ishay Landa

In his essay "The negation of abnegation" Ishay Landa revisits
Karl Marx’s understanding of consumption, in an effort to rescue
it from the overshadowing legacy of critical theory which has
construed Marx as inveighing against false needs. It is argued
that Marx regarded the expansion of needs entailed by capitalism
in a generally favourable way, but saw capitalism as a system
yoking use-value to the imperatives of profit accumulation, hence
limiting and subjugating the consumption of the masses. While
Marx’s position was radically different from conventional
anti-consumerism it is equally incompatible with complacent
affirmations of ‘the consumer society’ in that Marx at all times
aimed at a revolutionary change which will transform consumption
both quantitatively and qualitatively. Marx’s views are first
discussed as expressed in the perennially-cited text, the 1844
Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts. The second part moves on
to examine the further evolution of Marx’s ideas as found in
later texts, particularly the Grundrisse.