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.