[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.So did gas-1 guzzling cars.By 2000, with less than five percent of the world s population,2 the United States was consuming over 30 percent of the energy resources3 and creating pollution to match.Not all of the growing pollution prob-44111 lems could be laid directly at the door of consumerism; sheer population 146 Consumerism toward the new centuryexpansion and growing industrialization in nations such as China played arole as well.But environmentalists urged appropriate political and personalcontrols on the consumer impulse, in the name of natural beauty and thesurvival of the planet. Green movements gained great support in coun-tries such as Germany and Holland, around efforts to curb consumer excess.Even aside from politics, the environmental movement created new oppor-tunities to express (or ignore) guilt about affluence.Children could criticizeconsumerist parents for failing to sort their trash properly; adults could feeljust a bit better about their self-indulgence when they took the trouble tofind the neighborhood recycling bin.Environmental protest did not really slow consumerism overall.Somepeople loudly rejected environmental constraints, like the many Americanswho felt that driving cars that consumed large amounts of gasoline waspart of their birthright.Green movements failed to catch on in some places,for example France, to the same extent as in some neighboring countries.But the movement persisted, with the potential to organize new anxietiesabout consumerism in the future.Environmental concerns motivated muchof the new protest against globalization, and therefore global consumerism.Outside the West, many intellectuals lamented the rise of consumerismand the inroads on local cultural identities.The theme of identity againstconsumerist pressures defined the work of many writers from Japan toMexico.Concern also continued about the impact of Western consumerism onlocal cultures as well as the local economy.The rapid spread of internationalcommercial tourism from the 1950s onward plus an avid market for exotic craft imports affected traditional styles.African craft workers, for example,began to modify their expressions in order to match up with what Westernersthought African art should look like.Workers in tourist industries oftenignored the behavior of their clients when they went home after work, butthe lures of different styles of dress and consumer behavior could temptsome away from customary decorum and family discipline.Again, therewas ample room for attacks on consumer-led erosions.By the late 1990s, international corporations and global economic poli-cies drew a new surge of protest.Meetings of international economic agenciessuch as the World Bank were greeted with angry crowds of environ-mentalists, youth, and labor groups, in meetings in the United States andEurope.Representatives of poorer countries joined the attack.A Frenchfarmer became a hero when he attacked a local McDonald s outlet, tearingdown the golden arch sign.Protests against McDonald s surfaced elsewhere.More generally, Europeans turned against genetically altered foods in the1990s, refusing to buy imported American meats and grains and insistingon new levels of government protection.Even within the United States, and certainly elsewhere, concerns abouthealth and local vitality could spur new protests.Books such as Fast Food Consumerism in the contemporary world 1471111 Nation called attention to the drawbacks of the consumer diet in the United2 States; protests against chains such as Wal-mart featured hostility to their3 reliance on cheap foreign labor and their ability to displace local businesses.4 These new currents expressed a range of anxieties about the new global5 economy, and they involved more than consumerism.Workers feared com-6 petition from low-wage areas; poor agricultural countries wanted more help7 from the industrial powers.But there was a strong consumer element as8 well.Many consumers worried about losing control over the goods they9 purchased and the identities they maintained, to faceless international1011 corporations.They wanted some protection from the barrage of foreign1 cultural imports.Here too was an old concern about consumerism, but now2 directed to the international economic framework amid new protest forms.311 Emotions could run high.45The global apparatus67 It was the international framework itself that witnessed the greatest inno-8 vations in late-twentieth-century consumerism.More and more corporations9 learned how to market consumer goods and services internationally.More20111 and more people prided themselves on a consumer cosmopolitanism, taking1 goods and services from all parts of the world and integrating them into2 a consumer lifestyle.3 New technologies speeded acquaintance with consumer patterns elsewhere4 in the world.By the late twentieth century, over a quarter of the world s5 population might watch the same show on TV (such as World Cup soccer)6 at the same time an unprecedented experience.Export, mainly from the7 West, of popular movies and shows, as well as consumer outlets such as8 fast-food restaurants, offered another link.Travel was vital [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.So did gas-1 guzzling cars.By 2000, with less than five percent of the world s population,2 the United States was consuming over 30 percent of the energy resources3 and creating pollution to match.Not all of the growing pollution prob-44111 lems could be laid directly at the door of consumerism; sheer population 146 Consumerism toward the new centuryexpansion and growing industrialization in nations such as China played arole as well.But environmentalists urged appropriate political and personalcontrols on the consumer impulse, in the name of natural beauty and thesurvival of the planet. Green movements gained great support in coun-tries such as Germany and Holland, around efforts to curb consumer excess.Even aside from politics, the environmental movement created new oppor-tunities to express (or ignore) guilt about affluence.Children could criticizeconsumerist parents for failing to sort their trash properly; adults could feeljust a bit better about their self-indulgence when they took the trouble tofind the neighborhood recycling bin.Environmental protest did not really slow consumerism overall.Somepeople loudly rejected environmental constraints, like the many Americanswho felt that driving cars that consumed large amounts of gasoline waspart of their birthright.Green movements failed to catch on in some places,for example France, to the same extent as in some neighboring countries.But the movement persisted, with the potential to organize new anxietiesabout consumerism in the future.Environmental concerns motivated muchof the new protest against globalization, and therefore global consumerism.Outside the West, many intellectuals lamented the rise of consumerismand the inroads on local cultural identities.The theme of identity againstconsumerist pressures defined the work of many writers from Japan toMexico.Concern also continued about the impact of Western consumerism onlocal cultures as well as the local economy.The rapid spread of internationalcommercial tourism from the 1950s onward plus an avid market for exotic craft imports affected traditional styles.African craft workers, for example,began to modify their expressions in order to match up with what Westernersthought African art should look like.Workers in tourist industries oftenignored the behavior of their clients when they went home after work, butthe lures of different styles of dress and consumer behavior could temptsome away from customary decorum and family discipline.Again, therewas ample room for attacks on consumer-led erosions.By the late 1990s, international corporations and global economic poli-cies drew a new surge of protest.Meetings of international economic agenciessuch as the World Bank were greeted with angry crowds of environ-mentalists, youth, and labor groups, in meetings in the United States andEurope.Representatives of poorer countries joined the attack.A Frenchfarmer became a hero when he attacked a local McDonald s outlet, tearingdown the golden arch sign.Protests against McDonald s surfaced elsewhere.More generally, Europeans turned against genetically altered foods in the1990s, refusing to buy imported American meats and grains and insistingon new levels of government protection.Even within the United States, and certainly elsewhere, concerns abouthealth and local vitality could spur new protests.Books such as Fast Food Consumerism in the contemporary world 1471111 Nation called attention to the drawbacks of the consumer diet in the United2 States; protests against chains such as Wal-mart featured hostility to their3 reliance on cheap foreign labor and their ability to displace local businesses.4 These new currents expressed a range of anxieties about the new global5 economy, and they involved more than consumerism.Workers feared com-6 petition from low-wage areas; poor agricultural countries wanted more help7 from the industrial powers.But there was a strong consumer element as8 well.Many consumers worried about losing control over the goods they9 purchased and the identities they maintained, to faceless international1011 corporations.They wanted some protection from the barrage of foreign1 cultural imports.Here too was an old concern about consumerism, but now2 directed to the international economic framework amid new protest forms.311 Emotions could run high.45The global apparatus67 It was the international framework itself that witnessed the greatest inno-8 vations in late-twentieth-century consumerism.More and more corporations9 learned how to market consumer goods and services internationally.More20111 and more people prided themselves on a consumer cosmopolitanism, taking1 goods and services from all parts of the world and integrating them into2 a consumer lifestyle.3 New technologies speeded acquaintance with consumer patterns elsewhere4 in the world.By the late twentieth century, over a quarter of the world s5 population might watch the same show on TV (such as World Cup soccer)6 at the same time an unprecedented experience.Export, mainly from the7 West, of popular movies and shows, as well as consumer outlets such as8 fast-food restaurants, offered another link.Travel was vital [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]