Why do "consumerist retrogrades" say no to "buy, buy, buy"
Various consumer festivals are now prevailing.
In addition to the two pure shopping festivals "6·18" and "Double 11", the September 9th just past was also packaged as a big promotion festival.
Even a person like me who almost only buys books has long discovered the marketing "painful" of merchants.
"Buy, buy, buy" is a new type of word. It breaks through the common word formation in Chinese, but it also expresses the typical characteristics of the commodity society.
One "buy" is demand, two "buys" are vanity, and three "buys" may be a disease.
Some people buy for the sake of buying, seeing the purchase itself as a pleasure.
Sometimes, a piece of clothing is bought and never worn, or simply forgotten, but at least the moment it is bought is happy.
There is a "consumerist retrograde" group on Douban, which currently has more than 270,000 members.
In various shopping apps and social media, there are voices encouraging people to "buy, buy, buy," and the core topic of this group is why not buy something.
In fact, not many products can withstand such scrutiny.
When I was young, I probably bought new clothes only once a year during the Chinese New Year.
Such purchases are not only grand enough to have a sense of ceremony, but they are indeed a necessity of life.
That's the tail of the era of scarcity, and parents will treat every penny carefully.
The clothes for the boss, it is best that the second child can continue to wear.
If we use this standard to treat current life, we can avoid buying clothes for 10 years, because the clothes in the closet are intact.
Nowadays, people have passed the era of buying only necessities, and businesses must continue to create "reasons to buy."
In fact, the characteristic of the consumerist era is not to create products, but to create demand.
Some businesses also give spiritual connotations to the behavior of buying: when you buy, you are not only "decompressing" (psychological needs), but also "becoming a better self" (mental needs).
The "Consumerist Retrograde" group questioned and reflected on this trend.
They are not advocating that everyone is "thrifty" and "refusal to buy", but they want to re-examine their buying behavior and find out which things are "excessive desires" and which are "IQ taxes", so that the participants in the discussion can calm down , Avoid the "minefield."
They are not anti-commodity economy. On the contrary, quite a few of them were fans of "buy, buy, buy" in the past.
In the group, some members reported that they had spent 500,000 yuan in bills in the past year, and some members had relatively high incomes but could not save money.
More commonly, it is the anxiety that arises from buying, for example, it is difficult to fall asleep without shopping late at night.
Similar situations have affected physical and mental health.
From this point of view, the “consumerist retrograde” group actually achieves a “self-healing” effect through discussion, freeing itself from the anxiety of “buying, buying,” and from the unlimited desire for goods. , So as to obtain a certain "subjectivity" facing the commodity.
Purchasing behavior can be decompressed, but the relief is temporary and fleeting, just like smoking, the momentary pleasure may be self-injury afterwards, and the "retrograde" is through thinking, discussion and cautious action. The "healing" achieved is a more valuable "treatment".
This kind of behavior pursues human subjectivity and a sense of control over life: humans are the masters of commodities, not the other way around.
Socrates' famous saying, "A life without reflection is not worth living", can't be used more appropriately here.
In life, we don't necessarily need to really "leave away" or pursue a kind of "new poverty" surrounded by disciples.
However, it is still valuable to know how to reflect on your buying behavior.
This kind of reflection is itself a kind of quality spiritual life.
Zhang Feng Source: China Youth Daily