What’s in a name?

There is little to distinguish consumption patterns of Pakistan's elite from their counterparts around the world.

A restaurant recently opened in Lahore proudly proclaims both the heft of its wares and their likely impact on the waistlines of its customers. With long queues and traffic jams, the popularity of this new eatery cannot be denied. Having not sampled the dubious delights myself, I am not in a position to comment on the quality of its food. However, having seen its prices, I think it is fair to say that the popularity of the restaurant and other establishments like it, is representative of a rampant, ostentatious consumerism that undoubtedly leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth.

Capitalism thrives on consumption, manufacturing “wants” that transform into “needs” requiring gratification. Through marketing, tastes are shaped with consumers being actively trained to seek out particular goods and services whose merits, if any, are often determined by packaging and branding rather than any of their own intrinsic properties. Quite literally, as the sociologist Jean Baudrillard famously argued, we live in a world where we increasingly consume signs; the representation of objects rather than objects themselves. In its relentless quest for profit, capitalism continually strives to expand into new markets, while simultaneously adding layers of differentiation within existing ones. A burger can no longer be just a “burger”. Instead, we are confronted by a plethora of varieties, each of which is defined by the allegedly unique nature of its provenance, but all of which fundamentally remain hunks of meat wedged between pieces of bread. Under capitalism, the illusion of choice serves only to provide further impetus for the drive to consume.

At a global level, the effects of unbridled capitalism and untrammelled consumption are self-evident. As the world inches ever closer to catastrophic levels of climate change, it is clear that the planet can no longer sustain the insatiable demands imposed upon it by the citizens of the affluent West and Japan. When the people of India and China themselves begin to aspire to similar kinds of lifestyles, having long been promised the fruits of economic development, the Earth’s ecological problems are only likely to be exacerbated.

One solution to this problem would be to envisage an alternative model of development in which, the logic of continual capitalist expansion is questioned, recognising how many of the commodities we now consume are unnecessary indulgences that can no longer be accommodated due to their broader societal costs. Smartphones are an excellent case in point here. Even as manufacturers add only incremental improvements to their devices every year, consumers with disposable income, line up annually to acquire these gadgets, delivering record profits to the companies concerned. At the same time, there is an overwhelming body of evidence that shows how mining for minerals like Coltan, which is found in every smartphone, continues to fuel violent conflict in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo. By succumbing to the idea that they must have the latest electronic trinkets, consumers around the world are unwittingly supporting the despoliation of the planet while simultaneously acquiring products soaked in blood.

This point of what is being consumed, however, cannot be examined in isolation from the question of who consumes. Indeed, while Pakistan does not even come close to any of the advanced industrialised nations, in terms of its carbon footprint, there is little to distinguish the consumption patterns of its elite from those of their counterparts around the world. Across the country, it is the elite and, increasingly, the middle classes, who aspire to eat, dress, and communicate like the more affluent denizens of North America and Europe. Fast food franchises cater exclusively to this segment of society and the same is true for the myriad other restaurants, designer clothing outlets, electronics stores and spas that have popped up in Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad.

Invariably, these establishments are promoted and advertised using billboards that, in addition to defacing these cities, also feature smiling, happy people expressing the kind of joy that can only come with money and material security. In a country where the majority of the population is engaged in a continuous struggle to make ends meet, there is something obscene about the kind of conspicuous consumption that is relentlessly being championed here. More than ever, it is important that we remain critical of the logic of economic development and capitalist expansion that is leading to the destruction of the planet, driving conflict around the world and putting the interests of the elite before those of the vast majority of the population.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2013.

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