Ben Agger's Theory Of Consumption Alienation And Its Enlightenment

Consumption has played an important role in human life,which established connections between people,between people and objects.However,in the alienated one,it has been the end in itself,namely,the purpose of human consumption is for nothing but itself.The study object in this thesis was the Consumption Alienation Theory from Ben Agger,a main representative of Ecological Marxism,who has established his own theoretical system gradually on the basis of Ecological Marxism of William Leiss.Regarding the Alienated Labor Thought of Marx,False Need Theory of Herbert Marcuse,Fromm's Idea of Alienation and the Ecological Crisis Thought of William Leiss as the theoretical basis,Ben Agger established the Consumption Alienation Theory.As far as he was concerned,alienated consumption is a unique consumption phenomenon,which is another kind of consumption behavior from the workers to show that they were eager to express themselves freely.Meanwhile,he thought the economic crisis argued by Karl Heinrich Marx has not met analysis of the capitalist social crisis.Because the social revolution raised by Marx did not appear in the capitalist society.Instead,the ecological crisis arisen in the consumer sector would replace the economic crisis and be the social crisis.Alienated consumption behavior has both a positive influence and a negative effect.The most serious negative effect would be that the alienated consumption has caused ecological crisis.In order to overcome the alienated consumption and solve the ecological crisis,two solutions were put forward by Agger.One is disillusioned dialectics,and the other is to transform the capitalist industrial society through decentralization and non-bureaucratization.These two methods solve the problem of alienated consumption directly or indirectly from the dimension of individual and industrial production.Although the alienated consumption from Ben Agger enriched and developed the Ecological Marxism,there were also many deficiencies in theory,however,this should be treated dialectically.In terms of its practical significance,it would play a guiding role on the construction of Beautiful China.According to this theory,the harmonious development of human beings and the comprehensive and sustainable development of economy and ecological environment would be realized by establishing the correct consumption concept,adopting healthy consumption pattern and forming a positive ecological concept.