{"id":76,"date":"2007-09-10T09:09:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-10T14:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/consumption-and-luxury\/"},"modified":"2007-09-10T09:09:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-10T14:09:00","slug":"consumption-and-luxury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/2007\/09\/10\/consumption-and-luxury\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumption and luxury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, I start publishing my blog anew with the following three paragraphs drawn from a first version of Consommation et luxe<\/i> (Consumption and luxury), my next book, to be published this fall (in French only for the time being).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00ab <\/span>These Romans are crazy! \u00bb Many remember Obelix\u2019s trademark phrase in the famed adventures of Asterix the <\/span>Gaul<\/span> <\/span>(<\/span>Uderzo and Goscinny, Book series, <\/span>Paris<\/span>: Dargaud editor<\/span>). Confronted to the, strange to him, culture of the Roman people, he was thus expressing his dismay. <\/span>I believe we will soon hear similar words from people to whom the consumer society culture will appear just as strange. <\/span>\u00ab Cute baby \u00bb<\/span> one could read on the front page of La Presse, one of <\/span>Montreal<\/span>\u2019s daily French newspapers, on <\/span>Thursday December 8, 2005<\/span>. This catchy title referred to a series of articles relating to luxury products for babies, in the \u00ab Actuel \u00bb section of the day. <\/span>\u00ab Luxury products for babies? \u00bb, may some say to me. Well, yes! Our little ones have discovered a craving for luxury! The time is over when all babies were content with the same brand of soap, shampoo or powder, Johnson’s in <\/span>Quebec<\/span> or Mustela in <\/span>France<\/span>; although these two brands are still very popular, in some circles the baby\u2019s beauty of baby calls for Anthony, Kiehl’s, Klorane and many others.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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How did we get to there? Consumption has become an activity of foremost importance for most people in industrialized countries. Moreover, if branding, this business philosophy which emphasizes brand production, allowed said brands to experience stunning growth, it has also democratized, sometimes even damaged, them. <\/span>Consequently, wearing brands does not allow one to sufficiently distinguish oneself, to project a unique image. What the hell, how can one appear to be different if everyone wears Nike or Tommy Hilfiger? What can people eager for differentiation do when brands no longer suffice? Luxury! Only luxury now allows some to distinguish from others, to rise, so they believe, above masses.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This said, don\u2019t believe that I condemn all luxury goods and services. <\/span>Luxury is necessary\u2026 even for those who are penniless, perhaps even more so for them since they, above all people, need a few pleasures in life. In fact, even Gilles Lipovetsky, famous critic of consumption, writes: <\/span>\u00ab For a long time, the best minds have emphasized the universal, anthropological nature of luxury \u00bb, supporting his words with this quotation from Shakespeare, \u00ab The poorest beggar always has superfluous little things! Reduce nature to the needs of nature and man is an animal \u00bb, and concludes \u00ab Luxury is a dream, that which embellishes life\u2019s decor, perfection made good by human genius. \u00bb <\/span>(<\/span>G. Lipovetsky, Le luxe \u00e9ternel, De l\u2019\u00e2ge du sacr\u00e9 au temps des marques<\/i>, Paris, \u00e9ditions Gallimard, 2003, p. 19<\/span>)<\/span> If, for a rich person, luxury is the buying a condo in the <\/span>Bahamas<\/span>, for a less fortunate person it can be a treat such as an occasional dinner in a prestigious restaurant. To each his own luxury!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, I start publishing my blog anew with the following three paragraphs drawn from a first version of Consommation et luxe (Consumption and luxury), my next book, to be published this fall (in French only for the time being). \u00ab These Romans are crazy! \u00bb Many remember Obelix\u2019s trademark phrase in the famed adventures of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogue.uqam.ca\/consumption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}