Bulimic society

   In his Vertigo of Late Modernity, Jock Young proposes that today's society is bulimic, unhealthily consumerist. It has two important consequences: one for crime and the other for nature. In a bulimic society, the mass media bombards us with the idea that to be someone or to be part of society, you have to constantly consume products and experiences and , most importantly, share them on social media. Thus a new hierarchy is born, where those who consume more, or have more, and with more frequency, are higher and more 'important'.

   This society is culturally inclusive but structurally exclusive. It's being culturally inclusive means that all people are welcomed into the norms and values that it holds, that all people come to value consumerism and present consumerist conducts. In sociology, whenever you see the word structural you can be pretty confident that it has to do with social class, and a structurally exclusive society is no exception. What it means is that although everyone is given these bulimic values, the lower classes are excluded from the possibility to satiate them, because they are socially marginalised, and if they don't abbey to the norms of consumption, they are not in the community. This causes relative deprivation, which means that they feel, in comparison to others, that they lack something important. Thus, they will come together with other working class people and form subcultures (a group of people that hold norms and values different from those of the mainstream society). Cloward & Ohlin argue that there are different types of deviant subcultures. Conflict gangs commit non-utilitarian crime - crime that doesn't provide financial benefit, which may include 'turf wars', where they fight other gangs for territory - and criminal gangs commit utilitarian crime. Moreover, A. Cohen would argue that some may too invert these values, so that their status frustration* is able to be satiated through deviant activities valued within the subculture. For example, a conflict gang may value edge-work and thus its members will climb up their own hierarchy by graffitiing a wall, rather than unsuccessfully try to climb the bulimic hierarchy by getting the last model of Nikes. However, Young notes that the w/c, being the most structurally excluded, are the most bulimic and will spend lot's of time, money and effort in trying to appear wealthier than they are in order to seem higher in the social hierarchy. Thus, a bulimic society causes crime because it subjects people to strain.

   Merton argues that strain, which he defines as the tension between that which one desires and ethical and moral limitations, causes anomie, which a state of ambiguity where these limitations become unclear - or perhaps they are abandoned. Bauman adds that in such conditions, and in an individualistic society, we are left alone to make our decisions on our conduct, and these will be based on our own personal desires. All this leads to anthropocentric values, where we see humans as the centre of the universe and are keen to trample nature for our benefit. In Neo-liberalism, the free-market economy, more demand means more production. Bulimia and anthropocentric values lead to over consumption, where people buy things they don't need only to show others that they can consume it. As we saw in the post on the Theories of Today's society (25/05/2020), Goffman argues that, through the image that we show others, we get the sense of being that which we want to be. In an era of disembedding (Giddens, same post), of liquid identity (Bauman), we must constantly reassure ourselves that we are this illusion, even if it is by creating an avatar of ourselves. Large corporations, who provide us with the products necessary to satiate our social bulimia, will over-produce their products, and consequently they will deforest, pollute and exploit nature and workers ever more. Thus, the tension we experience from the sickly hunger for goods and the pressure put on us by the media causes that we become blind to the damage it causes, and this perpetuates harm against nature.

* A. Cohen's concept of status frustration comes from a theory on education, arguing that w/c children, lacking cultural capital, aren't able to gain status from their teachers (More on this in future posts)