From creation to consumption: objects and commodities

Abstract

Objects, persons and ideas are all merely merchandise in a world that is highly industrialised and utterly superficial. Consumer societies produce a profusion of merchandise. In strictly economic terms, merchandise is whatever has an exchange-value, in  a world where objects are valued for their utility. So goods are whatever is useful, where use can be measured in monetary terms. This perspective impoverishes social relations. People relate only insofar as their value dictates, and that value is merely utilitarian. Moreover, this commercialisation reaches up to impoverish society as a whole. All this is the result of a long process of objectification which, seeing the world as the exchange of goods, ends up treating people just like any other tradable commodity. This article takes a critical look at the processes involved, and proposes an explanation in terms of the social construction of 'utility''.