Keeping Up with the Greens: How Consumerism Hijacked Environmentalism and the Ideological Dilemma it Left Behind

Abstract

This paper argues that consumerism, to be understood as an ideology, presents a series of challenges for contemporary politics and attempts to ameliorate environmental problems. Arguing that consumerism ought to be taken seriously as an ideology in political science literature, I discuss how consumerism is the “ism” that won the 20th century and continues to dominate the 21st century. The common and traditional political ideologies today (liberalism and conservatism) have embraced consumerism. As a result, consumerism attaches conceptions of identity, status, and non-economic value to consumer goods. The result is an ideology that pervades and influences spheres unrelated to the market. One such sphere is environmentalism. The paper explores the ideological dilemma of green or ethical consumption practices. It asks whether these acts of “good” consumption still reflect the consumerism ideology. Furthermore, the paper explores to what extent, if any, green consumption is a way to mask consumerism’s pervasiveness and negative aspects. Or, perhaps environmentalism is the best-suited ideology to tackle the growing pervasiveness of consumerism because it directly challenges consumerism’s core tenets of endless material acquisition and the value (economic and non-economic) attached to it. Ultimately the paper concludes that environmentalism ought to be wary of embracing consumerism (green or otherwise) as a fix for ecological degradation.