The punitive consequences of consumer culture

Abstract

This article takes as its starting point a public punitiveness that is novel in its lack of sympathy for and stridency against offenders. It is suggested that this punitiveness can be partly explained by the ascent of consumerism as an axial principle of life today. The ideas of René Girard are used to elaborate upon this suggestion. Girard argues that disputes emerge within cultures when there are no public prohibitions on consumption. Desires converge on the same objects, producing conflicts that can only be resolved by a scapegoating mechanism. Although markets have always threatened to deregulate desires, there have usually been countervailing movements. The novelty of the consumer society is that while few goods are prescribed by custom, they no longer possess stable values. This exacerbates the anxiety predicted by Girard and scapegoating becomes more intensive in an effort to ground the value of objects of desire.