Consumerist Culture and Politics of Compassion

Abstract

The article assesses G. Lipovetsky and J. Serroy's idea according to which modernity has favored an expansion of compassion. In the light of researches on the nature and structure of compassion -undertaken by M. Nussbaum- and some studies on the culture of consumerism, it is possible to argue that compassion has indeed been generalized due to a group of phenomena characteristic of our time: individualization, globalization, connectivity, and the expansion of the democratic principle of equality before the law. However, the current economic and social system, at the same time, fosters such things as: ruthless individual competition at every level, selective fragmentation of information in minimal units, isolation of individuals, and a paralyzing-fear of being left out of the economic game. Such a situation boosts a poorly deep compassion that not necessarily becomes an effective action, and that, in a certain way, completely blocks its appearance.