Consumer Society

Jean Baudrillard (1929 – 2007) – the inventor of the terms «hyperreality» and «simulacrum», «the great provocateur» of modern philosophy, author of works that have fundamentally changed the very attitude towards life in modern society, one of the most significant thinkers of the postmodern era, whom many researchers consider nothing less than the «father-creator» of postmodern philosophy. Politics and economics, culture and mass media, art and even fashion – these are just a few areas that Baudrillard has radically influenced, willingly or unwillingly. Consumer society – a society of self-deception. A society that chases after a meaningless and unconscious illusion of happiness. A society in which the very necessity of consumption has long since become an irrational end in itself; the «beauty industry» has equated the female body to a «commodity», and the «philosophy of success» devalues human individuality. The work of Jean Baudrillard, published in 1970, literally exploded the worldview of young intellectuals around the world. The absolute truth of this book is evidenced daily by the very life of modern civilized countries – with its downshifting and «conscious consumption», rejection of the «cult of luxury», return to non-material values, the rise of feminism, and even the slow death of the «high fashion industry» and the «beauty industry».