However, he believes that consumption is the reason for capitalism rather than production. Society has become so obsessed with consumerism that we are no longer connected to reality. “Men of wealth are no longer surrounded by other human beings, as they have been in the past, but by objects” (Baudrillard and Mourrain, 2002, p.32), we surround ourselves with objects hoping to achieve happiness and reach higher social class. From surrounding ourselves with these objects we become object-like, “as the wolf-child becomes wolf by living among them” (Baudrillard and Mourrain, 2002, p.32). Therefore, if we the consumers stopped buying products resulting from cheap labour, the poor would not be exploited. Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra is influenced by Marx’s theory of alienation where the subject and object is split. Baudrillard argues that reality is lost in a contemporary world and what we experience is a hyper-reality, meaning that we accept over-exaggerated versions of reality (Allan, 2013). The notion of simulacrum can be applied to contemporary media and consumerism in the society we live in today. We have lost touch with the underlying reality of the products we buy as capital defines our status and identity. Thus we continue to become detached from the material reality of the labourer, who becomes increasingly invisible to consumers ushered towards retail markets or the even more impersonal world of internet shopping. The reality has become that consumers don’t really care whether their half price clothes were made by young children working in slavery conditions in third world countries. In contrast to Marxism and postmodernism, functionalism offers a far more optimistic view of society. For Durkheim, he doesn’t see alienation or simulacra conflicting society, rather his concern
However, he believes that consumption is the reason for capitalism rather than production. Society has become so obsessed with consumerism that we are no longer connected to reality. “Men of wealth are no longer surrounded by other human beings, as they have been in the past, but by objects” (Baudrillard and Mourrain, 2002, p.32), we surround ourselves with objects hoping to achieve happiness and reach higher social class. From surrounding ourselves with these objects we become object-like, “as the wolf-child becomes wolf by living among them” (Baudrillard and Mourrain, 2002, p.32). Therefore, if we the consumers stopped buying products resulting from cheap labour, the poor would not be exploited. Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra is influenced by Marx’s theory of alienation where the subject and object is split. Baudrillard argues that reality is lost in a contemporary world and what we experience is a hyper-reality, meaning that we accept over-exaggerated versions of reality (Allan, 2013). The notion of simulacrum can be applied to contemporary media and consumerism in the society we live in today. We have lost touch with the underlying reality of the products we buy as capital defines our status and identity. Thus we continue to become detached from the material reality of the labourer, who becomes increasingly invisible to consumers ushered towards retail markets or the even more impersonal world of internet shopping. The reality has become that consumers don’t really care whether their half price clothes were made by young children working in slavery conditions in third world countries. In contrast to Marxism and postmodernism, functionalism offers a far more optimistic view of society. For Durkheim, he doesn’t see alienation or simulacra conflicting society, rather his concern