Consumption v. Culture

Hannah Arendt claimed that “An object is cultural depending on the duration of its permanence: its durable character is opposed to its functional aspect, that aspect which would make it disappear from the phenomenal world through use and wear and tear . . . . Culture finds itself under threat when all the objects of the world produced currently or in the past are treated solely as functions of the vital social processes – as if they had no other reason but the satisfaction of some need – and it does not matter whether the needs in question are elevated or base.”

Arendt’s point not only challenges certain “prophetic” visions that reduce the good of art to its social or political utility, but also raise a critical question about the survival of culture in an age of consumption. Culture is about persistence and memory, but consumption is about using-up, forgetting, and passing on to the next item. On Arendt’s definition, a consumable cannot be a cultural object, and a culture that produces (virtually) nothing but consumables is an anti-culture.