Superconsumer, a postmodern romance

“Postmodernism” is a key word today, wielded by philosophers, cultural theorists, artists, people in the media, and intellectuals in general. When most people talk about postmodernism, they envisage the revolutionary imagery of our life and times— information revolution, hyperglobalisation, and consumerist culture—and they herewith feel the risks, anxieties, and ills associated with life in these unsettling times. Most people would be surprised to learn then, that in stark contrast to their pejorative understanding of the word, some philosophers have exalted postmodernism as the age of individual enlightenment and salvation. In his monograph, The Postmodern Condition, Jean-François Lyotard (1984) hailed postmodern man as a hero—an individual who has overcome the powers of the state by achieving a state of understanding and wisdom about the nature of knowledge. Even Fredric Jameson, one of the most vocal critics of postmodernism distress, has alluded to this heroic figure in his hope for a “new international proletariat” (1991). Herein lies a conundrum—how could one word embody such opposite visions? In this essay, I attempt an unlikely explanation—it is precisely our exposure to the confusion and excesses of postmodern culture that provokes us to resist it, defy it, and eventually overcome it. Taking consumerism as a metonym for our postmodern culture, this essay traces steps in how enlightened individuals can effloresce out of typical consumerist experience—these heroes are the superconsumers, the protagonists of our time.