Recently a lot has been said over the obsession of our qoum with Eid shopping even the face of an existing pandemic.The situation has inspired and generated a whole section of content, satirizing iss qoum ka obsession with Eid ki khareedari.
But if we observe this craze through the social science theories,we can see that it’s not just about grabbing that designer eid ka jora.Moreover,what I am saying is k It might be a manifestation of it but not the complete picture.
Tasveer ka background ye hai k all this festival frenzy is a part of the ever growing consumerist culture that has slowly seeped into our national psyche.And it’s not just us,poori dunya mai hi there has been a shift towards hyper consumerism.Asan lafzon mai it means k through out the globe people have increasingly started to equate happiness with the things they buy and the need to buy.
Consequently,this consumerist mentality is a gift (and a curse)of free market capitalism where there is no restrain on trade and commerce.While this is great and has been great,it has its drawbacks.Therefore,when Neo-Marxist theorists present their arguments against laissez faire capitalism,one should listen instead of dismissing them as a relic of the past.They argue that such unbridled consumerism leads to more and more increase in demand.so in order to meet the demands of the ever hungry markets, production is outsourced to poor countries.Here the co-operations get away with exploiting local labour and pay bare minimum wage.This in turn produces items that have competitively low prices as compared to locally produced items.
As a result the local industries close as they cannot compete at such prices.Aur ye koi kitabi baatein nahi hain humne pandemic esa hotey dekha k local businesses are struggling to survive and only chains and brands are thriving at the moment.kiun k wo sale laga rahey hain isliye k wo sale lagana afford karsaktey hain,small local businesses nai karsaktey isliye tata bye bye.
These sale prices combined with the social media fueled obsession with brands brings us back to the almost crazed eid shopping done by our fellow county folk.Even at the risk of catching covid.
So its not ‘hamari qoum to esi hai’ it’s a while vicious economic cycle in the grand scheme of things,my friend.kia karain.
RADICAL 