ABSTRACT
Let me start with a flagrant truism: the structure of needs of our modern Western world markedly differs from the structure of needs in previous societies. But as an immediate addition to this truism it has to be mentioned that in the most recent debates, the unique character of the developmental pattern of the modern structure of needs is, in the main, identified with two of its most conspicuous features: with the cancerous growth of the production of material goods on the one hand, and with the ever-increasing demand for more and more new commodities on the other. Industrial growth produces new forms of satisfaction for material needs and, simultaneously, creates new needs; the rapid diffusion of new demands further accelerates industrial production. Criticism of the modern structure of needs tends to focus all attention on these two conspicuous features. Consumerism is blamed for all the ills of contemporary society. Modern man is identified with man the consumer, for the assumption is that capitalist, or in another vocabulary, industrial society has in fact reduced people to consumers. Some critics specifically blame the mass media for spreading dangerous consumerist need-patterns and make advertisements responsible for the so-called ‘manipulation of needs’. They seek a panacea that will identify ‘true’ needs and eliminate ‘false’ needs, or they advocate central control of the evolution and satisfaction of needs by a world-wide authority which will impose a scientifically established ‘limit to growth’.
