ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the system of Western consumerism was built on what could be called 'addictive consumption': the trade in psychoactive commodities as well as the relationships of power and domination that produced them. It outlines the consumer revolution of the eighteenth century, noting the economic impact of the colonial commodities as well as their role in generating new ideas about the self and about desire. Now, however, a new conception of desire as something potentially unending, and open to fleeting satisfaction through continual engagement in commodity culture, developed. The chapter considers the unequal economic relations of dependence and slavery that the colonial project was founded on and considers the place of 'drug foods' as sources of both profit and subjugation within such a system. It explores the transformation of ideas about luxury, paving the way for a recognition of the benefits of consumption for economic growth and an understanding of capitalism as 'the illicit child of luxury'.
