ABSTRACT
This deprivation of identity appears to many individuals as a deprivation of a basic right, and thus consumption becomes not simply something that is culturally desirable, but something that is fundamentally expected – what one might describe as a changing rights discourse in relation to consumer practices. Consider, for example, how people in a consumer society believe they now have an implicit right to consume. The majority of people in Britain, for instance, now see a foreign holiday as an intrinsic right, even if its cost is prohibitive (indeed, life without such an annual break for many people would be inconceivable). Further evidence of this confusion between needs and desires is apparent in everyday modes of expression – ‘I need new shoes’, ‘I simply must have a holiday’. This being the case, it is imperative that the wishes and the dreams of the individual are afforded greater coverage within theoretical circles, for no longer is consumer need tied in any simplistic sense to rising standards of living or expanded cultural expectations (as in Merton or Young’s reading). The current situation is far more intense. In late modern society, need and desire have transmogrified, and as a consequence we now face a situation in which individual expectations are seen in terms of basic rights and are therefore no longer fettered by traditional economic or social restraints. On the contrary, a new untrammelled, straightforward form of desire prevails which bears no relation to classical notions of need whatsoever. A desire that no longer needs to be excused, an unapologetic, unrepentant sense of desire that ensures individuals are now furious at the very idea of need – ‘Why should I have to justify my desire?’, ‘Why can’t I have what I want?’, ‘If I want it, I need it!’
