Raoul Vaneigem
Raoul Vaneigem
Raoul Vaneigemis a Belgian writer. He was born in Lessines. After studying romance philology at the Free University of Brusselsfrom 1952 to 1956, he participated in the Situationist International from 1961 to 1970. He currently resides in Belgium and is the father of four children...
NationalityBelgian
ProfessionPhilosopher
CountryBelgium
complete cycle survive work
Work to survive; survive by consuming; survive to consume: the hellish cycle is complete
drinking order making-love
Purchasing power is a license to purchase power. The old proletariat sold its labour power in order to subsist; what little leisure time it had was passed pleasantly enough in conversations, arguments, drinking, making love, wandering, celebrating and rioting. The new proletarian sells his labour power in order to consume. When he’s not flogging himself to death to get promoted in the labour hierarchy, he’s being persuaded to buy himself objects to distinguish himself in the social hierarchy. The ideology of consumption becomes the consumption of ideology.