About a year ago, I was visiting the art market in Strasbourg with a good friend. It was an open air affair in which local artists presented the work they wished to sell to the local punters. But really, in terms of organisation, it was a glorified car boot sale. One painting caught my eye. I hesitated because it was expensive, but on the other hand, the Chinese painter looked like he needed the money quite badly, and the painting was stunning. I did not want to ask him to bring the price down and I hesitated for about five minutes. When I said I wanted it, my interlocutor was visibly relieved.
For me, this is a crap position to be in. Why did I even have that sort of purchasing power? Or that power full stop. This is a hateful state of affairs, I don’t want to live knowing that a fraction of my budget is a transformative sum to someone else. I loathe the idea of it. Again, Cecile is haunting me.
I’m really ambivalent about this. I started this post with the idea that not all consumerism was necessarily a bad thing: sometimes, there is a very thin line between buying and giving. The products or services you buy are someone else’s livelihood. This is why some “radicals” make a point of shopping only within a bubble of ethical co-ops: their spending is their mates’ livelihood. Other more mainstream friends purposefully consume primarily local products and services.
In some cases I also think that buying is a lot more sensitive than giving. Should I have offered money and not taken the painting? Of course not! While buying the painting did seem like a nice thing to do, the exchange seemed a lot crasser than going to my local hairdresser. I assume that my hairdresser and me are in the same boat financially. At this level, consumption is mutual back-scratching. But as I think of the transaction over the painting, I’m a bit revolted. How I hate having that power over someone's life. How I hate being Cecile. I’m sick to death of this top-down crap.
For me, this is a crap position to be in. Why did I even have that sort of purchasing power? Or that power full stop. This is a hateful state of affairs, I don’t want to live knowing that a fraction of my budget is a transformative sum to someone else. I loathe the idea of it. Again, Cecile is haunting me.
I’m really ambivalent about this. I started this post with the idea that not all consumerism was necessarily a bad thing: sometimes, there is a very thin line between buying and giving. The products or services you buy are someone else’s livelihood. This is why some “radicals” make a point of shopping only within a bubble of ethical co-ops: their spending is their mates’ livelihood. Other more mainstream friends purposefully consume primarily local products and services.
In some cases I also think that buying is a lot more sensitive than giving. Should I have offered money and not taken the painting? Of course not! While buying the painting did seem like a nice thing to do, the exchange seemed a lot crasser than going to my local hairdresser. I assume that my hairdresser and me are in the same boat financially. At this level, consumption is mutual back-scratching. But as I think of the transaction over the painting, I’m a bit revolted. How I hate having that power over someone's life. How I hate being Cecile. I’m sick to death of this top-down crap.
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