A Marxist Solution To "ecological Consumption"

The continuous integrations of the Marxist critical theory of the consumer society and the ecological crisis theory lay a solid foundation for the theory of ecological consumption. The dissertation made a study of Ecological ideology and consumer thoughts of Marxism and tried to interpret the development of Marxist clued by ecological consumption.Consumption patterns must be always adapt to the ecological environment, which keep a balance of material transformation between human and the nature. This balance was broken by industrial civilization and capitalism, which caused the ecological crisis to came along with the consumerism. There are two main researching dimension of the consumption thought of Marx:philosophy and economics. Regarded from the philosophical standpoint, the root cause of consumption alienation is labor alienation and need alienation. Capitalist was moving from a consumption alienation society to a all-round alienated society. From economic view, Marx analyzed dialectically identity and contrariety of production and consumption, revealing the unbridgeable differences between production and consumption. In his old age, Engel has preliminary studied of the changes of consumption patterns of working class, the transformation of control strategy and means of the capitalism and ecological crisis.Marxist theories, including alienation theory, consumption thoughts and ecological thoughts, have become three important theoretical supports of ecological consumption. The spreading of consumerism eased the economic crisis caused by over-production and the political crisis caused by class contradictions in capitalist society. Thus, the crisis shifted to the field of ecology. Western Marxism has carried out social criticism completely of consumer society, of which the ecological dimension is the most important critical perspective. Modern capitalism mitigated a series of crises through consumerism, at the same time bringing the ecological crisis. The quickly development of Ecological Marxism has become a powerful weapon when criticizing capitalist society.The consumption patterns have changed rapidly in contemporary China. The ecological footprint of China indicated that the future consumption patterns of China must be green, moderate and sustainable. We should explore the harmonious consumption patterns between the human being and the nature during the process of sinicization of Marxism. Ecological consumption is necessary and feasible in China both in theory and practice.