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According to the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, commodities available for…

IPMAT Indore 2025 · Verbal Ability · 6 questions

According to the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, commodities available for consumption are not inherently negative things. Baudrillard tried to interpret consumption in modern societies by engaging with the ‘cargo myth’ prevalent among the indigenous Melanesian people living in the South Pacific. The Melanesians did not know what aeroplanes were. However, they saw that these winged entities descended from the air for white people and appeared to make them happy. They also noted that aeroplanes never descended for the Melanesian people. The Melanesian natives noted that the white people had placed objects similar to the aeroplane on the ground. They concluded that these objects were attracting the aeroplanes in the air and bringing them to the ground. Through a magical process, the aeroplanes were bringing plenty to the white people and making them happy. The Melanesian people concluded that they would need to place objects that simulated the aeroplane on the ground and attract them from the air. Baudrillard believes that the cargo myth holds an important analogy for the ways in which consumers engage with objects of consumption. According to Baudrillard, the modern consumer “sets in place a whole array of sham objects, of characteristic signs of happiness, and then waits for happiness to alight”. For instance, modern consumers believe that they will get happiness if they buy the latest available version of a mobile phone or automobile. However, consumption does not usually lead to happiness. While consumers should ideally be blaming their heightened expectations for their lack of happiness, they blame the commodity instead. They feel that they should have waited for the next version of a mobile phone or automobile before buying the one they did. The version they bought is somehow inferior and therefore cannot make them happy. Baudrillard argues that consumers have replaced ‘real’ happiness with ‘signs’ of happiness. This results in the endless deferment of the arrival of total happiness. In Baudrillard’s words, “in everyday practice, the blessings of consumption are not experienced as resulting from work or from a production process; they are experienced as a miracle”. Modern consumers view consumption in the same magical way as the Melanesian people viewed the aeroplanes in the cargo myth. Television commercials also present objects of consumption as miracles. As a result, commodities appear to be distanced from the social processes which lead to their production. In effect, objects of consumption are divorced from the reality which produces them.

Question 2

Which of the following is an argument made by Baudrillard?
  1. A. Production and consumption are magical processes.
  2. B. Television commercials are at the heart of unhappiness experienced by consumers.
  3. C. Melanesian people coped with the inequality of colonialism by creating myths.
  4. D. Consumers value signs more than the real.

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Question 3

How does Baudrillard engage with the cargo myth?
  1. A. He uses it to describe the suffering of Indigenous people.
  2. B. He uses it to show that consumers should consume more serious objects.
  3. C. He uses it to show that consumption is a blessing.
  4. D. He uses it as a metaphor to critique modern consumption.

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Question 4

What is Baudrillard’s position on total happiness?
  1. A. It results from ethical consumption.
  2. B. It is perpetually delayed.
  3. C. It prioritises production over consumption.
  4. D. It comes with patience and waiting.

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Question 5

How can consumption be made more satisfying?
  1. A. By rejecting colonialism and all other forms of economic oppression.
  2. B. By banning television commercials that promise real happiness.
  3. C. By recognising that commodities produce miraculous change.
  4. D. By understanding the connection between production and consumption.

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Question 6

Why are consumers unhappy with commodities that they have just bought?
  1. A. Because television commercials do not create enough hype about commodities.
  2. B. Because they focus on improved functionality of commodities.
  3. C. Because they have exaggerated expectations of commodities.
  4. D. Because the Law of Diminishing Marginal Commodities comes into play.

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