Editor's note: Consumerism creates false needs, induces people to consume blindly, stimulates the mentality of comparison and show-off, produces fetishism of commodities and symbols, and causes alienation and distortion of the human value world.

Editor's note: Consumerism creates false needs, induces people to consume blindly, stimulates the mentality of comparison and show-off, and produces fetishism of commodities and symbols, causing alienation and distortion of the human value world. Green consumption is a beautiful lifestyle that abandons consumerism, advocates the concept of sustainable development and sharing, rebuilds consumption subjectivity, meets people's value pursuit of a beautiful ecological environment, and highlights the basic characteristics of a beautiful modern society. In a new era where resources are becoming increasingly tense, the contradiction between man and nature is prominent, and people's yearning for a better life is becoming stronger, people should actively practice green consumption that combines "less" and "better". This is not only a necessary measure to avoid falling into the trap of consumerism and improve the relationship between man and nature, but also a realistic need for us to deal with the global ecological crisis, meet people's growing needs for a better life, and build a community with a shared future for mankind.

As human society enters the capitalism stage, capital suddenly swept the world: on the one hand, it brought great development of productivity, and the achievements of human civilization continued to emerge; on the other hand, consumerism, as the "alien" of human civilization, has continuously intensified the contradictions in human society. The frequent and increasingly intensifying contemporary capitalism economic crisis . Social crisis and ecological crisis have prompted people to reflect on existing production and consumption modes. How to overcome the shortcomings of consumerism, promote sustainable economic and social development, and promote the realization of a better life in people is a major practical issue before mankind.

1. The proliferation of consumerism and the dissolution of a better life

Consumerism is a sensory ideology , whose essence is "the attached consciousness deliberately created by capital logic that serves capital logic." Consumerism contains the greedy grabbing of things driven by the profit-seeking nature of capital and is spreading in the global expansion of the capitalist world market. A better life is the living state required by human freedom and comprehensive development. It not only contains higher material life needs, but also includes democracy, the rule of law, fairness, justice, security, and a better ecological environment. Consumerism exaggerates the function of consumption and advocates symbolic value, which leads people to pursue luxury goods, ignore human subjectivity, and advocate hedonism . These are all contrary to the needs of a better life. Consumerism not only restricts the development of productivity, accelerates the gap between the rich and the poor in society, destroys the construction of a beautiful ecological environment, but also causes distortion of the meaning of life and the materialization of social development, triggers a value crisis in people, and disintegrates people's ability and motivation to pursue a better life at a deeper level.

1. False needs: the misplacement of desires and needs

Consumerism is the alienation product of capital logic in the field of real material production and consumption. In capitalist production relations , consumption becomes the only measure of the value of individual survival. The commodity symbols are used as the coordinate system of individual identity symbols and survival meanings and manifested as irrational consumption fanaticism. Human needs are transformed into desires and possession in consumerism. Since the 20th century, the leapfrog development of science and technology has promoted the rapid improvement of productivity levels. Western capitalist society has entered the era of overcapacity, but the contradiction between socialized production and private possession of means of production has not been resolved, and cyclical economic crises are still frequent. Capitalists have shifted their attention from the production field to the consumption field. In order to stimulate people's consumption demand and achieve the last leap of crucial goods, they use modern media tools to advocate the consumption concept of "symbol first". People began to possess things in a crazy way and consume unscrupulously, "liberate from the shackles of 'desire', and 'shoulder' to the 'consumption society'", the real purpose of production and consumption has been forgotten by people, false psychological satisfaction has replaced real needs, "uncontrolled squandering and wasteful indulging in excess of non-productive consumption", which ultimately led to alienation from things to people themselves. Consumption is no longer a means to obtain the value of the product, but instead becomes a means to satisfy the desire to occupy the symbols of the item and show off social status.The source of happiness is even alienated into the consumption behavior itself, rather than the real satisfaction of needs.

Consumerism ignores the use value of goods, advocates symbolic value, and gives birth to a large number of false consumption desires, distorts the purpose of goods to meet people's real needs. In this process, production and consumption are disconnected from consumption, and consumption is solidified into a means of capital proliferation and expansion, which greatly weakens its role in promoting social reproduction. Consumerism does not help the optimal allocation of production factors, and further destroys the highly unified relationship between production and consumption. In the consumer society, consumption is pushed from the final link of social reproduction to the position of king of the economic field, which actually denies the direct identity of production and consumption, and breaks the dialectical unified relationship between production and consumption. Marx has long pointed out clearly: "Production and consumption are produced." Production is the "actual starting point" to create consumption. Consumption is the end point, which in turn promotes social reproduction. The consumerist advocated "consumption-led production" exaggerates the role of consumption on production and shows a tendency to ignore the dominant role of production on consumption.

2. Fetishism of commodities and symbols: the dissolution of human subjectivity

Marx believes that modern society liberates people from the "human dependence relationship" and forms "human independence based on the dependence of things". In this social form, "it is only formed that a system of universal social material transformation, comprehensive relationships, multi-faceted needs and comprehensive capabilities is formed." At the same time, people's physical dependence on commodities and money in capitalist society has also led to the "fetishism" of commodities and money, eroding human independence and subjectivity. On this basis, Jean Baudrillard diagnosed the symptoms of consumer society as a kind of "symbol consumption", criticizing symbolic fetishism in capitalist consumer society. The so-called symbolic consumption means that in the consumption process, in addition to the product itself, consumers also consume the symbolic "meaning" or "connotation" such as the beauty and grade symbolized by the product.

Consumerism promotes people's "matter control" to overwhelm people's "subjectivity". In the field of consumerist thought, personal consumption becomes the means of the subject's liberation, and consumption becomes the creator and dominator of people's lives. Obviously, consumerism firmly binds "human independence" to "depending on matter", and seemingly free consumption behavior is actually an external manifestation of the symbolic system constructed by "commodity-money-capital". Consumerism eliminates human subjectivity, regards endless consumption as the value of human existence, regards the possession of things and consumption as human primary pursuit, and consumption itself becomes the purpose, resulting in the alienation of consumer goods and people. Generally speaking, people purchase items for consumption because the use value of the items can meet people's physiological or social needs. Under the influence of consumerism, possession of objects has become a symbol of identity and a symbol of class. Under the influence of consumerism, some people's internal subjectivity and independence gradually disappeared and became slaves to objects.

In consumerist thought, the consumption of commodities and symbols is regarded as the norm, and human subjectivity is also eliminated in commodity fetishism, which conceals the contradictions and crises of capitalism. Unfortunately, people under the control of capital logic are unaware of such crises and are still engaging in excessive consumption and endless production. The ecological crisis between man and nature and the social crisis between man and man is about to break out. "The ultimate cause of all real crises is always the poverty of the masses and their consumption is limited. In contrast, capitalist production strives to develop productivity, as if only the absolute consumption capacity of society is the boundary of the development of productivity." Capitalism's growing industrialized large-scale production has brought great abundance of products and commodities, and capitalist society has thus entered the "abundant society" of goods. However, such a "abundant society" has not brought much substantial changes to the vast number of workers and ordinary people, and the boring and monotonous problems of production and life experience are still very prominent.Consumption has therefore become an important means for people to avoid fundamental problems and escape from contradictions in reality. The alienated consumption that ignores the value of goods and their true needs and simply proves that they exist by possessing goods and consuming goods has also become a phenomenon in which people are committed to obtaining goods to compensate for their monotonous, non-creative and often under-reward labor." At the same time, in order to alleviate the productive crisis of "mass production - massive backlog - massive waste", maintain the legitimacy of the existence of capitalism, and continuously strengthen the propaganda of consumerism, "stimulate and manipulate people's consumption through various means, and induce people to regard the satisfaction of consumption as the satisfaction of human nature, so as to promote capitalist production to expand continuously with the growth of consumer demand."

With the prevalence of consumerism, "the human spirit presents pathological symptoms, and the subjectivity of human beings is weakened and eroded... People are firmly controlled by 'object', thus losing their reflexive and critical subjective consciousness", making people become "instrumental existences" dominated by commodities and symbols. People's consumption goals are increasingly focused on the symbolic symbolism of the goods, rather than the use value of the goods. In purchasing and consumption behaviors, the symbolic value and symbolic meaning of the product replace their materiality itself becomes the first factor that consumers consider while building their own identity.

3. Extreme consumption: the intensification of ecological environment damage

A beautiful ecological environment is an indispensable part of a better life. Consumerism is consumption alienation under the control of capital logic. While aggravating human alienation, it also aggravates the alienation of the relationship between man and nature. The "desire consumption" advocated by consumerism ignores the limitation of resources and ignores the sustainability of development, which has seriously damaged the ecological environment. Ecological Marxist scholar James O'Connor keenly pointed out that capitalist economic externalities will lead to the destruction of the natural environment and trigger an ecological crisis.

Marx has long pointed out deeply that Capitalist industrialization has completely changed the relationship between man and nature, turning the entire nature into an object for humans to meet their own needs. "Only under the capitalist system, nature is truly an object of man and a truly useful thing." The purpose of capitalism "is to make nature (whether as a consumer product or a means of production) obey human needs." This leads to the capitalist production process being accompanied by huge consumption of natural resources, causing serious damage to the ecological environment. As an ideology generated by capital logic, the false consumption desire generated by consumerism far exceeds people's real needs and ecological carrying capacity, destroying the ecological environment and accelerating the depletion of ecological resources. In the modern consumer society, the value of commodity symbols is constantly constructed and praised, and people's desire to consume is constantly stimulated. The value of symbolic value of commodities increases the consumption of resources and energy, and the ecological environment is ultimately continuously damaged. "The symbolic value of commodities opens up an endless catching-up mode of consumption, and society has also entered a state of infinite possession of commodities under symbolic signs, which puts the ecological environment on which human society relies for survival into a dilemma of continuous deterioration." In this process, the relationship between man and nature gradually moves towards opposition. Consumerism hinders the coordinated development of "man-nature-society". As a typical consumer society, developed Western countries have alienated production and excessive consumption have led to the real people falling into the quagmire of materialism, completely ignoring the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and society and nature. The predatory consumption habits and consumption methods of many Western consumers far exceed the natural ability to repair and balance themselves. "Developed countries, as consumer entities, do not reflect on their political ideas and lifestyles, but must blindly obtain their moral commanding heights on ecological issues by condemning developing countries . This is undoubtedly just deceiving their people with abstract slogans and 'fiction virtues'." High consumption will inevitably be accompanied by high consumption and high emissions, accelerating resource crisis, destroying ecological balance, and threatening the harmonious coexistence between man and nature. Unreasonable production and consumption methods are important reasons for resource depletion and environmental damage.

4. Comparison and show-off: alienation and distortion of the human value world

Consumerism, as a trend of thought, has profoundly influenced people's lifestyles. The concept of materialism first and consumption first advocated by it has obvious materialism and hedonism characteristics. Consumerism arouses and captures people's greed for pleasure and vain, stimulates people to prove their existence and success by consuming willfully and showing off their consumption, so that their vanity that feels good about themselves can be temporarily satisfied, and creates the illusion of happiness. In this way, consumerism is embellished as a sign of people's better life and solidified into people's life ideals, thus becoming popular. Marx once pointed out that in history, an individual "has possession of objects is also reflected in a certain development of his personality; possessing a flock of sheep makes the individual develop into a shepherd, possessing a grain makes the individual develop into a peasant, and so on." In capitalist society, money becomes the general representative of wealth. The desire to pursue money transcends a diverse individual pursuit. Consumption becomes a direct manifestation of personal wealth and success. This has changed the consumption motivation of many people, and treats consumption as the most important way to realize the meaning of life and reflect personal success. As a result, the original diversified life of individuals in society is squeezed into a single life of crazy possession and consumption of material things, which is what Marcuse calls "one-dimensional person".

Consumerism trend has impacted people's values. A better life is not only a life with abundant material resources, but also a life of spiritual independence and prosperity. However, consumerist thoughts continue to impact people's values, causing spiritual emptiness and cognitive materialization. First of all, people are involved in the alienated system of capital dominance and are completely unaware of it. They are addicted to and gradually lose themselves and lose themselves in the materialistic world of consumerism, becoming the "spokesperson" of the symbols of objects. The materialization of value and emptiness of the spiritual world have become typical representations of people's social life. People have lost the ability to criticize and correct mistakes in wrong lives, and "spiritual activities are gradually flattened and objectified in landscaped scenes and lose their innerity, richness and criticality." The longing and practice of a better life gradually withdraw from the spiritual world of the public. Secondly, consumerism eliminates the originally warm social relationship between people. People are the sum of social relations. Without warm social relations, there is naturally no way to talk about a better life. The prevalence of consumerism has spawned an alienated social atmosphere, that is, to understand and evaluate people through consumption, compare people's own value with the value of the goods consumed, and even equate the value of things with people's value. People "involuntarily become tools of things, and lose their subjectivity in the crisis of objectification, thus making social rationality instrumentalized." Finally, the expansion of material desires and the prevalence of consumerism have led to people's spiritual world deviating from the evolution and development track of human civilization and falling into the quagmire of the "jungle principle". This has caused "the originally full of people with the essential attributes of 'class' to become the 'plane' based on the sensibility and desire needs at the consumption level... The pursuit of human life value and spiritual meaning collapsed in the face of materialism and consumerism." As a result, the human life world and the value world have broken down.

2. Green consumption: a better lifestyle that abandons consumerism

Obviously, consumerism not only cannot create a better life for people, but also destroys the foundation for people to pursue a better life. Entering the new era, people's yearning for a better life is stronger. As an important part of people's social life, consumption is directly related to whether people's better life can be realized and how well they can achieve. To this end, in the modernization process of continuously meeting people's needs for a better life, our country must fully understand the shortcomings of consumerism, actively abandon it, and achieve a green transformation of consumption methods. General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly proposed to "promote the formation of green development modes and lifestyles" and "advocate and promote green consumption."Green consumption is a profound transformation that affects the overall transformation of social production modes and lifestyles. It is not only the correct choice to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks of Western consumerism and promote the high-quality development of my country, but also a realistic way to promote the construction of ecological civilization in the new era and meet the people's needs for a better life.

1. Abandon false needs and realize the transformation from "desire of things" to "human needs"

Green consumption takes meeting people's needs for a better life as a consumption orientation. This is based on Historical materialism 's scientific understanding of real people and their real life needs. Abandon false consumption desires created by consumerism, realize the transformation from "desire of things" to "man needs", and from "things-oriented" to "people-oriented". First of all, a better life is a common and better life for the people. In order to realize this common and better life need, we must pay more attention to saving and sharing. Capitalist private ownership consumerism under blindly emphasizes the realization of private possession of wealth and resources by purchasing various items without considering its social consequences and ecological consequences. In fact, many false needs result in a large waste of goods and resources. Advocating green consumption means advocating the concept of sharing and saving, effectively integrating fragmented resources, and promoting new models of shared consumption and shared life. This not only maximizes the benefit of social development achievements, but also maximizes the use of resources, effectively saves resources, reduces unnecessary consumption, and reduces the pressure on the environment by consumption. Green consumption is committed to saving resources and protecting the environment more effectively while meeting consumption needs, so that more people have the opportunity to meet their own consumption needs, constantly improve their "sense of gain" and "happiness", and realize their own better life in economic and social development. This is both a "people-oriented care and a true portrayal of people-oriented". Secondly, a better life must meet the diverse survival and development needs of people. The people have diverse, multi-level and multi-faceted needs for a better life. Green consumption is guided by this. By optimizing the unity of supply and moderate consumption, the people can "have better education, more stable work, more satisfactory income, more reliable social security, higher level of medical and health services, more comfortable living conditions, a more beautiful environment, and richer spiritual and cultural life." Only in this way can people avoid the alienation of consumption, confirm that people as the subject of consumption, can "occupy their own comprehensive essence in a comprehensive way, that is, as a complete person," so that the consumer subject can experience the "truth" of consumption and confirm the "right" of consumption in the consumption process.

2. Abandoning commodities and symbolic fetishism, promoting people's independent choices and healthy life

Green consumption is not against people's consumption, but against crazy consumption falling into commodities and symbolic fetishism, and emphasizes the self-control and independent choice of consumer subjects. It is a new way of life to control desires, maintain soberness, defend autonomous and healthy life. First of all, green consumption emphasizes moderate consumption and independent choices, reflecting the unity of human material satisfaction and spiritual pursuits, and avoiding the alienation of consumption driven by fetishism. Under the influence of consumerism, people's life consumption is constantly distorted, unconsciously obeying the domination of capital, becoming an alienated and deformed lifestyle. As Marx and Engels pointed out, "The difference between capital and the ruling relationship [pre-capitalism] is precisely because workers are opposite to capital as consumers and exchange value realizers." Consumption is no longer to meet people's normal needs, but to make people opposite to capital, thus constantly exceeding the boundaries of moderate consumption. Green consumption advocates restraining excessively inflated consumption desires and consumption behaviors, guiding people to "always restrain their consumption impulses from the bottom of their hearts, keep a clear mind in the face of temptation, and re-examine their possible consumption behaviors from the perspective of their own needs and ecological", and gain spiritual autonomy and independence and prosperity in the spiritual world through moderate and moderate consumption.Secondly, green consumption emphasizes the balance between the "human world" and the "what world", pays attention to the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and builds a healthier lifestyle. By establishing a green lifestyle and establishing people's dominance over the entire consumption process, there is hope for sustainable development, a beautiful world and a better life. Therefore, green consumption can not only maintain the ecological balance relationship between man and nature, but also establish a new ecological balance relationship between human beings, which is of great practical significance for optimizing the allocation of ecological resources, enriching the ecological connotation of social culture, and promoting sustainable economic and social development. Our desire to survive and live must completely overcome the desire for excessive consumption, reverse the inverted relationship between people and things in the consumption process, and abandon the self-alienation of people in fetishism. Green consumption is based on meeting people's real life needs and opposes the crazy possession of things and the blind worship of symbols, so that people can get rid of the spiritual dependence of things and symbols and live a healthier life.

3. Abandon excessive consumption to meet the people's value pursuit of a beautiful ecological environment

The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out: "We must not only create more material and spiritual wealth to meet the people's growing needs for a better life, but also provide more high-quality ecological products to meet the people's growing needs for a beautiful ecological environment and other needs." A beautiful ecological environment is not only the basic condition for sustainable economic and social development, but also the meaning of a better life in our country in the new era. By practicing "less" and "better" green consumption, people are more firm in respecting and protecting nature, grasping the initiative in consumption, abandoning consumerism, and promoting the construction of ecological civilization, which not only meets people's basic needs for survival, but also makes it possible to satisfy people's needs for a better life at a higher level.

Capitalism has created civilization achievements that transcend the past, and has also brought about unprecedented ecological and environmental crises, arousing people's attention to ecological issues. Consumerism dominated by capital logic has deviated from the reality of real production. Man's possession and squandering of nature has exceeded its carrying limit. There are many crises lurking under the appearance of prosperity of consumption. People are beginning to realize that "consumption-driven lifestyles are the root cause of environmental damage than population size." "We are facing a harsh choice: either to obstruct all actions that obstruct the harmonious development of nature and society as the most basic goal of establishing a more just social order, or to face natural consequences, namely, the rapidly out of control of ecological and social crises and their irreversible devastating consequences for mankind and many other species coexisting with us." In terms of consumption, it is necessary to abandon the consumption concept of "large consumption - large-scale waste - large-scale pollution" and fully recognize the far-reaching impact of consumption on the ecological environment. "From global warming to species extinction, we consumers should bear huge responsibility for the misfortune of the earth. However, our consumption is rarely noticed by those who care about the fate of the earth, and these people pay attention to other factors of environmental deterioration. Consumption is a measure that is ignored in the global environmental balance." The ecological disaster caused by consumerism prompts people to look at capitalist consumption methods from a critical perspective, and promote green consumption from the overall perspective of the coexistence of man and nature, thereby alleviating and overcoming the increasingly serious ecological crisis.

As the material and cultural life of our people reaches a certain level, "the people's demand for ecological products such as fresh air, clear water quality, and clean environment is becoming more and more urgent, and the ecological environment is becoming more and more precious." Therefore, it is necessary to take a green production and living environment as an important development goal of our country and promote a virtuous cycle of green production, green life and green ecology. "The virtuous interactive cycle of green supply and demand is not only a new function and new engine of the economy, but also an endogenous condition for improving the quality of the ecological environment and a new growth pole for promoting high-quality development."Green consumption is not only the final link and direct form of realizing green life, but also promotes each other with green supply, reflecting the people's conscious pursuit of a beautiful ecological environment and being able to "create the feeling of a person who is in line with the full richness of the essence of man and the essence of nature."

4. Abandon comparison and show-off, promote the reshaping of values ​​and the harmony of social relations

1 The proliferation of consumerism has led to the infinite expansion of people's desires and the collapse of the world of meaning in people's lives. The rapid development of productivity has brought about the rapid growth of material wealth, but it can never satisfy people's endless desire consumption. Daniel Bell once pointed out that capitalist consumption "what needs to satisfy is not needs, but desires. Desire exceeds physiological instinct and enters the psychological level, and it is therefore an infinite requirement." To overcome the ills of consumerism, we need not only advocate moderate consumption in real life, but also need to deeply grasp the values ​​and driving mechanisms behind this consumption desire at the psychological level, and promote the establishment of a correct consumption concept and even values. As Fromm said: "Only by fundamentally changing people's personality structure, resisting the value orientation of paying attention to possession and carrying forward the value orientation of survival can we avoid a spiritual and economic disaster." It can be seen that we must quit the consumer's spiritually The meaning of "drug addiction" completely reflects and changes our consumption methods. This change in consumption concepts and values ​​is the internal driving force of green consumption and will also promote the construction of a healthier and harmonious social relationship.

consumption not only confirms the individual's self-existence, but also confirms the individual's social existence relationship. "The consumption of these products regenerates the individual's own way of existence, and regenerates the individual's individual who not only have direct vitality, but also individuals who are in certain social relations. It can be seen that the final possession of individuals that occur in the consumption process produces individuals in the original relationship, that is, individuals in their original relationship with the production process and their original relationship with each other; individuals are produced in their social existence, and thus their social existence is produced. First of all, under social conditions, consumption is always carried out in a certain social relationship, and individual consumption will always have a certain impact on others. Green consumption is not only a self-interest consumption that meets self-needs, but also an altruistic consumption that is conducive to meeting social needs, and it is not only a matter of the survival of contemporary people. and development are also related to the happiness of future generations. Green consumption is based on the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and pays more attention to the balance between current development and future development. It is a consumption method based on the principle of consuming the least resources, producing the least pollution, and achieving the greatest economic, ecological and social benefits. It reflects a value with a high sense of social responsibility, which is very different from the self-interested value of consumerism. Secondly, green consumption means subversion of material hedonism consumption concepts and life concepts, "opposing the squandering, consuming large amounts of money after owning wealth, and taking consumption as a The means to show off wealth and show identity" refuses to evaluate people's wealth, achievements, status, and life meaning through consumption behavior. Consumerism is not an ever-effective "ansthetic" of souls. More and more people have realized that endless consumption will not bring true happiness and sense of accomplishment. The inner confusion and struggle caused by crazy consumption are becoming more and more obvious. The cry for changing life often sounds in my ears. The "simple food" consumption that returns to the countryside has quietly become a new consumption trend in modern society. In this regard, green consumption is not only a kind of sustainable development for human society Inevitability, and it is also an inevitable necessity for humans to consciously get rid of the trap of consumerism and move towards harmonious coexistence between man and nature, harmonious coexistence between man and man, and coordinated development of material and spiritual life.

3. Transcend consumerism: the better life value of green consumption

Green consumption, as a better lifestyle, is an active abandonment of consumerism and demonstrates the basic characteristics of a modern and beautiful society.Today, when global ecological resources are becoming increasingly tense, ecological crises are becoming increasingly fierce, and people's yearning for a better life is becoming increasingly strong, consumption methods must be changed, and consumerism must be abandoned and transcended, and green consumption must be advocated and practiced, which has important contemporary value for people's growing needs for a better life and respond to the global ecological crisis.

1. Green consumption helps to build a new civilized form that takes into account production, life and ecology

Green consumption is obviously not an opposition to consumption. Normal consumption is a necessary link and boost to social and economic development. Green consumption is not a irrational alienated consumption that shows off irrationality, but a consumption scale and level established by people based on social production and living conditions and their own consumption capacity under certain ecological resources, so as to achieve balance and coordination between production, life and ecology.

First of all, in terms of the relationship between production and consumption, "consumption, as a necessity and need, is itself an inherent element of production activities. However, production activities are the starting point of implementation, and therefore also the element of implementation and the act through which the entire process is re-produced." The original intention of consumption is to promote orderly reproduction in society. Green consumption aims to avoid the fragmentation of people's normal life caused by desire consumption under the dominant Western consumerism, reduce the blindness and disorder of social production, and thus provide people with a more satisfying and comfortable life.

Secondly, green consumption pays more attention to the ecological impact of economic activities, aiming to avoid the vicious cycle of ecological crisis and social production and life chaos. There are two major principles for green consumption: one is the principle of sufficient and no waste. That is, when people consume, they should not simply pursue the satisfaction of desires, and squander resources beyond their own needs, and avoid the amount of consumption preparations far exceeding the actual amount of consumption, causing a large amount of inventory of consumer goods or even deteriorating and rotting, resulting in a large amount of waste of production resources, human resources and natural resources. Therefore, when people consume, the more they should, but should do what they can according to their actual needs and actual conditions and achieve moderate consumption. Of course, moderation is not absolute, but relative: the "degree" of moderate consumption in different periods and regions is different, and we need to measure moderate consumption in historical and realistic situations. Consumption is realistic and historical. Different historical periods and different social systems have huge differences in the standards of moderate consumption. The "moderate consumption" standard of capitalist developed countries is by no means applicable to the vast majority of developing countries. Their "moderate" is based on the large consumption of ecological resources and the serious damage to the ecological environment. On the surface, these developed countries have beautiful mountains and rivers and pleasant scenery, and their consumption seems to be relatively "moderate". However, these countries have achieved their own "moderate mountains and rivers" by transferring ecological pollution to developing countries. The green consumption we advocate is not a single-dimensional moderate consumption, but a moderate consumption from the perspective of the country's economic and social development and global ecological protection, taking into account the three dimensions of production, life and ecology. The second is the principle of suitability, that is, when people consume, they must fully consider the local resource conditions and ecological environment carrying capacity, and whether their own consumption is suitable for the requirements of ecological development. Consumption cannot be at the cost of plundering natural resources and destroying the ecological environment, and cannot exceed the limits of nature and overdraw nature. Consumption should be within the limit of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and be suitable for natural ecological capacity, which not only meets one's own living needs, but also does not put too much pressure on the ecological environment.

In the historical process of moving towards modernization, our country has embarked on a path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, forming the " five-in-one " overall layout of economic construction, political construction, cultural construction, social construction, and ecological civilization construction, creating a new form of human civilization. From this macro perspective, advocating a new life of green consumption is also an important effort to build a new form of civilization. It embodies the internal unified relationship of "five-in-one" and highlights the fundamental difference between Chinese-style modernization and Western capitalist modernization in the path of civilization development.

2. Green consumption helps the fair use of ecological resources and the sustainable development of human beings

The world is not the sum of atomized individuals, and all things are always constantly developing and changing in mutual connection. As for consumption, it is obvious that consumption itself cannot be understood simply from an economic level. The occurrence of consumption will always bring about a series of chain reactions. Consumption is also a social right. Not everyone can consume a large amount of ecological resources at will to meet their own needs. The ecological resources that everyone can control and use are also different due to their different social relations and social status. This means that consumption involves fairness and justice issues, and advocating green consumption is also an important measure to promote the fair use of ecological resources and the sustainable development of mankind.

In "Das Kapital", Marx criticized the unfairness of consumption in capitalist countries, and the amount of resources consumed by capitalists is hundreds or even thousands of times that of workers. Our country is a socialist country, and the consumption of ecological resources is by no means a privilege for a few people like developed Western countries. First of all, our country's economic system is based on socialist public ownership, which is the institutional guarantee for the realization of fair consumption. Green consumption is reflected in the right of everyone to enjoy ecological resources equally, and no one can arbitrarily deprive others of their right to consume green. Secondly, green consumption advocates the greatest conservation and full utilization of resources and opposes the idleness and waste of resources. In this sense, green consumption is a kind of shared consumption. Only by sharing limited resources, energy and development achievements by people can people’s needs for a better life be truly satisfied. "The existence of a single person is random, willful, and poor. Only in the sharing and resonance between individuals and others can individual consumption get rid of willfulness and gain infinite comfort and happiness." In shared consumption, people further confirm their social existence, enrich and develop human social regulations, promote harmony in social relations, and promote the solution of unbalanced and inadequate development and the satisfaction of the needs of a better life. Finally, green consumption is also manifested as fairness in the consumption process. In the consumption process, everyone's consumption cannot harm the rights and interests of others and the social ecological. For example, all kinds of waste such as fruit shells, kitchen waste, waste items generated by our daily consumption should not be piled up randomly. Our behavior cannot facilitate ourselves, pollute the environment, and affect the health of others.

Green consumption is a kind of sustainable consumption. As a class, one exists in the form of a synchronic group of contemporaries, and the other exists in the form of a diachronic group of trans-era. The former involves the current state of human existence, while the latter involves the future continuation of human existence. Green consumption not only ensures the basic needs of human survival and life, but also directly affects the future production and living conditions of future generations. On the one hand, green consumption emphasizes that today's consumption cannot affect the satisfaction and development of tomorrow's demand, and consumption cannot be "breaking" due to the food in the first year. We must ensure the sustainable reproduction of ecological resources and ecological environment, reduce the use of severely polluted and toxic materials, maintain the purification capacity of natural systems, leave resources for survival and development for future generations, and realize the intergenerational flow of ecological resources. On the other hand, human beings have developed in the sense of accumulation. "Previous people plant trees, and future generations enjoy the shade." The welfare of the younger generation is benefited from the creation of the older generation. Contemporary people create a new lifestyle of green consumption, which will not only leave valuable resources and a good environment for future generations, but will also lay a good foundation for their better lives. Green consumption advocates sustainable consumption and firmly opposes the wanton consumption advocated by consumerism that "wine is there now and drinks today". We must actively assume the important task of sustainable development of mankind, closely combine current consumption with future human survival, development and a better life, and provide resource guarantees and practical possibilities for the sustainable development of mankind.

3. Green consumption helps to improve ecological literacy and promote the all-round development of people

Consumption is a process of the joint action of human physiology and psychology, involving multiple levels and aspects of human physiology, safety, communication and self-realization. Green consumption is not a single consumption, but a comprehensive consumption, aiming to improve the consumption level, expand the dimension of consumption content, better meet people's material and spiritual life needs, and truly make green life a high-quality life, so as to promote the all-round development of people. The comprehensiveness of green consumption is reflected in the following two aspects.

First, the comprehensiveness of the consumption level. The comprehensiveness of the consumption level refers to both basic consumption related to survival and advanced consumption involving enjoyment and development. People have different consumption needs at different stages of development and under different social conditions, but from the perspective of the comprehensive development of people and the ecological protection of the environment, green consumption should involve all levels of survival, enjoyment and development. We cannot keep our consumption at the level of survival and enjoyment. We simply pursue physical stimulation and desire satisfaction, but also need to be related to the future development level of individuals and society. Multi-layer consumption is an effective way to avoid consumption alienation and an effective way to achieve a better life for people.

The second is the comprehensiveness of consumption content. The comprehensiveness of consumption content refers to the consumption of both fresh air and green food, as well as the spiritual consumption of writing and painting, and feeling the artistic conception; the practical experience of blue sky, white clouds, green water and green mountains, as well as the thought of closing eyes and quiet thinking and roaming with imagination. In addition to meeting people's material needs in daily life, green consumption can also provide Tao Yi's sentiment and spiritual needs to improve her realm. People's going to nature and appreciating nature is not only a manifestation of people's actions to satisfy material consumption, but also an important manifestation of people's enjoyment of the beauty of nature and improving moral qualities. While meeting their material consumption needs, people continue to improve the "ecological" content of their consumption through learning and disseminating ecological knowledge, ecological tourism and fitness activities, enhance their ecological awareness and ecological emotions, improve their ecological cultivation, and promote the all-round development of people.

In short, consumption, as the basic way for people to meet their living needs, profoundly affects people's lifestyle and ideological awareness. As a real life carrier for publicity and practice of green civilization, green consumption will help "enhance the people's awareness of saving, environmental protection, and ecological awareness, advocate a simple, moderate, green and low-carbon lifestyle, and transform the construction of a beautiful China into a conscious action for all people."

4. Green consumption helps to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind with a better life

Currently, the world is facing serious ecological and environmental problems. Global resource and energy shortages and ecological crises have become major practical problems faced by countries around the world. "When we examine nature, human history or our own spiritual activities through our thinking, what we first present before us is a picture that is endlessly intertwined by various connections and interactions." General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Building a beautiful home is the common dream of mankind. Faced with the challenges of the ecological environment, mankind is a community of shared future where one prospers and one loses, and no country can survive alone." Today, countries and nations in the world have formed an indivisible community of shared future, and they have formed a relationship of symbiosis and prosperity with each other. Building a community with a shared future for mankind is to build a world of lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, openness and inclusiveness, and a clean and beautiful world. Among them, a clean and beautiful world cannot be separated from people's consumption methods, from squandering and excessive consumerism to green consumption.

advocates green consumption and promotes the realization of a better life for the people, reflecting China's attitude towards sharing the responsibility of green development around the world and its responsibility as a responsible major country. Developed capitalist countries have carried out plundering consumption of the ecological resources of the vast number of third world countries through unequal international economic and trade regulations, causing serious damage to the ecological environment of third world countries.Consumerism advocated and promoted globally by developed capitalist countries has caused global destruction and waste of ecological resources, leading to an increasingly serious global ecological crisis. Developed capitalist countries should take responsibility for this and take positive actions, but they create various reasons to evade responsibility and transfer crises, which has had a huge negative impact on the daily lives of people in the world and seriously hinders the realization of a better life for people. Practice has proved that whether it is a poor country or a wealthy country, whether it is a weak country or a powerful country, it will be vulnerable when facing an ecological crisis. As the largest developing country in the world, China has always adhered to the concept of "a community with a shared future for mankind", actively promoted cooperation among countries in the field of green consumption, advocated green consumption, and strived to break the old unreasonable ecological resource consumption pattern, contributed Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to transcending consumerism and promoting global ecological governance, and made positive contributions to promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind with a better life.

4. Conclusion

Since the Industrial Revolution, the modern Western civilization with industrialization as the core has gone through hundreds of years of development and global expansion movement, promoting mankind from a traditional agricultural society to a modern industrial society, bringing great progress to the overall human being. But at the same time, a series of bad social thoughts have emerged, and consumerism is a typical representative. Its spread and prevalence around the world have exacerbated the high tension and even serious confrontation between humans and nature, seriously endangered the sustainable development of mankind, and even posed a threat to the overall existence of mankind. How to maintain the overall benign balance of the ecological environment system and promote the realization of a better life in people while continuing to promote the rapid development of industrialization is a major issue before mankind. This requires countries around the world to transcend consumerism, advocate and practice green development, promote the development of green industries, build a shared green distribution system, realize the sharing of green resources by the whole people, comprehensively, co-construction and sharing, and gradual sharing of green resources, and create a new form of civilization in which man and nature coexist harmoniously.

People's needs are rich and colorful. Consumerism adheres to the pathological logic of development for development. The excessive material consumption advocated eliminates the authenticity and diversity of people's needs, reverses the dialectical relationship between consumption purposes and means, regards means as goals, and consumption changes from means to means to control people's social behavior. People are subject to various consumer goods and are enslaved by consumer goods, and lose their own subjectivity. The waste caused by excessive consumption not only destroys the ecological environment, but also threatens the spiritual home of mankind. To this end, we must abandon consumerism, get out of the consumption trap where desire dominates the world and the quagmire of symbolic consumerism, adhere to green consumption, establish a green consumption method that is not for material services and is free in spirit, and realize the unity of instrumental rationality and value rationality of consumption.

At present, my country's economic development has entered a stage of high-quality development, and the role of consumption as an important driving force for economic development is becoming increasingly prominent. By expanding consumption, optimizing consumption structure, and promoting consumption upgrading, it will help eliminate the imbalance and inadequacy problems in my country's development process and further release the important role of consumption in driving economic growth. At the same time, under the socialist system, we must firmly resist consumerism and oppose the crazy grabbing of natural resources and the wanton squandering of consumer goods. We neither advocate asceticism nor the ascetic life philosophy, nor firmly oppose lust. Instead, we should pursue ecological harmony, integrate green consumption into people's daily lives, establish a new and beautiful lifestyle, and confirm the essential development of people. "Under the premise of socialism, what is the significance of the richness of human needs, and what is the significance of a new mode of production and a new object of production. The essential power of human beings is proven new", thereby promoting the realization of a better life for people.

References:

[1] Du Zaohua: "Critical Research on Consumerism", Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2021.

[2] Tang Zhengdong: "A critical interpretation of new changes in contemporary capitalism", Beijing: Economic Science Press, 2016.

[3]Lu Feng, Wang Yuanzhe: "Ecological Civilization and Ecological Philosophy", Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 2022.

(Author: Lu Mingchuan, Professor of the School of Marxism, Zhejiang University Urban College; Source: "Marxism Research" Issue 7, 2022)