The Empathy of Objects
The system of consumption has different qualities from the system of production; in Marx’s analysis the worker is exploited by the machine so that the worker’s needs, movement and existence is subservient to the requirements of the machine. However in consumption there is an illusion of control on the part of the consumer. The consumer product is designed to adapt to the consumer, to wrap around her with ease, the better to seduce. Everything is designed for the comfort and convenience of the consumer. But it is here that the consumer surrenders everything. As the commodities’ empathy expands to the point of promiscuity, the consumer loses contact with any emotions outside of the world of the commodity. The empathy of the commodity attempts to crowd out any other emotions or thoughts that run counter to it. Seduction is a total endeavor; it is always a matter of giving up that which does not seduce and focusing only on the object of seduction.
“Every reification is a forgetting.” - T. W. Adorno
