It became evident following the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, which had embraced communism, that capitalism, alongside its political counterpart, liberalism, achieved an overwhelming success as the sole system promising progress and prosperity for societies while safeguarding freedoms and human rights. However, this success rapidly diminished due to two factors. First, the emergence of several anti-globalization movements, most notably the World Social Forum, established in January 2001 in Porto Alegre as a response to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Second, theoretical critiques of capitalism have surfaced in recent literature, highlighting its negative impacts on the economy, politics, and the environment. The following lines will explore some of capitalism’s social and human consequences.

Critics of capitalism, despite their differences, agree that since the 1970s, it has become more ruthless than ever. It abandoned what was known as market ethics, giving free rein to the stronger to crush the weaker, reducing resources allocated to programs designed to protect and care for the most vulnerable in society, and deepening social inequalities. This was facilitated through what is termed the "merit principle."

This principle asserts that individuals who achieve more wealth than others deserve it due to their intelligence, skills, and competence—attributes they are born with—while those labeled as failures, lazy, or unintelligent are deemed so due to personal shortcomings. This notion portrays social disparities as a natural result of inherent differences among individuals, rather than the outcome of economic and social policies that fail to ensure equal opportunities. Consequently, change is considered unnecessary, and redistributing wealth is seen as immoral, as it deprives the deserving of their rightful rewards to benefit those who are not entitled to them. ⁽¹⁾

Class disparity is not the sole social impact of capitalism; it also fosters consumerism—one of its most prominent features. Consumerism entails the idea that increasing the consumption of goods and services is always desirable and that human well-being and happiness depend primarily on acquiring consumer goods and material possessions. Modern economic thought supports this notion, arguing that spending drives the economy. Encouraging consumers to spend and consume more goods and services fuels economic growth.

To reinforce consumerism, capitalism has created new needs, dividing them into two categories: essential natural needs, such as necessary food, shelter, and medicine, which have been excessively expanded beyond necessity, and non-essential artificial needs invented by capitalism, convincing people of the need to fulfill them, such as entertainment products, cinemas, theaters, and various beauty products.

To achieve this, an advertising industry was created to entice consumers with products from the consumer economy. Various media outlets—print, radio, television, and online platforms—were utilized to solidify consumerism. Consequently, consumer culture has become ingrained, leading to a consumer economy that has eroded anything related to values or spirituality.

Most critics of capitalism focus their critiques on consumerism, asserting that it leads to materialistic societies that disregard values and spirituality. It also diverts individuals from their existential purpose of seeking truth and meaning, turning them into beings solely focused on consuming more products and satisfying insatiable desires. ⁽²⁾

Dr. Abdelwahab Elmessiri posits that consumerism shares many characteristics with imperialism. Like imperialism, consumerism is expansionist, aiming to transform the human self into a market where goods can be sold. However, consumerism differs from imperialism in that its domain is the human psyche—emotions, perceptions, and aspirations. Instead of direct military invasion and material interventions through deploying armies to colonize lands, plunder resources, and open new markets, modern tools such as media, cinema, and fashion invade and dominate the individual, transforming them into a voracious consumer.

This inclination toward excessive consumption has led to another social phenomenon known as "reification." Coined by Hungarian critic Georg Lukács, it refers to human relationships becoming akin to relationships between objects—mechanical and impersonal. People are treated as commodities in a system of exchange. While such exchanges are natural and beneficial for life’s continuation, they become harmful when they dominate human interactions.

According to Elmessiri, reification involves humans becoming fixated on objects, centering their dreams around them, and remaining confined to the material surface of life. A reified individual, characterized by one-dimensionality, can deal with objects due to their simplicity but struggles with the complexity of human relationships. ⁽³⁾

Reification generally leads to an increased fascination with goods and an alignment of human behavior with market movements, creating a perception that everything is up for sale, including human beings themselves.

Thus, market values and relationships dominate individual behaviors, interactions, and societal dynamics. Consequently, an increasing number of areas, including medicine, education, arts, and politics, become subject to commodification, even when doing so appears unethical.

The flaws of reification are not limited to the societal distortion caused by transforming it into a market society. This phenomenon can also lead to intellectual stagnation among reified individuals. When someone is overly focused on the sensory world, they neglect the intellectual and spiritual realms. When they think, objects become their cognitive tools, rather than abstract concepts or values. They perceive these values as rigid and immutable, incapable of being developed or used to generate new ideas. This rigidity can lead to intellectual intolerance and possibly extremism. ⁽⁴⁾

To mitigate the rise of reification in capitalist societies, some propose reforming education to reduce the transformation of interpersonal relationships into acute conflicts, especially when moral or religious concepts are at stake.

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(1) Wahid Abdel Meguid, The Future of Global Capitalism: Trends of Revision and Their Opportunities, Afaaq Mustaqbalia (Futures Horizons), Issue 2, January 2022.

(2) Abdelilah Belkeziz, The Consumer Society or the Capitalization of Values, Bidayat, Issue 32, 2021.

(3) Abdelwahab Elmessiri, Reification and Postmodernism, Kuwait: Al-Arabi Magazine, Issue 464.

(4) Wahid Abdel Meguid, Capitalism and the Phenomenon of Reification in Modern Societies, Cairo: Social Horizons, August 2021.

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