Reference no: EM133284609

Research: one product you feel it would be hard for you to live without (e.g., your iPhone, Xbox, Axe body spray, or etc.). Find all the information you can online or elsewhere about the product and the company that sells it, where the product is actually made and who actually makes, constructs, and/or assembles it. Are there any ethical, political, or other significant implications of what you discover?

One of the most challenging, constitutive contradictions of contemporary, post-industrial life is that exploited workers are to a large degree themselves compelled to consume the products of exploited labour. The possibility of altogether "opting out" of our commodified, globalized world is not very realistic. (For what it's worth, Karl Marx never advocated a return to a mythical or pre-industrial past; this has been a common mischaracterization of his work. Rather, he welcomed the liberating possibilities suggested by the technologies and means of production of his era; and sought to have them re-appropriated and redistributed fairly.)

How do you reckon with the distance and difference between you and the people who work on the product(s) on which you feel the quality and meaning of your life to some degree depends? Identify, articulate, and elaborate the social and ethical implications of your online research, and develop your own case for practical yet more ethical or empathetic practices of consumption in your blog entry. You should draw compelling connections, points of contact and contrast, between your discussion and relevant aspects of the novel-and may revisit any course materials that might serve your observations and analysis. (Note: Not to discourage you, but many students in earlier versions of this course chose Nike and Apple products; and the resulting widespread overlap caused a few to regret their choices.)