The philosopher Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saimt Simon was a notable thinker of the 18th century, who actually was very influential on the class of people who drove the industrial revolution in France. One of several visionaries who anticipated a brave new age called the modern world, back when modernism was more theory than practice. Modern enlightened thinking is based on the assumption that humanity is kept from effectively governing itself because we are constrained by myopic thinking and processes of doing things that distract us from what is relevant and effective in life. Saimt Simon thought that as the world modernized, that there would be a convergence in society, a joining together between what he called the major components of society art business and science in what he called the avant-garde. And this convergence would be important to casting away the inefficient reactionary thinking that defines human civilization.
While he hardly anticipated the way in which commercial culture would come to dominate our consciousness powerful social forces in society began to converge. Particularly at the turn of the 20th century, when capitalists sought to market innovative cultural trends with the new state of the art technologies that sprang from science. This leading edge of innovation and invention—the avant-garde was vital to sustaining the drive towards modernization that was needed to initiate what Walter Rostow would come to call the stages of takeoff towards the modernization and industrialization of the nation-state.
The joining of business, science and arts, did create the dominant cultural mainstream of modern society, but rather than create a more benevolent human social system it instead unleashed the phenomena that we now call the commercial culture upon us. Pragmatists say that this leading edge of innovation and invention was needed to initiate what Walter Rostow would later call the “stages of takeoff” towards modernization and industrialization. The vast majority of people in modern nation states were just thrilled by the opportunity to purchase affluence in a way that was previously unimaginable. Even today many seem won over the glitter and allure of technology, rather than its potential to improve the lot of humanity. Hence this speaks volumes in explaining why such a large proportion of the population is trapped in misery while a small proportion lives in the bubble of affluence.
And this new paradigm needed to move values towards consumption, so as to sustain the modernization process.
The need to mistake appearances for reality
Link progress with modernization efficiency and economic growth
Use of culture and social status to stimulate consumption