Virtual Worlds: The Shopping Centre and the Commodification of Meaning

The contemporary shopping centre is the cathedral of a narcissistic religion of the self in which the identity of the consumer is made and re-made through the purchase of commodities imbued with fake meaning. What enables the such simulations to exist is the exclusion by the rationalised system of the shopping mall of authentic meanings rooted in collective solidarity and the existential experience. The consequence is a “privatisation of meaning” whereby the myths and narratives that guide our lives are no longer generated through collective dialogue and action, but created and sold to us by corporations. In this respect the shopping centre is typical of a range of "virtual worlds" created by late modern consumerism. I recently had an article on this theme published in Research West Review: the full piece can be accessed at

http://greenlinkwest.webs.com/RWR%20POCONNOR.pdf