The Consumerist Aesthetics and the Spirit of Capitalism: New Forms of Inequality in the World and Modern Russia

From the 60th years of XX century the thesis of a fundamental change in the type of capitalist relations existing in developed countries became popular. It is, primarily, the transition from the classic puritan capitalism (that was described by Weber and Marx) to its hedonistic and consumerist type. Examining the "spirit of capitalism", we naturally approach to its two main aspects – the ethic and aesthetic. And the role of aesthetics, that increases over time – is the main subject of our study. The special role of "aesthetic shift" was played in the development of capitalism in the Soviet Union / modern Russia, where it’s changed, but not completely adapted aesthetic was adopted actualy before it’s economic and ethical components. In many ways, the collapse of the ideological system of communism was defeat in this direction. This paper examines "aesthetic shift" in retrospect, and referring to the data obtained by the author about aesthetic aspect of perception and attitude toward capitalism in different parts of the modern Russian society.