Day of no real significance
It appears that another three month has passed. With my time dedicated almost exclusively to school livejournal has been less and less of a priority. I apologize to everyone whose journal I've neglected to sign or read, I'll be catching up on them soon, at least I hope
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We really agree more than you think. The capitalist system is a manifestation of the natural tendency of people to try and profit both financially and power-wise from this short existence. There are capitalists in every society, whether we're talking about a poor farmer in Bolivia who drives a hard bargain in his trades or an American CEO with 300 people beneath him. It's a mentality, and the economic structure that the world runs on today is tangible expression of that mindset; it's like gambling...you play to win, not just to break even.
That being said, you're right, if you took away people's SUVs and mansions, people wouldn't necessarily be any less materialistic. It's the same if you were to give those things to the people who didn't have them before: they would still be abused, some would get more than others, and the whole thing would just recreate itself. That's the way it works.
And advertising literally feeds off of the fact that that's how it works. It plays on insecurities by offering supposed remedies. The insecurities are rarely ever explicitly spelled out, rather they are implied through images and even music:
-unpopular? that's because your teeth aren't white enough!
-small penis? not if you drive this new pickup (cue rock music and shots of truck barrelling through mud and driving across deserts)
-etc. etc. etc. There are a million examples and you can identify a target audience and a tactic for each one. Try it as an exercise sometime! It gets tiresome pretty quickly. This is why I don't watch TV.
As for artists, writers, etc., the point I was trying to make was often they can't see themselves entirely fitting in with the system they're born into, and their creative output is a way of dealing with the weirdness of everything that's going on around them. Alot of them are considered "crazy" for this. There are also many many successful artists whose entire careers are facilitated by catering to rich people who like their stuff. In the end, everyone's got a different agenda motivated by different things, and everybody uses other people to get what they want in some way because we are social creatures. This is normal. I just try and steer clear of agendas that want to use me and other people in a shitty way. The End!
-Your friendly neighbourhood dumpster diver
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To clarify, my whole thing about capitalism wasn't a comment about you or anyone, nor do I mean any disrespect towards you or the choices you make.
I think you covered the whole topic pretty well, I can't think of anything new to add. The way I see it though, there is no getting away from being used in shitty ways, that is how society works; social-economic pressures always win in the end.
You know, the way you spoke about advertising, kinda makes me want to become an advertisement designer. Actually, maybe you should be one, then you'll be able to control the behavior of your inferior beings.
Thanks for reading my rants, by the way. Maybe you should update once in awhile.
-DeCapitus
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