Examination of Consumerism In this day and age there is advertising everywhere, from billboards on the highway to commercials on television. Advertising is what makes consumers buy what they want to buy even though they might not really need it. This advertising feeds consumerism which is the base of our economy and our every day lives. Consumerism is a lot of times believed to make us buy what we want instead of what we really need. James Twitchell, a professor of English and advertising at the University of Florida, believes that “the idea that consumerism creates artificial desires rests on a wistful ignorance of history and human nature, on the hazy, romantic feelings that there existed some halcyon era of noble savages with purely
As well as the Depression, the collapse of the Republic can be linked to a large number of factors, including the influence of the army, political instability and constitutional weaknesses. One of the most consequential outcomes of the Depression was the opportunity that it provided Hitler. A majority of the citizens lost faith and belief in the current Social Democratic government, turning instead to the confident and dynamic leader of Hitler. As Evans asserts, ‘citizens began to see in the youthful dynamism of the Nazi Party as a way out of the situation’. What Evans means by this is that the desperation of the people led them to polarising their votes and seeing radical leaders like Hitler as a solution to the mess that Germany had become.
One of the reasons companies outsource workers, and thus help imperialize foreign countries, is for cheap labor. Western corporations can have multiple sources for a given item, in order to allow continued production once one region realizes it is being treated unfairly and strikes. Oddly, it is argued that these companies could survive without any foreign connection—capitalism without imperialism. But, this would lower profits and prevent “advanced capitalism.” The decision to claim that cultures with what is considered modern technology is defined by military power rather than which culture is actually superior. It is this force that essentially created this gap.
Celebrating Inequalities When I first saw the title of George Packer’s essay, I immediately thought about the disadvantages of lower class or ethnic groups. What was surprising to me was the inequalities of celebrities and the roles they play in our society. Packer asks a very important question: “What are celebrities, after all?” (474). A deeper analysis of the dominance they have on ordinary people should be considered. To some degrees they are searching for some physical being to worship.
This setting by Salinger and Steers helps explore the concept and puts greater emphasis on the consumer society and the ‘American Dream’. As a time of tra ditionalism, affluence and materialism, society believed that their status, power and wealth was the key to true happiness. However Salinger uses Holden to help convey the corruption of this idea. Holden believes that all the people around him are ‘phoneys’ because they forfeit their morality to fit in with the conformities of society. While in Steers appropriation Igby rejects the ‘American Dream’ in which his godfather, D.H has achieved and Igby’s brother Oliver is corrupted by.
Holden explores the concept of relationships through the similar attitudes displayed towards popular society and his repulsion of their values. Holden is seen throughout the novel to have difficulty accepting people due to their pretentious nature and expresses this through the constant use of the word “phony.” “…very phony, Ivy League voices, one of those very tried, snobby voices” this quote by Holden displays his criticism of middle to upper class America. Holden’s relationship with his own parents is one that he deems
Brooks argues that we are a “congealing pot” that tend to gravitate to like-minded, like-cultured people. He also states that there are marketing firms that collect data on where we live and what we buy. He asks us to look at our daily life and do something out of the ordinary. Although Brooks dislike of segregation is apparent, he makes references that there are some advantages of grouping together and the losses Americans would have if they were integrated. There are other losses by segregating due to religion, politics, race, class, profession and sexuality.
How does Dawe’s poetry challenge us to be critical of consumerism? Consumerism is the process of selling, advertising and promoting goods and services. Society tends to become acquisitive, that is, it becomes a desire to acquire and possess goods and services. Consumerism is suggested to be an obsessive consumption of goods because of the ‘ism’ associated. Bruce Dawe describes the negative aspaects of consumerism in the poems: Enter Without So Much As Knocking; Televistas and Americanized.
Manipulation of media is of course one of the main factors. Nowadays, we know all too well how easily it is for media corporations to support one political agenda or another by twisting facts and feeding false information. Consumerism, supported and viralized by media, also carries a message which tends to separate those who consume a certain kind of product from those who do not, stating that the former are happier than the latter. This exercises certain social pressure among consumerist individuals who may somehow see their social status affected and thus feel left out. As a result, the key for the survival of individuality lies in how conformist the people are ready and willing to become.
Amusing Ourselves to Death In the novel Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman analyzes the undeniable truth that the media, and its mediums, have caused a major cultural revolution. This dynamic shift from an age of the printed word, to that of the television, has created an epistemological transition that has led to the redefinition of the content and meaning of public discourse. The argument proposed by Neil Postman stems from the idea in which the entertainment power of images has caused the truth of these messages to be degraded and misinterpreted. Postman (1985) writes “we do not measure a culture by its output of undisguised trivialities but by what it claims as significant” (p. 16). Here Postman argues that televisions’ trivial nature