Today's lecture focuses on a matter that has been very close to my heart recently : Consumerism, its origins, definition and effects. Before this I've been doing essays on John Berger's Way of seeing , in which heavily features criticisms of Western consumerism and publicity. So what makes it so bad? Well basically , this lecture was more or less the answers to that question , given multiple examples of how the concept of consumerism and capitalism has driven western society into a false sense of happiness and freedom.
But before going into it, credit is where credits due for Richard as he presented a very interesting history behind consumerism. I'd always thought of it as an social idea that just came along when the economy stared growing , but its really interesting to see that it can start out from a person namely : Edward Bernays with the invention of public relations. Since then it has proven so successful that it became very much a norm that people just take for granted nowadays, and with it came a whole series of modern social issues.
With the advent of mass production and the market getting oversaturate with things to sell and buy, its only logical to think that the big companies and corporation would resort to means of "telling lies" to sell their stuffs. Publicity caters to human desire, that is what I have drawn from this lecture and for John Berger : a desire that never cease aka greed , desire to mean something , to prove to yourself that you are the best in the world , a very egotistical attitude to say the least. Coming from my family , we're not struggling by anycase, if anything , I'd say we're relatively well-off . But teachings from both my parents, who both work from the bottom to earn their wealth , has builded me up as a person who is really against over-purchasing on products that are not necessary to one's daily life i.e extra clothes, shoes, electronics,... So even before getting the idea of consumerism , I've already been resistant, albeit on a subconscious level only. As I matured , that resistance only grew as I see people my age around all chasing the meaningless things : the latest ipad, the newest shoes, lipstick , skinny jeans that has tears and make you look like a hobo,.... most of them with ridiculous price tags. On this exact same point , Richard pointed that that is exactly how consumerism control and lie to us. The ripped jeans are advertised as being unique , being an individual , yet now EVERYONE does it, so what's so unique anymore. Same goes for other thing , like the Iphone getting reproduced every 2 years or so as a "new" model , yet people still flocks to it because its cool and everyone else is having it , so why cant I. We dont buy for needs anymore, we buy to please ourselves in hopes of persuading ourselves that we're happy and free. But really , what is free and happiness anymore. I come from Vietnam- a communist country. Sure , we might not have the same level of political freedom as say the US , but I'd considered myself "free" , if there is even such a thing. I've always said that : " True freedom is impossible , because people dont know what to do." usually , due to my standing as a person who values order in society , but having seen all this ,especially with recent US election and Brexit I can honestly say that Im not wrong at all. And to close it off, I think this idea from Sigmund Freud that Richard has presented is the perfect thing to summarise it all : Human instinct is in compatible with the well-being of a society.
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