It’s funny how materialistic things have become. We have name brands written prominently on our underwear and corporate branding terminology is written into our everyday conversations. My Media Professor, a former high-level manager for KNBC-4 Los Angeles, said we are exposed to some 250 advertisements a day. This is not including all the logos, branding objects, telemarketers and product placements that also intrusively solicit crap we don’t need every single day of our lives. I’m looking around the room and counting all the logos and brand name products that are in my view. It is easily over a dozen, not including things like movies, which are also brand names.
My Media Professor also always said that marketing is defined as a technique used to convince consumers that they need something. Sales is defined as the way to fill that need. In other words, corporations spend billions trying to convince you that the crap they are selling is something you need. Since our needs truly only include food, shelter & clothes, they must go to great lengths to convince you that a cell phone is necessity. In a way, it is becoming one. Flood the market with technology that gives you an edge, and those who have it have the upper hand. In the end, all those who don’t have it must work harder or submit to the technology and purchase it. This has worked with cell phones, microwaves, palm-pilots, washing machines and especially computers. The pattern closely follows the same technological path of warfare through-out history.
How can this be healthy on the human psyche? We are lost in a rapid state of constant technological change.
We are under constant bombardment from advertising that stimulates the senses and uses techniques that are as close to subliminal as legally possible.
Then of course we have the pursuit of materialism. The two-income family is becoming the family type of choice these days. A one-income family can barely afford bread, but a 2-income family can usually have enough money to enjoy food, shelter, clothing and of course, useless material crap. This leads to less supervision of the children, the loosening of the family (our nation’s chief economic and social unit) and decline of tradition.
Other side effects of decreased supervision of teens include teen pregnancy, gang violence and unnecessary mistakes that can seriously affect the teen later in adulthood.
This is the end result of the Southern Strategy and the Republican Party’s pact with the corporations. They wanted to put on end to the social revolution of the sixties so bad, that they sold their souls to achieve it. Under attack they still say, just like they did in the civil-war. They still think they are trying to make things right. Sadly the average Southerner who votes Republican to bring an end to the rapid decline of ethics and moral standards is only voting to remove restrictions on corporations. In turn, they are allowing a society of sales to determine what is right and what is wrong.
Didn’t you know that Time/Warner (pre-AOL days) was responsible for the release of Ice T’s Cop Killer, an album that enraged the Right-Wingers, even Dan Quayle made a speech about it. The funny thing is that while all this was going on, Time/Warner was contributing large sums of money to the Republican Party. In 2002 they contributed close to half a million, and while they have given twice that to the Dems, (another problem we need to address) I didn’t see Republicans anxious to give back any money to Time Warner while they worked Madonna into their speeches.
(source: http://www.opensecrets.org/pubs/toporgs/appendix.asp)
While a few entertainment lobbies favor the Dems, a bulk of their cash comes from unions, as the link above proves. The vast majority of corporations favor the Repubs. In a recent survey, 9 out of 10 corporations gave heavily in the favor of Republicans, which officially ends the old standard of corporations giving evenly to both parties as they did in the seventies.
(source: http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/10275652.htm?1c)
So while the Republicans are the party of choice for corporations, they are also the party of choice for so-called moralists. However, as I have demonstrated, the problem with the decline in moral and ethical standards is mainly attributed to the mentality of “what-ever sells is right”, a practice that is perpetuated by the corporations. The only thing the social conservatives have gotten out of this whole mess is a more powerful Big Brother who believes in the God of Jerry Fallwell and Pat Robertson. That makes any Libertarian voting Republican a complete fool.
Therefore, one must conclude that the unholy alliance between social conservatives, religious conservatives, fiscal conservatives and business conservatives is one of complete and utter hypocrisy, and now they run the show!
They may get a few things we don’t like done, the9y still won’t prevail because they have to many conflicting interests that will doom them to fail. The only ones who will win are the corporations.
Our culture is in serious jeopardy! We have allowed materialism to be a pillar of our lifestyles. This has infiltrated religion as well. How can we prevail as a society if we cannot at the very least try to be honest? Nothing breeds more dishonesty then corporate Ultra-Capitalism. Which is not even capitalist! We live in an Aristocratic Oligopoly. Which is perpetuated by corporate influence on our government. What that means is that we are living in a state run by corporate interests. Oh yeah, we still count, we just have to wait in line and declare our importance which of course
means wealth.
Don’t get me wrong! I am very grateful for the immense success this nation has enjoyed. I am however, deeply concerned by the rapid trajectory of this decline in ethics. HAHA! That would make me a conservative or at the very least a traditional conservative. Our nation has moved so far to the right, that the conservatives have become activists. It’s not far behind fascism. I mean that too, I don’t throw that word around lightly. Let us not forget that Hitler allowed the corporations to flourish under his so-called socialist party. As long as they produced tanks, guns, bullets, food, provisions, materials and other things used in war, Hitler allowed just about anything to happen. That includes the use of Jewish, Polish and many others, including Americans in slave labor. Now that, is Capitalism in it’s purist form. Will America become a state of perpetual war like Germany did in 1938?! Or will we become a peaceful force in the world? One that spends money on things like food and clothes not guns and glory. A nation that is truly thankful for it’s success, not all consuming. Not ambitiously utilizing this nation’s resources at a rate faster than they can be replenished.
Of course we must do what we have to do to survive. Let us be thankful that this is among our greatest of threats. However, we must stand tall in the faces of those that wish to destroy the freedom we are fortunate to have. I have decided that leaving, would be the greatest of mistakes for one major reason, the real fight is here! If we do not make a stand, our grandchildren and great grandchildren will face a world much like 1984, regardless of your nationality! A world monitored by a police run microchip age. I for one love this country and wish it not to be skewed in the direction of those that believe they are always right. The Right are intended politically to hold back the Left from moving to fast. An activist Right-wing always ends up resembling fascism. An activist Right is and always will be wrong!
Let us show our thanks for standing up for which we are thankful! Let us show those f-550 driving hicks who put a buck on the collection plate around the holidays and then get a tax write-off for that exaggerated buck, that true compassion, not conservative compassion, is, and always will triumph because of it’s honesty.
Actually caring for another human being is what Jesus proclaimed. Those so-called religious who hate homosexuals and their make believe version of the so-called Left, are just opportunists who believe in demagoguery.
Okay, enough anger! Now the peace!
While there are many strives in our current society, this is the greatest land of the free that has ever existed. The South may be a problem as always, yet I know, that the truth and wisdom that exists in the form of compassion of the Left will always ring more true than any phony tax-write-off driven donation!
The end to war, and the triumph of peace will come to our nation soon! We must continue to tell the world that anyone left of center is only human and thinks like a human. We may not believe in the hardcore oppressions of the Right-wingers, but we are willing to work with them, not compromise, but work with them to achieve a healthier and more vibrant America, and in turn, a world free of war-profiteers. We Left of the radical Right tend to believe that if we focus on the better parts of humanity: caring for one another, fighting for what we believe in and not telling people what to do, but allow them to learn for themselves, that society as a whole will continue to grow in a positive and more realistic direction. After all, real change never came under right-wing eras.
They will be held responsible for all of the problems they have started, like this failing mess of a war. We will, and I mean WILL prevail in pointing out their frauds. This will then lead to the death of the Reagan Era. Bush is to Reagan as Johnson was to FDR.
Peace will come at the hands of our democracy! We WILL save our democracy! Let all of us give the greatest thanks one can give! This IS the greatest nation in existence, and with our love and understanding, we will shape our narrow-minded enemies into allies.
The corporate slugs will have nothing if we alleviate them of the religious burden! True compassion exists on the left, and cannot be alleviated!