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Social Engineering of the Masses
Mar. 10th, 2009 12:24 pmI'm beginning a documentary done by the BBC on marketplaces, consumerism and society. It is, in a word, Sobering.
The synopsis, in my own words and understanding, is this:
We're fucked and it's on purpose.
:)
Don't you love finality?
Seriously though. Post WWII America and much of the western world embarked upon a massive social engineering task to create a manufacturing and consumer hungry society. This was done through efforts such as planned obsolescence of products, careful and pervasive marketing and information to embed in the populace a fear of returning to the depression from wence we'd so recently emerged with the onset of WWII, and the pride and desire to exhibit outwardly, social influence and stature: the modest house, a car for the breadwinner, modern appliances for the ease of the home caretaker, all those things that folks my age as generation 1.5 and 2.0 of this experiment have come to take for granted. Your car gets too many miles on it and starts to require better care, trade it up for a newer model. Buy a house with only enough bedrooms for the family and now you want a bigger yard or a larger garage, or a den as well as a living room, and you trade up your house to a bigger house.
This requires us to reach for and obtain things which require us to extend our debt. We never get out from under a mortgage because we don't live in a house long enough to pay it off. My parents have never, ever, in their married life together ever been without at least one car payment. Ever. And of course a mortgage and a car payment both require carrying a high rate of insurance, because the bank insists upon it. In the late 1950s the concept of the Credit Card went from a business man's use to wheel and deal over lunch, to being mass marketed to households across America. Now, instead of running a tab at your local grocery or pharmacist, you could run up debt on a credit card accepted anywhere. With that debt runs up interest and with that interest run the markets and banks of our commercial markets world wide.
THIS was progress. This was how prosperous democratic societies function, go forward and be proud and show your progress and affluence. This is how we become the envy of the world, and this is why even now people flock to our shores and are envious of our life styles.
See how well this indoctrination has worked? This rapid scale up of consumerism from 1946 to now is a 180 degree change from how life was up to 1929 or 1936 when we entered the war. The decade between the two wars had seen an uncontrolled consumer boom which quickly collapsed creating the depression of the 30s. Social Engineers of the 50s felt certain they could control the boom and sustain the economy indefinitely. It was completely within our capability and from the Keyesians on down, the grand marketing of social prosperity began.
The collapse we're experiencing now appears to be the ignored possibility of the 'controlled boom' imploding on us. So if a massive, 60+ year old social engineering experiment has just gone bust, what does that mean for us now?
It means this global downturn is truly a collapse. It means there will be no easy fix. It means (to me) that propping up a failed experiment is not a solution or an answer. It means there will be those who decide we need a NEW social experiment and like SHEEP we will rise to that experiment in droves.
It means there is a risk this collapse can lead to Anarchy of the most violent kind.
And that worries me.
We're fucked. I think I said that before.
But even so there is always hope. Why? Well, we have opposable thumbs for one thing. Okay maybe not Rush Limbaugh, but most of us do. We have ingenuity and here in the US at least, individuality and inventiveness is more prized than mass social convention--no matter how the religious right keeps trying to nail us down under the 'creationism' bell jar.
We're fucked, but there's always hope. And it is that hope which keeps us moving forward doing our daily lives, readjusting our perspective to shrug off old indoctrination, creating a 'new normal', which will keep most of us afloat--if barely, through this whole mess.
The synopsis, in my own words and understanding, is this:
We're fucked and it's on purpose.
:)
Don't you love finality?
Seriously though. Post WWII America and much of the western world embarked upon a massive social engineering task to create a manufacturing and consumer hungry society. This was done through efforts such as planned obsolescence of products, careful and pervasive marketing and information to embed in the populace a fear of returning to the depression from wence we'd so recently emerged with the onset of WWII, and the pride and desire to exhibit outwardly, social influence and stature: the modest house, a car for the breadwinner, modern appliances for the ease of the home caretaker, all those things that folks my age as generation 1.5 and 2.0 of this experiment have come to take for granted. Your car gets too many miles on it and starts to require better care, trade it up for a newer model. Buy a house with only enough bedrooms for the family and now you want a bigger yard or a larger garage, or a den as well as a living room, and you trade up your house to a bigger house.
This requires us to reach for and obtain things which require us to extend our debt. We never get out from under a mortgage because we don't live in a house long enough to pay it off. My parents have never, ever, in their married life together ever been without at least one car payment. Ever. And of course a mortgage and a car payment both require carrying a high rate of insurance, because the bank insists upon it. In the late 1950s the concept of the Credit Card went from a business man's use to wheel and deal over lunch, to being mass marketed to households across America. Now, instead of running a tab at your local grocery or pharmacist, you could run up debt on a credit card accepted anywhere. With that debt runs up interest and with that interest run the markets and banks of our commercial markets world wide.
THIS was progress. This was how prosperous democratic societies function, go forward and be proud and show your progress and affluence. This is how we become the envy of the world, and this is why even now people flock to our shores and are envious of our life styles.
See how well this indoctrination has worked? This rapid scale up of consumerism from 1946 to now is a 180 degree change from how life was up to 1929 or 1936 when we entered the war. The decade between the two wars had seen an uncontrolled consumer boom which quickly collapsed creating the depression of the 30s. Social Engineers of the 50s felt certain they could control the boom and sustain the economy indefinitely. It was completely within our capability and from the Keyesians on down, the grand marketing of social prosperity began.
The collapse we're experiencing now appears to be the ignored possibility of the 'controlled boom' imploding on us. So if a massive, 60+ year old social engineering experiment has just gone bust, what does that mean for us now?
It means this global downturn is truly a collapse. It means there will be no easy fix. It means (to me) that propping up a failed experiment is not a solution or an answer. It means there will be those who decide we need a NEW social experiment and like SHEEP we will rise to that experiment in droves.
It means there is a risk this collapse can lead to Anarchy of the most violent kind.
And that worries me.
We're fucked. I think I said that before.
But even so there is always hope. Why? Well, we have opposable thumbs for one thing. Okay maybe not Rush Limbaugh, but most of us do. We have ingenuity and here in the US at least, individuality and inventiveness is more prized than mass social convention--no matter how the religious right keeps trying to nail us down under the 'creationism' bell jar.
We're fucked, but there's always hope. And it is that hope which keeps us moving forward doing our daily lives, readjusting our perspective to shrug off old indoctrination, creating a 'new normal', which will keep most of us afloat--if barely, through this whole mess.
