RebelSell
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- fate
Good Article, I "got it" a couple paragraphs in but it's worth the full read.
http://www.thismagazine.ca/issue…
Basically it talks about how material that makes people uncomfortable with their current percieved lifestyle (Adbusters, Anti-consumerism movies, lit) only makes people go out and search for a new lifestyle to buy in fear of conformity. Pretty interesting to see these thoughts summarized so well, especially the myth of "Keeping up with the joneses" when it's really "Keeping ahead of them".
Maybe this is why the RIAA is so scared of downloading MP3's, people are rebelling without another real, good outlet to direct their dollars.
- rasko40
well it makes some interesting although rather predictable points, which are also rather superfluously flowered with pretentious prose (perhaps a status symbol in itself, as perhaps any self respecting 20th century elitist philosopher may do). But the silly thing is, his given 'way out' is to 'change a tax code', and so he entirely misses the point of the capitalist state he talks about earlier in the article, totally forgetting that the govt are obviously as much a part of consumerist society as any corporation, perhaps even, the paid law of the corporate world.
- fate0
I really didn't bother reading his solutions at the bottom, you can already guess they're either impractical or no one is going to do them i.e. live off the land and open a free-store :p
- johndiggity0
heresey! i want people to feel like they need to wear a certain brands of jeans to fit in. i think we all do, considering our livelihoods are directly tied to it. people lik to be manipulated by advertising, in fact we've made it an art form in and of itself.
- Beech0
wow. interesting p.o.v johndiggity.
i'm not sure if everyone likes being manipulated by advertising. I certainly don't ... but i know that I am.
I'm interested in the subtle differences in brands which make people chose one over an other to reflect personality.