Product of businesses and government

Consumer society is a product of business companies and government. It is very much beneficial for businesses to have a non-ending flow of consumers who are ready to buy anything that an advertisement tells them. Meanwhile for government a consumer is a better option than an involved citizen, since it is much easier to satisfy a consumer than a citizen. United States is a respected figure in political arena for its democratic ideas; however, within the US borders democratic ideas seem to be just in illusion by which the government has filled the “empty selves.” People believe that since they all are capable of buying same products, they live in a democratic country. However, if there is any kind of democracy at all, it has to be called democratic consumerism. Freud claims that an animalistic drive of aggression and sexualism is hidden in every human being, and while United States is a country who believes in individual freedom, it has found a very indirect way to keep the masses satisfied and thus uninterested in the governmental affairs. It has been observed for years that during presidential elections voter turnouts are the most, when people are not happy with the existing government and seek to change it. Otherwise, as long as people are fulfilled they do not concern themselves with governmental business.

In the United States, business and government have intertwined together and one does not exist without the other. People owning governmental positions are in one way or the other involved in business. Examples are Obamma’s chicken fingers and The Ballpark of Arlington etc. This trend is understandable, since politics comes with money, and even though United States gives people opportunity to move up the social ladder, money is concentrated in the hands of people, who represent only 1% of America and many times a good education is not enough for a political career. Representation of minorities in Senate proves that America is still governed mainly by rich, white males, since there are only 16 women, 2 Asians, 1 black, and 3 Hispanic in the Senate of 100 people. (xxx) My point is that business and government work together in the production of the consumerist society

One of the main tools of stimulation of consumerism is advertising. Edward Bernay introduced the idea of social control through psychology in the early 1920s after WWII. He recognized that people could be manipulated if their inner desires are awakened and immediately satisfied. According to his uncle Freud, people were dangerous -thus, the animal within the human must be hidden. In the era of democracy, this was impossible in America. People strongly believed that they live in a state of freedom and are not suppressed by the authorities. Therefore, Bernay offered to control the mass by appealing to their desires and satisfying it with material goods that would be dematerialized by the advertisements. His first attempt was with introduction of cigarettes as torches of freedom and made women believe that smoking cigarettes would bring them one more step closer to equality with men. Bernay did indeed appeal to women and brought a great deal of profit into the tobacco industry.

While Bernay was able to appeal to inner selves of people Larch claimed “The insubstantiality of the external world [for the consumer] arises out of the very nature of commodity production, not out of some character flaw of individuals, some excess of greed or "materialism”.” According to Larch, there is no such change in human nature that is responsible for today’s consumption oriented public. It is such businesses as advertisement companies that are the cause of the mass consumption of goods. Once durable goods have become non-durables, since a new version with some small new feature enters the market in a very short time after the previous version. Suddenly the old one is not good enough and people rush to buy the latest. However, there is no latest because there is continuously something new, more attractive and different entering the market. Advertisements play a great role in triggering people believes that they should go and buy the new version. In many areas, an uneducated public cannot always make an informed decision and thus is forced into believing the slogans of big companies or the ethically and emotionally appealing advertisements. For instance, even though most people are able to use computer on daily bases, many of them are not well-educated consumers of computers, as they do not know much about the technological features of a computer. . In a sense according to Larch, consumers are psychological victims of businesses and government. Philip Cushman supports Larch’s idea stating, “---the current self is constructed as empty, and as a result the state controls its population not by restricting the impulses of its citizens, as in Victorian times, but by creating and manipulating their wish to be soothed, organized, and made cohesive by momentarily filling them up.” The empty self according to Cushman is a self without a culture and context. It is a self that is robbed of traditional values and morals and instead is being continuously filled up by irrelevant goods that are someway appealing to the consumer’s emotions. According to Cushman with the expansion of consumerist society, the tradition and a sense of a community began to disappear. Moreover, this is exactly what government desires; a group of people all guided with their self-interests and having no grounds for formation of a community. Thus shaping of an “empty self” could be viewed as governmental policy. It is desirable for government to have an unorganized and incommunicable society, since then there is no real threat to his authority from single individuals. Even though Adam Smith claimed that the best interests of people are achieved when everyone is guided by their own self-interest, this is not necessarily true outside of economic boundaries. Thus, if the government and businesses are allowing and even encouraging the state of empty self, they are transforming the country into a big production company.

I believe that democracy achieved through psychological repression is worse than an acknowledged a utocracy . It is true that people are happy with the democratic ideology; however, this happiness has no value, since it is an illusion, a bubble that can explode easily. In my opinion people deserve to live in reality; they deserve to know what they are living for. I am not anyhow arguing for dictatorship or monarchial rule and believe that to a certain extent democracy is possible around the world. My main point is that ideology of democracy should not become a tool for those in power for the mere purpose of keeping their power.

Reference:

Lasch, Christopher. The Minimal Self; Consuption, Narcissism and Mass Culture. 1984. Print.

Cushman, Philip. "Why the Self is Empty." (1990): Print.

“The century of the Self “

"Minorities and Women in the 110th Congress." 2007. 21 Apr 2009 <http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/women-minorities-110th-congress.html>.