Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. [The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats- his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies. These commodities and services must be offered to the consumer with a special urgency. We require not only “forced draft” consumption, but “expensive” consumption as well.] We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace. We need to have people eat, drink, dress, ride, live, with ever more complicated and, therefore, constantly more expensive consumption. The home power tools and the whole “do-it-yourself” movement are excellent examples of “expensive” consumption.
it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_L…
#VictorLebow on #Consumerism quoted by #VancePackard in #TheWasteMakers with an introduction by #BillMcKibben
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bsmall2
in reply to Brian Small • • •> Car buyers held their vehicles for an average of two and a quarter years, and "The Ford Motor Company in one of its advertisements said this showed how smart and shrewd the average motorcar owner was becoming. At taht age, it pointed out, the car starts showing minor ailments and dents. Further, it stated, "The car is two ears old in style. Its fine edge is gone." Substitute Apple for Ford and Ipod[FoolPhone] for motorcar, and it's a sentence tat could be written this afternoon---indeed.. written on a [micro]blog[toot]...
#BillMcKibben
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bsmall2
in reply to bsmall2 • • •_Towards Liberal Education_ or another Humanities essay collection had something about Cadillac and the style changes and marketing niches. It had me looking for ways to search and replace Cadilllac with CellFoolPhone.. But it looks like Bill McKibben has already done it in his introduction to #VancePackard's #TheWasteMakers..
Maybe AI (Salami LLM stuff) is like the tacky fins and different bells and whistles that used to ornately decorate big cruising cars... I hope we can avoid wasting ourselves along the ecology of our lives...
@bsmall2@nerdica.net