The need to get rid of the image craze

[Che Jexster]

In order to have a socialist revolution, or even have a society shift slowly towards socialism we need to eliminate people's tendency to get hung up on image. When advertisers try to entice young people, and more increasingly older people, they sell image instead of the product. It is no longer, you need clothes for comfort and warmth, but to become an icon in society. They market insanely good looking 18-25 year olds wearing different fashions, having fun drinking coke, eating at mc donalds.
People now feel that possessions define them, that is why capitalism is so far spread, we need to eliminate this feeling that image defines us.
The bourgiosie is using our vanity agaisnt us, we cannot let image continue to dominate culture, the mall should not be the cities center, nor fashion people's politics.

[Ernestito]

its so sad we are so fucking vulnerable

[DaNatural]

the state that we as people are in is pathetic, we are driven by material things, not realizing what is really important. aristotle said in his nicomachean ethics that, if all we go after is instrumental ends(material wealth) then we will never be happy, because these things are not an end in themselves but merely a means to another end. so the process of trying to acheive happiness would go on forever. we are never satisfied with material things, we always crave more, i wish more people would look at celebs and see how rich they are and also see how unhappy many of them are. but this media has brainwashed the lot of us into thinking that we need the newest shoes, newest clothes, jewelry, expensive cars, all of these things to the masses=happiness. i think the main thing which needs to be changed is education, we need to educate the people and make them understand that this is not going to make them happy. they need to realize that being secure economically having justice and freedom are a neccessity. and under this system for most people regardless of how hard they work they are never financially secure. Dead Prez a political rap group had a song called Hip Hop and in it one of the artists said, DO YOU WANT A BEAMER A NECKLACE OR FREEDOM? i think for most people they want the first two not realizing the latter is most important. we need to educate ourselves and our fellow people in order to achieve a better society. Peace
Positive Energy Applied Correctly Elevates

[Guest]

You say all we need clothing for is to keep us warm. But what if I like to wear a particular color or type or brand of clothing? Isn't that my choice? Or will the "party" make my choices for me? Will the "party" also do my thinking for me? Hell, why should I even breathe?... the party will breathe for me. Why should I even live?... the party will live for me. Nothing should exist... the party will exist for everyting.
So I guess you guys are nilhists, huh?
Later commie-zombies...
[email protected]

[CommieBastard]

(Edited by CommieBastard at 10:44 pm on Oct. 9, 2001)

[CommieBastard]

Wanting to have clothing etc of an individual appearance is not following a superficial brand image. In fact, brand images restrict the ability to wear an individual expression in the form of your clothing.
Look at certain groups of people and they all wear the same goddam things, and if not the same, then damn similar. This is due to stigma.
You don't seem to realise friend, you fear the party telling you what to do, and in your fear you turn to the brand, which instead tells you what to do.
The Brand does your thinking, the brand tells you who you are, the brand puts you in a ranking with other people, oit defines you. Via our educational systems you are fitted into a slot, you become a conformist, you become nothing more than an appendage of the capitalist state and it's businesses.

YOU, Guest, do NOT live, the Company lives for you, through your vessel that you call a body.

Later Brand-Zombie

[DaNatural]

Coudnt have said it better my communist friend. peace

[RedCeltic]

(Edited by RedCeltic at 10:08 pm on Oct. 9, 2001)

[RedCeltic]

You should shop at second hand shops... that's what I do... cloths are so expensive anyway....

(Edited by RedCeltic at 10:46 pm on Oct. 9, 2001)

[AgustoSandino]

I think guests point was the subtle fact that subjecting oneselve to commercialization is a CHOICE. No one has a gun placed to their temple, or has the threat of gulag imprisonment hanging overhead if they choose to not to eat at mcdonalds or wear Prada.

[DazedandConfuzled]

I would concur with this belief. Having studied Marketing at University, I remember one of the first things being told was that Companies no longer sell products, they generate brands and surreal lifestyles. In return consumers are willing to pay a high price to buy into this form of success/imagery.

From an economic perspective it is a externality of consumption. For none Economic minds, this basically means that people epect to recieve a higher level of utility (happiness in non econ. terms) that what they actually recieve. This obviously means that they pay too much and are dissapointed.

If anyone is looking for a book to read I would suggest No Logo by Naomi Klein. I found it interesting, albeit not that revaltional.

[CommieBastard]

Agsuto, the reason why no one has a gun placed to their head is because capitalist coercion is much more subtle. It uses socialisation and a controlling media in an attempt (a largely succesful one) to program people to buy into the slavery of their minds and bodies.

[Chancho]

Yes CB - the tranquiliser of mass consumerism is so insidious - it creates artificial desires and distorts the nature of the human in order to compel people to absorb the masses of surplus for which there is no true market, but which must be consumed if corporations are to generate profit for profit's sake. Meanwhile people are diverted from anything that is actually purposeful or fulfilling in life - and people wonder why capitalism creates such psychological and emotional vacuums.

[Che Jexster]

i would just like to concur that No Logo by Naomi Klein is an excellent book and i also urge people to read it.