that people allow themselves to be conduits for advertising in order to become part of something larger than the individual - but I don’t.

I dont think it’s a matter of optimisim. I think its the same force that drives people to want to identify with any other type of group of story, whether it be a religion, ethnicity, age group, subculture or anything else. For that reason, I don’t think advertising is patently evil because all it really does is try to standardize and predict an essential component of human nature.

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2006/03/19/are-marketers-evil-people/

It seems much more likely that people are duped into believing what the advertisements are selling - enhanced identity, individuality, satisfaction and the rest.

But the advertisements DO sell that. In fact, that is all they sell. The actual products are incidental and are ultimately all more or less interchangeable

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2006...11/19/product-placement-in-real-life/

The story of consumerism is our cultural story and I agree with the idea that being identified with your cultural story can evoke powerful feelings but those feelings are linked to something that is so patently false it makes my soul cringe to consider it.

Well, what exactly is so false about it? That we need corporations in order to access these feelings? Because that is what I find to be false about it.

Is that soul-crushing though? Because part of me wonders if it’s really practical for ALL people everywhere to struggle to be totally self-aware, liberated, etc. I’m not saying they shouldn’t or that they aren’t capable of it. But I am drawing on personal observations that most people simply don’t care. Why should they go through the trouble of accessing all these rich emotions inside of themselves when they could simply press the tab in their cage which will reward them with a food pellet (ie, pay money for a product that will enable them to access these emotional states more quickly)

Call me an elitist or a reductionist or whatever but I will never defile my body with a corporate logo

So, do you just not wear clothes? Or do you rip the logos off of everything? And if you did, what’s the difference?

PS. Not trying to pick on you here, I am just grappling with a lot of these questions myself right now.

It seems much more likely that people are duped into believing what the advertisements are selling - enhanced identity, individuality, satisfaction and the rest. It is the easy way out and ultimately a sham on their very soul to advertise one’s personality and make it larger by being identified with The Gap or Nike or Hummers.

The truth is probably a little bit of both but both ideas are rooted in something despicable and false and thus serves to make the human condition worse and adding to the general mess of the world without enhancing it in any way. That is unacceptable to me.

I suppose gang tatoos are analogous to a Nike logo as both tell a cultural story and represent something that is powerful and easily communicated but if that gang was a murdering bunch of rapists and thieves it wouldn’t speak well of the person’s soul to wear such tatoos out in the open under most circumstances.

The story of consumerism is our cultural story and I agree with the idea that being identified with your cultural story can evoke powerful feelings but those feelings are linked to something that is so patently false it makes my soul cringe to consider it.

Call me an elitist or a reductionist or whatever but I will never defile my body with a corporate logo (unless the circumstances are right, after all everyone has their price) except in the most unusual of circumstance.

It made me think how people willingly dehumanize themself and turn into walking billboards for products.

Well, I don’t think people who allow themselves to be conduits for advertising are doing it in such a way that they find it dehumanizing. Instead, I think they believe they are tapping into something bigger than themselves: a cultural story, a feeling which is recognizable and can be easily communicated with others. That can be a very powerful thing

A wise man once said, “The more advertising I see, the less I want to buy.”

What I find interesting to contemplate and perhaps do something about is the to consider what makes those of us who “get it” not be brainwashed and how can we unbrainwash anyone who so desires it? Further, are there more people becoming brainwashed and the situation is getting worse? I am sure I do not know.

Is the situation desperate, as usual? Or are things really getting worse and so much so that direct action is called for?

adbusters is a classic example of this. draw in malcontents, poli-sci types and silver-spoon socialists and sell them a glossy pamphlet……….if you are angry at starbucks and pretty girls in cocktail dresses, then this month`s issue is just for you.

On a semi-related topic, I was flipping through Adbusters for the first time in a long while the other day, and it seems to have been totally co-opted by the Archons. Talk about becoming the Empire by fighting it…..