Monday, January 6, 2020

The Myth Of Consumerism Essay - 1793 Words

Every society has mythology. In some societies, its religion. Our religion is consumerism.Ellen Weis, San Franciscos Museum of Modern MythologyConsumerism fuels the capitalist fire. In a capitalist society, the goal is to make money, by whatever means possible, exploiting whichever potential weakness that might exist. The human race is one with a wild imagination, and this wild imagination, though a great strength, can, like all great strengths, serve as a potential weakness.It is our imaginations that advertising exploits, and it is our imaginations that religion and myth traditionally played the role of satiating, telling stories that have morals to them, lessons to be learned. Now consumerism fulfills this role. The consumer†¦show more content†¦All of its lessons seem to be based upon this underlying assumption that more is better, that we need the things were being sold, and that somehow buying them will make us happier and better people.Of course the medium for these lessons are the ads themselves. Advertising nearly always has some emotional appeal to them. Instead of catering to our intellect and giving us rational reasons why we should consume the products they flaunt, rather they cater to our emotions. What better way to stimulate our imaginations? This is almost directly analogous to the emotional appeal traditionally found in sermons. Especially before our society has become so secular and scientific, sermons were heavily driven by emotion.One heavy emotion that were susceptible to is fear. Fear tactics are used in advertising just as they are in sermons. For example, the Dial soap ads use the slogan, quot;arent you glad you use Dial? Dont you wish everyone did?quot; This slogan seems to assume that the consumer already uses their product which cant possibly be the case because if it were, why would they need to advertise? Thus they seem to be implying that if you arent using Dial, youd sure better redeem yourself quickly before they find out! Similar fear tactics are also used in religious sermons. One extreme example ofShow MoreRelatedEssay : Affecting The American Dream1061 Words   |  5 Pagesmore individualized. Society has moved to interpret the dream of what America can do for the one. Instead of the unified nation, America has been known for in the past, a shift has started creating an inconsistency in who can realize the dream. The myth of the â€Å"American Dream† has been hugely affected by increased materialism, the gap in economic status, and the fantasy of â€Å"rags to riches† idea. 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