It’s Consumerism, Stupid!

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Clarissa

January 22, 2016

Since 1984, when Jesse Jackson ran for president with no credential other than a great flow of words, both parties have been infested by candidates who have treated the presidency as an entry-level position. They are the excrescences of instant-hit media culture. The burdens and intricacies of leadership are special; experience in other fields is not transferable.

There is this stock scene that travels from one teenage TV show to another: students take the SATs and it turns out that a lazy layabout who never held a book is a genius and has a great score. Because intelligence is something that simply happens.

All of these brilliant diagnosticians who never read, entry-level workers who dazzle everybody with their “natural” brilliance, and people who are depressed because the right combination of happy pills hasn’t been found are a reflection of consumerist culture.

In the consumerist world, everything and everybody is a product possessing a set of immutable characteristics. There is no point in developing and changing. Instead, the goal is to discover the in-built features and put them to use. It’s the most fascinating thing: people sincerely see themselves as no different from microwaves and cell phones. Experience, effort, knowledge, credentials are actually defects. I mean, do you prefer a used microwave or a brand-new one? Well, political candidates like Trump are like that new microwave for the voters.

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4 responses to “It’s Consumerism, Stupid!”

Marc McKenzie

January 22, 2016

Experience, effort, knowledge, credentials are actually defects.

That is terrifying–and sadly, that’s the general mood I’ve noticed in the comments of certain sites I visit. Some years ago, I worked in television animation. I learned more from that experience than I had in art school. Not long after that, I read an online comment from someone that was, well, very wrong about how animation for television was produced. I explained in detail how things were done based on my own experience in the industry.

The response I got was essentially, “F@#! you, I don’t care what you did and your experience, I know what the hell I’m talking about even though I’ve never done anything related to animation in my life.”

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1. Clarissa
  
  January 22, 2016
  
  Absolutely! That’s consumerism for you.
  
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2. Dreidel
  
  January 22, 2016
  
  Here’s some unsolicited advice: Unsolicited advice is rarely appreciated. 🙂
  
  For that matter, neither is solicited advice, if the person asking is more-or-less a peer (e.g., a co-worker, neighbor, cousin, sibling). When people in a peer relationship ask for your “opinion,” all they really want is for you to give them psychological support by telling them what they already believe. Regardless of how they react to your words, they honestly don’t want to hear anything else.
  
  The only time it pays to give real advice is when you’re actually getting paid to give it — if you’re functioning as a doctor, lawyer, minister, etc.
  
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Shakti

January 22, 2016

1) Your link is broken
2) There is this stock scene that travels from one teenage TV show to another: students take the SATs and it turns out that a lazy layabout who never held a book is a genius and has a great score. Because intelligence is something that simply happens.
The montage of someone staring intently at an SAT book/program is very boring. Or it’s some kind of fantasy like the Matrix where Neo downloads a whole bunch of programs and is suddenly a martial arts expert despite being a human battery in goo most of his life.

In the consumerist world, everything and everybody is a product possessing a set of immutable characteristics. There is no point in developing and changing. Instead, the goal is to discover the in-built features and put them to use. It’s the most fascinating thing: people sincerely see themselves as no different from microwaves and cell phones. Experience, effort, knowledge, credentials are actually defects. I mean, do you prefer a used microwave or a brand-new one? Well, political candidates like Trump are like that new microwave for the voters.
I would say it’s ageism dovetailing with consumerism. Trump is “new” and “shiny” and some kind of blank slate while everyone else, especially Clinton, is “old” and “establishment”, regardless of actual age or credentials of any sort.

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