The consumption driven society that we live in

Oh yeah, we have a winner.

I have two basic questions I’m thinking about: Why is it when you put a random collection of people together the discussion inevitably shifts towards a baseline that all people can understand, and why in our society does that baseline revolve around celebrities, movies, and sports?

I love gigantic assumptions that stare me in the face. It's like my own personal Christmas or something.

One: do those discussions inevitably shift towards a common baseline? Do they really? Is there never a time when people tell their personal stories, which the others enjoy but did not exactly partake of? Do conversations always go towards some general common denominator like the movies or sports? Seems like kind of a massive generalization to use as one's starting assumption.

Two: even if it's granted that there is a general tendency to go for the common denominator, how exactly does one demonstrate that a "baseline" "revolves" around sports or movies or celebrities or anything, for that matter? If this guy's any indication, I guess you don't--you just treat it as a given.

It gets better.

To me, the answer to both questions revolves around the consumption driven society we live in and the need for corporations to continue to push products and services to us, so that they can increase their bottom line and keep profits rising. If the American people collectively decided they were not going to rush out and buy the latest US Weekly to find out about what Paris is doing, or to spend $12 at the movies to be entertained for a few hours, or even to buy $200 tickets to a football game so they can see their favorite players in person, what would it do to our economy?

Isn't that just the most brilliant economic reasoning you've ever seen?

Here's a hint at what might happen, Ryle: those companies would go out of business, and that money would be used to buy the product of some other business.

The fixation of some people on the "bottom line" and "profits" as if they were the prime mover of everything is kind of hilarious. So what, Ryle, the fact that a company will go out of business unless it makes a profit somehow compels consumers to feel the need to support those companies...or are you arguing that the companies have somehow brainwashed people into buying their products, something that would not occur if we didn't live in this fictitious "consumption drive society" you've concocted? What exactly is a "consumption driven society"?

You may want to read a book or two on the subject of economics before you make statements like these. Heck, even an article here or there wouldn't hurt. For talking about the failure of a particular business as if it "hurt" "the economy" is probably one of the most absurd assertions one could make. Those businesses exist only because they can provide something that people are willing to buy at a price that pays for the costs of production. By talking about a "consumption driven society", you have attempted to turn this on its head, stating that the very existence of producers in a free market will somehow force people to consume what they supply.

Of course I didn't quote the whole paragraph; he outright states the following afterwards:

the way things are setup now the economy would certainly suffer. Therefore, corporations have setup vast noise machines to ensure that what they feel should be relevant to Americans is relevant - and these noise machines are working.

I think what really sells this to me is the "therefore". The economy would suffer if some businesses failed to turn a profit anymore, therefore corporations are brainwashing us. This argument has all the benefits of making blatant factual assertions without support, and no logical consistency. What does the free market have to do with brainwashing? Would a completely socialist government be free of any brainwashing?

This is also possible because we are all fed the same movies, celebrity news, and sports - someone in LA and someone in New York can watch the same movie, the same news about Paris Hilton, and the same NCAA championship game and converse about it.

Of course, the fact that we have this whole internet thing with vast amounts of video, writing, and artwork doesn't factor into it at all. Because after all, I've never talked to any of my friends about the webcomics I've discovered and want to show them, or any of the things that we don't have in common but want to share.

In America we are so afraid to contemplate real social issues with our neighbors for fear that we would offend one another and lose that social bond that we love so much. We sit complacent about war, money wasted, lack of healthcare, and a myriad of other problems currently affecting our great nation; and while these might not seem to have a direct affect on our lives, say that to the people who died on September the 11th. Those deaths were the result of American policies perpetuated by the Government designed to increase America’s status as a superpower and relegate lesser countries to mere pawns (This is further proved by the book I’m currently reading called Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - good so far!).

Ladies and gentlemen, we have hit the motherload.

1: Americans are afraid to contemplate social issues with our neighbors (true BECAUSE I TELL YOU IT'S TRUE DAMMIT)

2: We are so afraid that we allow terrible things to keep happening

3: American foreign policy caused September 11th. This one book I'm reading proves it, but I'm not really going to bother to elaborate on how.

We cannot afford to be fixated upon drunken celebrities stumbling around hopelessly trying to find a purpose for their own meager lives; instead we should focus on those politicians and people who have the true power to use America’s great wealth for the betterment of her people and not for the betterment of the “corporatocracy” (As John Perkins puts it). So go out, say hi to your neighbor, and ask them if they favor universal health care, something that every other developed country in the world has for its citizens. Or ask them if they favor billions in non-compete contracts for Halliburton and Kellogg, Brown, and Root - I bet I know the answer!

In conclusion, everyone should only talk about what I think is important, because I have such a better grasp of reality than the stupid common American coward does. I'll bet I can even guess what they'd say if they heard me say that stuff, stupid consumer whores.

Don't get me wrong, I hate talking about celebrities and their lives. I'd like to see every television news station go bankrupt if for no other reason than they keep talking about this stupid Anna Nicole Smith crap, which I don't give a damn about. But I'm not going to act like this makes me a superior caliber person, and I'm certainly not going to make big sweeping judgments about the rest of the country just because some of them find entertainment in stuff that I find to be completely without taste.

This guy is your standard presumptuous individual, who has decided to present to you his beliefs in the form of a reason why there is something wrong with society. The implication, of course, being that there is something better about him--how else could he have deduced what so many have apparently been blind to? Certainly not through putting a greater effort into research or refining his methodology--since he provides no actual data and seems to operate on a "because I said so" basis for demonstrating anything.

"Consumerism" or gossip are not nearly so loathsome, to my mind, as this sort of intellectual self-indulgence.