The Manchurian Consumer
When I can find a few minutes to do some reading that is not directly related to the academic projects I'm working on, I'm reading Kalle Lasn's brilliantly subversive book Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge - And Why We Must (Lasn is also the founder of ADBUSTERS Magazine). I came to the conclusion of his chapter "The Manchurian Consumer" and found the following selection that sounded both chilling and all too familiar:
Richard Condon’s 1959 novel, The Manchurian Candidate – which was turned into a movie Pauline Kael called ‘the most sophisticated political satire ever to come out of Hollywood’ – tells the story of an American soldier who is captured during the Korean War, shipped to Manchuria and groomed, via brainwashing, to become a robotic assassin programmed to kill the U.S. president upon a predetermined verbal command.
The subtext of the movie is that Americans are being depatterned by propaganda systems they may not understand or even be aware of. The modern consumer is indeed a Manchurian Candidate living in a trance. He has a vague notion that at some point early in his life, experiments were carried out on him, but he can’t remember much about them. While he was drugged, or too young to remember, ideas were implanted into his subconscious with a view to changing his behavior. The Manchurian Consumer has been programmed not to kill the president, but to go out and purchase things on one of a number of predetermined commands.
Slogans now come easily to his lips. He has warm feelings toward many products. Even his most intimate drives and emotions trigger immediate connections with consumer goods. Hunger equals Big Mac. Drowsiness equals Starbucks. Depression equals Prozac.
And what about that burning anxiety, that deep, almost forgotten feeling of alarm at his lost independence and sense of self? To the Manchurian Consumer, that’s the signal to turn on the TV.
Making me feel even better about being off the TV grid at our house!
Dvds and iTunes rock!
Posted by
hcreek7 |
3:22 PM
Yes!!
I literally threw my arms in the air when I saw this post. I read this book several years ago and it completely changed the way I looked at and listened to advertising.
Some buddies and I even hatched a plan to "liberate" a Mobil billboard. We were going to change it to read Mo'bikes. Thankfully, we never followed through and as a result I've never had the experience of a)Falling from a billboard riser or b)being arrested.
Still, I can't help but smile when I hear about something like this:
I literally threw my arms in the air when I saw this post. I read this book several years ago and it completely changed the way I looked at and listened to advertising.
Some buddies and I even hatched a plan to "liberate" a Mobil billboard. We were going to change it to read Mo'bikes. Thankfully, we never followed through and as a result I've never had the experience of a)Falling from a billboard riser or b)being arrested.
Still, I can't help but smile when I hear about something like this: http://www.billboardliberation.com/wp-content/need-grand-ls.jpg?v=0">http://www.billboardliberation.com/wp-content/need-grand-ls.jpg?v=0
Posted by
Brian Rhea |
4:46 PM
uh...no idea what happened there...
here's the link
http://www.billboardliberation.com/wp-content/need-grand-ls.jpg?v=0
Posted by
Brian Rhea |
4:48 PM
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Posted by
sushil yadav |
6:58 AM
The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues.
The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our Minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy Nature.
Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment.
Subject : In a fast society slow emotions become extinct.
Subject : A thinking mind cannot feel.
Subject : Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys the planet.
Emotion is what we experience during gaps in our thinking.
If there are no gaps there is no emotion.
Today people are thinking all the time and are mistaking thought (words/ language) for emotion.
When society switches-over from physical work (agriculture) to mental work (scientific/ industrial/ financial/ fast visuals/ fast words ) the speed of thinking keeps on accelerating and the gaps between thinking go on decreasing.
There comes a time when there are almost no gaps.
People become incapable of experiencing/ tolerating gaps.
Emotion ends.
Man becomes machine.
A society that speeds up mentally experiences every mental slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A ( travelling )society that speeds up physically experiences every physical slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.
A society that entertains itself daily experiences every non-entertaining moment as Depression / Anxiety.
FAST VISUALS /WORDS MAKE SLOW EMOTIONS EXTINCT.
SCIENTIFIC /INDUSTRIAL /FINANCIAL THINKING DESTROYS EMOTIONAL CIRCUITS.
A FAST (LARGE) SOCIETY CANNOT FEEL PAIN / REMORSE / EMPATHY.
A FAST (LARGE) SOCIETY WILL ALWAYS BE CRUEL TO ANIMALS/ TREES/ AIR/ WATER/ LAND AND TO ITSELF.
To read the complete article please follow either of these links :
PlanetSave
EarthNewsWire
sushil_yadav
Posted by
sushil yadav |
7:03 AM
Check out this link . . . wonderfully subversive :)
http://antiadvertisingagency.com/projects/light-criticism/
Also 1/25/07 Rocketboom.
Posted by
Bill |
9:06 PM
Oh yeah . . . love the title "The Manchurian Consumer" mostly because "The Manchurian Candidate" is one of my all time favorite movies. BTW it was also pulled from distribution right after it was released. Seems it came out around 11/22/63 and the idea of having a movie in which an asassian with a high powered rifle takes a shot at a politician was a little too "topical" for the day.
I'm mostly immune to the ad game having been a part of it, studied it, made it and got down in the mud long enough with the pigs to come up muddy - but I concur with the author . . . people will buy #$%& if it has a pretty bow on it and they think it will fill a void or scratch an itch . . .
Posted by
Bill |
9:17 PM