“Formally the task was to supply things that men want. The new necessity is to make men want the things that machinery must turn out, if civilization is not to perish. The problem before us is not how to produce the goods, but how to produce the customers.” – Samuel Strauss
“Sell them their dreams. Sell them what the longed for, and hoped for and almost despaired of having. (…) Sell them this hope and you won’t have to worry about selling them goods.” – Helen Landon Cass
“Remember! When the gay community is granted personal freedom, ours get taken away. How? shhhh.” – Stephen Colbert
The Colbert quote has little do with the capitalist theme above, I just thought it was funny. Here’s another, “Hey California, you make good oranges, keep it up!” that one is all me.
Last night I wandered home from the Cambie with more than a couple beers and a few shots of a variety of liquors rattling around my brain. I was thinking about the above quotes but for the life of me could not recall them. So the weird sheep post came out of my head (and a bunch of other junklit that I deleted thankfully before posting!).
Drunk blogging is both hard and dumb. I seriously sat at my computer in the dark at 2 AM pecking away at the buttons. It took forever to barely hack out a couple wah wah wah paragraghs, and when it was all done I said, ” I can’t post this shit.” and deleted it all.
Except that bizarre line and the sheep. But what I wanted to talk about was the Strauss quote. Samuel Strauss was an interesting cat. He was the editor for a newspaper in New York called the New York Globe in and around 1917ish. Fun fact, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! originated as a feature in the globe and is now a giant entertainment company owned by… Jim Pattison, same dude that signs my pay cheque and owns the Zone.
Strauss moves out of Manhatten and settles in some suburban village outside of NYC and publishes a weekly called The Villager. Strauss is interesting because he was a critic of “Consumptionism.” He says that consumptionism is “the science of compelling men to use more and more things.” Oddly, Strauss was an influence on Edward Bernays. Bernays was one of the founding fathers of modern public relations… which you know, you can thank him for or deride him for.
There isn’t a lot on the internet about Samuel Strauss, but from what I’ve gathered, I like his style. He lived in a time of new capitalism or the second industrial revolution, the 1920s (I guess he lived at the end of it). When companies where manufacturing things at an alarming rate and needing an insatiable appetite to consume from the people. As the blog began, its not the things that is the problem, its the people to buy them.
And here were are in 2009, and things are the same as it ever was. Maybe I don’t need all the new radio sets, washing machines and telephoney do-dads that Roaring 20s Jeremy might have lusted after, but today… the product is media. A never ending supply of it, and what I need is eyes and ears. Time and attention is the new money. Media companies today need to pry time from you the way Henry Ford tried to pry dollars out of your wallet a century ago.
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And in other news… many Zoners that have a few experience points living on planet Earth, will remember Layne Mitchel. God bless’m, he’s in Deadmonton cheering on any hockey team in the post season except the Oil. He also makes an exceptional podcast, but THIS EPISODE in particular is magical. Features his interview and a live performance from The Gaslight Anthem.
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weird, I got a mad lust for some Refresh Tazo Tea? Just came over me in a wave, I could smell it and the ghost of its flavour is lingering on my tongue. (that was a cool sentence, but I lifted most of it from a Spoon song). I think we rock Tazo brand at the Zone, or we used to… that must mean its time to stop jibber jabbering on this here blog about things I still don’t know too much about and get to work… so I can jibber jabber about things I don’t know too much about… alright.
Go with yourself.
The Morning After 
You’re post is an interesting topic. Here in France I don’t sense the same level of consumption madness that I did at home in Canada.
I’m still unable to really put my finger on why. I’ve pondered the idea that War has been an intense part of history here, and people are still happy with what they’ve got. Or maybe it’s just different values and culture. I don’t know, but I really like it.
EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays, so people are out actually enjoying life instead of shopping. There isn’t advertising on every available space and people aren’t nearly as cranky around major holidays.
People can generally afford things, but in France they’d rather spend their money on food (and really good quality food too!). The only shop open every morning is the bakery. Bread is life here!
Anyways. Beyond the walls of N. America, it’s nice to know that not everyone is consumer crazy and drenched in advertising! There is more to life. Really!!
drunk blogging is totally hard.
i used to do it all the time… it usually ended badly.
…for the reader.
now i just drunk facebook.
it’s way less work.
I hear that. A century os mad consumer/advertising culture has blown up and we’re feeling it now in a global recession.
There was more I wanted to touch on with this post, but I am having trouble recalling an article I read about the current trend in thrift and how, even after this depression, the attitudes of our generation should be adjusted… just like the old folks that went through the depression, they had a different value set then the baby boomers… the creatures of the mess we’re in now. whoa, all my life’s a circle eh?
yeah drunk blogging is way to depressing. That I gotta stop. sleep in more valuable than posting a picture of a sheep!
I think, having lived in a big city, a small city and rurally that consumerism is also heavily influenced by geography. Up here in the sticks there is far less stuff – save for all the “big” toys the men covet (quads, dirtbikes, ride-on mowers…) – and, in my experience, less desire for stuff.
Also, people tend to be more community focused, giving a helping hand. More old fashioned i suppose. Anyway, i dig it and so do my kids.
Drunk blogging has made me wake up in a panic one too many times.