[MD] Where have all the values gone?

[David M]

ditto

DM

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Hamilton" <thethemichael at gmail.com>
To: <moq_discuss at moqtalk.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 11:09 AM
Subject: Re: [MD] Where have all the values gone?


> Arlo,
>
> Great post, kudos.
>
> On 1/10/06, Arlo J. Bensinger <ajb102 at psu.edu> wrote:
>> Khaled, Platt, Erin,
>>
>> "Consumerism" is by definition "over consumption". The problem is that
>> "consumerism" depends on value manipulation to fuel spending. Platt 
>> disagrees
>> with this, but years of "The Journal of Consumer Psychology" has 
>> underscored
>> the simple premise that advertising manipulates what people value.
>>
>> "Consumerism" is a "meta-problem" associated with this, when the primary 
>> message
>> becomes "if you spend money, you'll be happy". Businesses function, then, 
>> on a
>> dependency on value manipulation, not simply the value inherent in their
>> product.
>>
>> In modern culture, the Sophists "man is the measure of all things" has 
>> been
>> replaced with "money is the measure of all things". We derive our worth 
>> from
>> it, with it and through it. It defines greatness and failure. It defines
>> success and defeat. Rich and poor become good and bad.
>>
>> What we value, Pirsig said, is always derived through cultural means. 
>> Culture is
>> the sum total of collective activity among a people. When that collective
>> activity is guided by nothing but money, when we are taught from an early 
>> age
>> that it is only partcipation in a money economy that motivates great 
>> people to
>> enrich themselves (and incidentally improve society), when our cultural
>> dialogue is constantly bombarded with the notion that "privatization" and
>> "private property" are the noble Goods to the evils of community and a 
>> public
>> commons, when our very self-worth is dependent on our consumer purchases, 
>> I'm
>> not sure what kind of success one can have combatting consumerism.
>>
>> I read an interesting article about the amount of time we spend "engaged 
>> in
>> public spaces" versus "private spaces". Over the past century, since 
>> these
>> "moral pilgrims" arrived on our shores, we have moved the vast majority 
>> of our
>> activity from public to private space. We retreat into our homes, into 
>> our
>> cars, into our narrowly defined daily routine that moves us from private 
>> space
>> to private space, while a century ago our involvement was primarily in 
>> some
>> public space. Interestingly, the authored included metaphorical public 
>> and
>> private spaces, citing the changes in involvement in the local taverns 
>> and
>> coffee houses. A century ago, a person venturing into one of these
>> establishments not only expected, but demanded public engagement and 
>> public
>> forum (although the establishment itself was "private"). Today, not only 
>> are
>> these establishments "private", but we demand our engagement to be 
>> restricted
>> to an immediate cohort of known interlocuters in a "private dialogue" 
>> that is
>> not only to the public.
>>
>> Why did we "value" public engagement so greatly then, and conversely 
>> value
>> "private" seclusion so greatly today? Why did we stroll our 
>> neighborhoods,
>> talking with people who made a daily habit of sitting on their front 
>> porches,
>> when now we drive through developments only to see distant images of 
>> people on
>> their rear decks?
>>
>> Consumerism depends on manipulating value to tie self-worth to 
>> purchasing.
>> Private property tells us that we must own everything ourselves, that any
>> common or public space is "bad". Put the two together, and you have a 
>> good
>> description of modern America, a land where we are debting ourselves into
>> oblivion to build castles of isolation.
>>
>> Just some thoughts...
>>
>> Arlo
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