In the US there's a strange terrible background of hate and yet for the most part the usual scene at the grocery store. So I like to think that it's still just a morbid minority that's completely lost that basic trust and therefore trustworthiness, since the paranoid can 'justify' extreme measures in the light of the misperceived extreme threat. — igjugarjuk
Elsewhere I have suggested that hatred is a secondary emotion, typically a response to a primary emotion of hurt or fear. — unenlightened
It seems, rather like global warming, that there are tipping points into a positive feedback loop where the lunatics take over the asylum, and the crazies drive us all crazy, to the extent that armed teachers in primary schools looks like a sensible policy. — unenlightened
I connect this vaguely to our atomization. I get used to walking by the homeless lady who just settled on the sidewalk a block from where I live. I go on my own little way, minding my own business. This isn't all bad. It's connected with a vivid and differentiated society. But it's dangerous, for reasons you've emphasized. — igjugarjuk
And I cannot understand it either. — unenlightened
If you understand why you don't build said houses (and instead play philosophy on the internet) then you understand why we don't. — ZzzoneiroCosm
I don't build roads or power stations, but we do. — unenlightened
It's a cop-out. We do - because we use political pressure to ensure it gets done. — ZzzoneiroCosm
I did my stint as a volunteer for the Cyrenians, many years ago, and later formed a residents association in Leeds that succeeded in getting about 150 homes taken off the condemned housing list where they had been languishing for twenty years and got them all refurbished and brought up to standard. — unenlightened
I have become lazy and apathetic. — unenlightened
...why not clarify once and for all The Truth... — Hanover
This Forum in particular has been of no help so far. — Hanover
Commendable work. — ZzzoneiroCosm
the betrayal of truth has become so commonplace amongst advertisers, politicians, and the media, we no longer trust them and their messages lose their meaning. — unenlightened
I am saying, not that truth and trust are the same, but that truth is required to maintain trust. — unenlightened
We cannot communicate without the trust that folks mean what they say — unenlightened
tell the truth, because otherwise nothing you say has any meaning. — unenlightened
It's a ruse to call a society governed by mass manipulation a democracy. — ZzzoneiroCosm
The problem is not manipulation, it's manipulability. — Isaac
but no advertisers were involved in the initial preference for flannel shirts in the 90s, — Isaac
In the US there's a strange terrible background of hate — igjugarjuk
What I was doing politically 50 years ago had some small local success, — unenlightened
Advertisers may be responsible for creating a desire among people for the latest chocolate bar — Isaac
You do not even see what a terrible inditement of our society it is that we cannot, despite our enormous wealth and sophistication, even feed and house ourselves adequately to the climate. — unenlightened
making the relation between the individual and society one that presumes the moral justice of social circumstance — unenlightened
If it wasn't your politicians, it'll be your parents, your work colleagues, your wife/husband/significant other... — Isaac
[Marcuse] argues that "advanced industrial society" created false needs, which integrated individuals into the existing system of production and consumption via mass media, advertising, industrial management, and contemporary modes of thought. This results in a "one-dimensional" universe of thought and behavior, in which aptitude and ability for critical thought and oppositional behavior wither away. Against this prevailing climate, Marcuse promotes the "great refusal" (described at length in the book) as the only adequate opposition to all-encompassing methods of control. — wiki
False consciousness is a term used in Marxist theory to describe ways in which material, ideological, and institutional processes are said to mislead members of the proletariat and other class actors within capitalist societies, concealing the exploitation intrinsic to the social relations between classes. Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) used the term "false consciousness" in an 1893 letter to Franz Mehring to address the scenario where a subordinate class willfully embodies the ideology of the ruling class.[1][2][3] Engels dubs this consciousness "false" because the class is asserting itself towards goals that do not benefit it. — wiki
it's prudent to accept that the vast majority of folks will always be manipulable. At least until our society begins to prioritize education. — ZzzoneiroCosm
I assume you accept that the popularity of flannel shirts in the 90s had its origin in the grunge movement given a global platform on MTV. If MTV didn't have advertisers, they wouldn't have the lucre to exist. — ZzzoneiroCosm
This is a gross understatement of the power of advertising to influence culture. Advertisers have created a culture of consumerism. To make a buck. — ZzzoneiroCosm
I think you're overestimating the intent behind advertising. — Isaac
Have they? Or are they a consequence of a culture of consumerism? — Isaac
Are you familiar with Milgram's thoughts on Arendt? — Isaac
Are you familiar with Milgram's thoughts on Arendt? — Isaac
I suggest reading Edward Bernays and Ernest Dichter (et al) to get a picture of how a culture of consumerism was intentionally created. They're proud of their work and talk about it more or less openly. — ZzzoneiroCosm
I didn't say they had no part to play. Had transistors not been invented there'd be no televisions and hence no MTV, but we don't blame transistors for the popularity of the flannel shirt. The point was that advertisers neither decided, nor encouraged the trend. They may have helped finance the technology which allowed it, but so did bankers, accountants, HR managers... — Isaac
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