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How Brainwashing Keeps Us in the Rat Race By Christine Durst & Michael Haaren August 23, 2012 Have you ever wondered why the media likes to call us “consumers”? In the U.S., the media is a creature of advertising, not vice versa. Or, as a friend in one media company recently told us, “We’re a sales organization. We’re not in the business of information or entertainment. We’re here to sell products and services.” For the public – indeed, for the world – this has enormous consequences. Here are just a few. 1. Gobble Guys and Gobble Gals: You have to be convinced that your job – nay, your duty! – is to consume. This induced self-image will discourage you from thinking before you buy. Indeed, you’ll feel oddly uncomfortable (let’s call it “gobbler’s dysphoria”) if you’re not buying something, because your identity is based on buying. A consumer is like a big tapeworm with a credit card. It buys, consumes, repeats! 2. The noun “saver” is forbidden, the most horrifying obscenity known to man. “Saver” is to media what kryptonite is to the Man of Steel. If you want to throw any public media gathering into utter confucsion, show up wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the word “Saver!” 3. You’ll dog paddle in debt for life. A veritable ocean of debt, of course, is best, because you won’t realize there’s a horizon, where those fruitcake savers live. (Aren’t they all just crazy old people, anyway, scarred by the Depression or some other weird event?) You’ll forget that being debt-free is even an option, because debt will feel so normal! 4. Billions will follow – billions of people, that is. Nothing enflames and excites like excess, and thanks to the media, billions the world over are regaled with it every day. The “rising middle classes” of India and China can’t wait for their turn (who can blame them?), and they’ll soon be linking arms with us in the great high-kicking can-can line of gobble-gobble life! 5. The environment collapses. But that’s not a big deal, is it? We just have to scoot back from the beaches a bit, like you do when you move your chair and towel when the tide comes in. OK, maybe we have to buy some gas masks for the smog. Put a Hello Kitty sticker on them for the kids. Not a problem! INSTEAD OF “CONSUMER,” HOW ABOUT “BOSS”? All these labels are stifling and constricting, like invisible straitjackets. Commuter, shopper, taxpayer; the list goes on and on. Suppose we try another one for a change? How about “Boss,” with a capital B, to make it stick? If we really do live in a democracy, we’re the bosses, right? The bosses of our politicians (we’re the leaders, not them; they work for us!), the bosses of our schools (we pay for every one of them), the bosses of our communities (ditto), the bosses of our media (ditto), the bosses of our lives. “Boss!” Now there’s a good t-shirt slogan. ---- Christine Durst and Michael Haaren are leaders in the work-at-home movement and advocates of de-rat-raced living. Their latest book is Work at Home Now, a guide to finding home-based jobs. They offer additional guidance on finding home-based work at www.RatRaceRebellion.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2012 BY STAFFCENTRIX, DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM |
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