We’ve been led into a culture that has been engineered to leave us tired, hungry for indulgence, willing to pay a lot for convenience and entertainment, and most importantly, vaguely dissatisfied with our lives so that we continue wanting things we don’t have. We buy so much because it always seems like something is still missing
David Cain, in Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed
One reply on “Quote #301”
Economic liberalism and social liberalism go hand in hand. An ever-more secular world is also necessarily a world where only material goals are considered legitimate and productive. The shift to ever more absolute individual rights can only result in the disappearance of narratives that are seen to undermine individualism and consumerism, i.e. pretty much everything else. Or as the Beastie Boys would have it “you gotta fight for your right to party”.
One way to read feminism and LGTB activism is as social progress induced by a moral awakening; the other is as a push to destroy all obstacles to the smooth working of the market, starting with the job market. Business wants to be able to hire as many women as it can – any growth of the workforce necessarily depresses wages. Business does not want discrimination against sexual minorities; they tend to be an interesting segment of the job market and really interesting consumers. This is why Big Business funds marriage equality advocacy in the US. Etc. etc. Now I’m not saying that this is necessarily wrong, or that it is right for that matter; but you probably cannot have one without also having the other.