Culture in Decline: Consumption-Vanity Disorder
The last thing that fish would ever notice in its habitat is the water. Likewise the most obvious and powerful realities of our human culture seemed also be the most unrecognized.
And it is only when we take pause, often at the risk of social alienation, to question the foundational principles and ideas to which our lives are oriented, a dark truth about our supposed "normality" becomes more clear.
Today we live in an ocean with enormous waves of status obsession, materialism, vanity, ego and consumerism. Our very lives had become defined not by our productive thoughts, social contributions and good will, but by superficial, delusional set of associations with the very fabric of our society that now radiates cheap romanticism, connected to vain competition, conspicuous consumption and neurotic addictions often related to physical beauty, status and superficial wealth.
In effect it is social conformity masquerading as individualism, with the virtues of balance, intelligence, peace, public health and true creativity left to rot on the sidelines. The cultural water we inhabit today runs deep with heavy pollution. It starts in our formative years when to be smart and achieving is to be a nerd or a geek.
Culture In Decline: Episode #3 covers a new epidemic disease rapidly spreading across the world: Consumption-Vanity Disorder. Other episodes: 1. What Democracy? and 2. Economics 101.
No, we did not have the option, at some juncture, to turn society into the Socialist paradise. Then things would have been even worse. Truth is, what underlies present-day neurotic consumerism is the fact that we retain a primitive psychology whereas technological development is running amuck. Our souls are poisoned with the plethora of products and amusement. We are like primitives caught up in a cargo cult. We need no Marxist conspiracy theories to understand the present situation.
Bloody brilliant - synthesizing various strands of the contemporary dominant social pathology into 30+ minutes! Now here is some truthful, accurate cultural media.
Skyrocketing mental illness is, in part, connected to this normalized madness.
A dominant culture that abhors and ridicules self-examination is the culture we have.
Meanwhile, millions remain unaware that a tradition that teaches and rewards instrumental behaviours of compliance and subjugation is a tradition that will eat itself.
Thanks for this gem - congrats to all these creators!
For the most part, excellent documentary detailing what ails all modern societies (NOT just the United States, although many of the innovations in industry and social control through advertising depicted were first started / tried in America). What the documentary lacked, though, was an examination of the attempts to combat these ailments in the last century...of the various socialist revolutions and some of the most notorious resulting societies (the former Soviet Union under Stalin, current-day Northern Korea under Kim Jong-un, etc.). Of course, it IS only a brief documentary, but a slight mention of the competing horrors wrought by past attempts to "bring down the oligarchs," "raise up the slaves" and smash the "mind control of the the Capitalist elite" would enhance its legitimacy. Peter Joseph (the documentary's creator and narrator) doesn't admit to being a Socialist (or, even a Communist), but clearly he has been strongly influenced by the teachings of Marx...which is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as one focuses on Marx's analysis of Capitalism and maintains a healthy skepticism toward his prophesies about workers' future utopias.
But, the question not asked in the documentary remains: "What is to be done?" Clearly (at least to me) continuing along this path of hyper-global capitalism, hyper productivity, and control of populations through advertising (and occasional, strategic state violence), will lead to the ruin of the world, but a return to ideological socialism, as was demonstrated in the last century, is definitely not the answer.
Is there a third, forth, or even fifth way? Pundits and elite on both the ideological left and ideological right claim that there is only one choice: Capitalism or Socialism. I think they're both wrong...there are other paths. We just need our best minds (or is it our best hearts? Best souls?) to imagine them.
And if yopu find yourself on the weaker team....well just try to put out documentaries like this one and change the playing field.
Everyone is not beautiful when they smile. Some people look a lot better that others. It's a fact. Get used to it. In all aspects of life. Some people are just going to do better at life no mater what type of life we choose to live in. Its just the way of the world. In all species....the weak get weaker and the strong survive. What we have to decide is what team we are on!
This doco states one of the purest truths in its purest form.
Bravo 'Culture in Decline'...
Zeitgeist was my intro to YouTube. I never blogged before that and I can't blog on YT now because of the Google ownership (facial recognition software and drone tech).
Anyway, Peter Joseph is really amazing. I thank him for all he has done and will do. Be safe PJ.
You are so a bad-ass Kane C&C95 wannabe!!! I mean that in a good way though!
ahhhh the 'freedom' of a dichtomous political system...
A 30 minute documentary that is bang on regarding the insanity of humanity, and strips the wheat from the chaff exposing the root problems that are destroying society as a whole. Great job TDF, and keep them coming!
AWESOME DOCUMENTARY well" all I can say is we have one that can SEE US. It's not everyday that the two legged human sheep actually, began to wake up to their sleeping waking zombie state of mind. Mind controlling a mass population is greatly, needed we must train the sheep to do as their told. Don't have independent thought. I guess we need to turn up the secret ELF waves that's coming from our so-call cell phone towers on high alert now. We must be in control of you at all times. Tell you that flouride is great for your teeth when it's a poison but no sheep ever protest why we poison your air food & water just to keep you from reproducing like rats. Spraying your planet with chemtrails to keep you sick & believing that there's nothing in the sky invisible watching your development. But if you ever woke up to our species you might be surprised that we look just like you. Take care & please wake up!
'The century of self' by Adam Curtis is a much better
documentary on this subject— more information, less crap attempts at humour.
He should do one on education too, on how we are molded from a young age
to be subservient and obedient, be conformists and productive wage
slaves; by having useless information drilled in our heads, instead of
being taught to embrace and develop own curiosities, interests, and passions.
I decided to watch this again when it came up today on my browser page.
If you're considering watching this doc, be warned that it is very DIFFERENT.
The host, Peter Joseph, is hilarious.
Using wry humour and sarcasm, he points out our society's obsession with "things" and our "image", while he's snacking, changing his clothes, and fiddling with his glasses.
He backs up his observations with historical facts and footage.
There is never a dull moment.
Enjoy!
Have had these very seem ideas for most of my life. Glad to see someone put it all together in something for everyone to understand. Freedom is only free when your free. I doubt there will ever being a place where that can happen though.
It's not only Americans. It's a world culture of rabid, irrational consumption inspired firstly by the thinking and motives of early philosophers, economists and property owners and secondly by neo-liberalism that imitates and consolidate the economic foundations on which that pre-industrial society was constructed. It next proceeds very successfully to influence world culture and systems. Marshall McLuhan did say that coca cola bottles would end up in remote corners of the world. Well, they have. I drank a coke yesterday and I did buy my new eyelashes too.
hey, it's a white Morpheus...lol {j/k}
AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME!!!!
a MUST Series for classes, schools, Colleges,& any institute of "Higher Learning"
"...JUST TRY AND SUE US" -LMFAO ;)
No! Tis main theme from stronghold legends!
The scene with the Wall Mart incident features a soundtrack from a computer game Vampire the Masquerade Redemption )) a really old game- touch of nostalgy ))
I don't know why he goofs on such simple facts. The Phoebus light bulb organization took it down from 2,500, not 25,000.
You're trying to listen to what is being said, absorb the ideas and digest the information so that it's possible to decide on a degree of agreement or otherwise.
But then, while ideas are being expressed, there's this s*upid drum beat in the background.
Chukity-chuck, chuckity-chuck. Bang-di-di-bang-bang-bang.
How on earth can a person think about what's being said when the background noise is clearly designed to stop all forms of thought or inner reflection?
Maybe this fella wants us all to agree with him without first thinking about what he says.
The reality is, for someone to recognise that they have become extremely brainwashed throughout their life is far too confronting. The truth is cold and it appears, to the conditioned mind, to be a lonely road. But if one can face their fears with peace, they will see the insanity in the world and feel completely whole, but on the external level, everyone may think of that individual as either insane or a hermit!! I feel like shaking people at times, like I shook myself. But it would be rather unloving, in a sense
The amount of information available these days is simply unbelievable, scientific and technological advancements build up every day, and the brain-washing advertisement to promote products and values we don't really need makes it even worse. Whoever absorbs it all without filtering, simply becomes dumber, lacking ability to distinguish useful information from the tons of informational garbage. The children are the primar victims of this.
These days, you can watch any TV series and movies from a rental/purchased DVD or over internet. News are abundantly available over Internet as well. So, what's the whole point of television then?! Dumb entertainment shows? Advertisement after every 10-15 min of whatever you are watching?
I have a friend, in whose family all kids were not allowed to watch television until they turned about 12 or so. Instead, they would play board games / quizzes / etc. in family circle, read a lot of books, watched some selected movies, took trips, etc. Guess what - all 5 kids grew up remarkably intelligent and very well educated. The older ones are already successful in their career. A good luck or just common sense?
This series simply gives a very clear and concise overview of pure facts that belong to common sense.
Some people, who did recognize the problems addressed in Culture in Decline, pointed out that Peter Joseph "did not give solutions". Well, why would he?! He already does a heck of a job summing up what should be taught to each and every child in school and at home. He gives away information, so an intelligent being can perform a very basic analysis and find his/her own solutions. (Moreover: never trust someone who offers you a ready-to-implement solution.)
Those, who did not understand the series and are attacking its basic principles: well, there is really no point of arguing with a blind. First of all, get a decent education, then test and challenge all you have learned in practice with an open mind and, hopefully, you'll see the reality and understand.
While the film makers expertly articulated and illustrated the problem,the premise of this film is flawed. While capitalism and consumerism may very well enable the pathology the film makers coin as Consumption-Vanity Disorder, capitalism and consumerism certainly do not create it. Such maladies have haunted the human condition since recorded history. While the documentary makes salient points in relation to obsessive and compulsive consumer behavior, the film makers go astray by indicting the very economic system that made it possible for them to make this film. While no direct reference was made to the principles of Marx or communism, between the lines was a persistent and pervasive message that socialism/collectivism would solve the societal decay addressed in the film. While thoughtful and introspective people will agree that the West's infatuation with status and materialism will lead to ill ends, blaming a system, and expecting a new system to enable a type of healing seams a bit specious. What has become of personal responsibility? If we blame capitalism for creating too much wealth, then lessons from history demand that we also blame collectivism for creating too much poverty. In either case the few still rule the many. Pick your poison.