> 3. I do not blame consumer capitalism for limiting people's choices.
> The problem with consumer capitalism, imho, is that it manipulates those
> choices to legitimate the choices made by authority figures in a quite
> self-serving and undemocratic fashion. The authority figures took away
> people's freedom of movement by dismantling public transportation and
> heavily subsidizing infrastructure that made individual auto ownership
> more affordable. The entertainment industry inundates the public with
> 50+ channels of violence, pulp fiction, and mindless entertainment
> heavily laced with advertisement. The industry inundates the market
> with fattening food and a snake oil remedy for obesity as well as a
> myriad of grossly overpriced fetishes advertised to remedy all
> imaginable social problems. Yet all those decisions are defended as
> "people's choices." At the same, "people's choices" amount to nothing
> when they threaten corporate profits, cf. national health care.
Yes, but -- Brian has a point. If you _want_ to and put some effort into it, you can entertain yourself without the 50+ channels -- just go to IFC (for example). Or better yet, turn off the TV and read a book, or write one, or play a musical instrument, or paint a picture. None of this is forbidden by the big corporations.
If you don't want to eat the fattening food, take snake oil, or consume grossly overpriced fetishes, etc., you don't have to. As Brian pointed out, all kinds of food are available, at least to people in certain areas. (Granted, a lot of inner cities still don't have reasonably well-stocked grocery stores.)
Of course, most Americans don't do most of these "alternative" things. But why not? Corporate influence probably explains *some* of the "conformist" behavior, but not all of it. As with most aspects of human behavior, the explanations are actually extremely complex and probably not as yet known even to the best psychologists and sociologists currently on the planet, because human beings are just too damned complicated to be completely nailed down by any theories we have so far.
But to come up with a political position, one has to drastically oversimplify everything, and pretend to know everything. That's why I'm not very impressed by politicians and political theorists -- even leftie ones.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org ________________________________ How good bad music and bad reasons sound when we march against an enemy. -- Nietzsche